Been gaming since I was... er... like, 3, according to my mom. This all back when the Atari 2600 was the big thing.
These days, it's still my main passion and identity as you put it, and I've even had a chance to do some game development.
The one thing that bugs me about gaming as a hobby though: even if you know someone that is into it, you might STILL not have any shared interests with them.
In my case, I got bored with AAA games a few years ago. They were getting more and more stale, shallow, and were typically easy as heck. I need a challenge in order for something to hold my attention, and no, Dark Souls isnt enough of one. On top of that, the big publishers are hyper greedy these days, so their stuff has gotten even worse. Since I tend not to care much about graphics, I end up sticking to indie games the vast majority of the time. I get the challenge/complexity/gameplay that I actually want out of those. Roguelikes/lites/whatever are my main genre, with bullet-hell shmups coming in second, fighting games in third. I am also very into retro games (both console and arcade), as I never actually lost interest in stuff like the 2600, NES, or things from the Golden Age of arcades.
But... this means that even when around gamer friends, I have absolutely nothing to talk to them about. They dont play any of the same games I do at all (with fighting games being the one big exception). So I'm still typically alone in this no matter where I go. Except on Steam itself; I have met plenty of people that are into the same sorts of things.
I might be able to get friends interested in at least a couple of things though. I got a new hyper-expensive gaming PC a couple of weeks ago, built for VR (which I think is going to make for a really nice sensory escape for when I'm feeling stressed and overwhelmed... also I've found some games I think will just be fun), and there's no way in hell they can try VR on their own. I can maybe get them interested in trying out some VR games on my setup, so I'm hoping that might give us some stuff to talk about.
I just have to actually choose a VR unit here. Jumping into it, it's like a whole new world of STUFF. So many things to take into account before deciding on one.
Now, that all being said, gaming is definitely NOT a big thing on this forum. Notice that there is no section for it, and topics about it are quite rare.