We spend 3 billion hours a week as a planet playing videogames. Is it worth it? How could it be MORE worth it?

....

Currently there are more than half a billion people worldwide playing computer and videogames at least an hour a day -- and 183 million in the U.S. alone. The younger you are, the more likely you are to be a gamer -- 99% of boys under 18 and 94% of girls under 18 report playing videogames regularly. The average young person racks up 10,000 hours of gaming by the age of 21 -- or 24 hours less than they spend in a classroom for all of middle and high school if they have perfect attendance. It's a remarkable amount of time we're investing in games. 5 million gamers in the U.S., in fact, are spending more than 40 hours a week playing games -- the equivalent of a full time job!

Now, if only they could learn -- or do actual work -- while playing the games.

It does seem like the more popular the game, the less actual value (other than entertainment) it has.

See reference in Neal Stephenson's Reamde. A character creates a video game that captures airports' video feeds, and players are paid in a game to notice orc moving the wrong way (people entering through the exit)...

I do wonder if there's a future when many people work inside video games.

Just like, right now many people work inside amusement parks.