Former EVE Online player here: Absolutely not. I know people who happily hold down day jobs and play - and when they play, they are applying skill and knowledg

Former EVE Online player here: Absolutely not. I know people who happily hold down day jobs and play - and when they play, they are applying skill and knowledge to hold down what is in effect a company, working within a political system. Is it "real" - in some sense yes, and one day it will end and people will move on - but until then it's actually a rich subculture not bound by geophysical location (except for maybe once a year in Iceland)