It is phenomenal that so many people are concurrently playing BG3. I played through Divinity: Original Sin 2 and if Larian did at least as well this time around, hats off for their efforts.
I have concerns, though, admittedly filtered through my preference for talking about things I'm interested in, namely not playing any videogames for a year because I realized I'd been using them as an escape from emotions, responsibilities, and growing up in general (this is not to say that anyone who plays games is thus not an adult, just that by staying hooked I was holding myself back from feeling my full range of emotions and from being the person I want to be). I'm open to returning, but only after I live long enough without to make a whole-hearted decision.
One of my concerns is that these single-player (even small-group-of-players) games are too much like choose-your-own-adventure books (I'm in my 40s and don't remember any of these being very good; maybe modern ones are better, if they even exist?), which are difficult to have a shared experience over unless reading together or the discussion is about what options you each chose and why.
Now that I've read Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy), The Kiss Quotient (Helen Huang), and Feral (George Monbiot), and so on, I have more common ground with anyone I meet down the road who has read those books. When I meet people who sunk years of their lives into WoW or EverQuest, the predominant feeling seems usually to be a shared sadness and also relief at having finally unsubscribed. When I meet someone who has played single-player games there's not much to talk about either, other than listing games we've played and thus bonding a bit over the games we have in common. Maybe that's enough, but it feels more shallow than I'd like.
Maybe post-activity discussion really isn't the point, though? Are there game clubs like there are book clubs? Perhaps it is enough to have an artificial sense of purpose and to share in that escapism, but escapism beyond coping with stress until a better opportunity arises (I didn't have much guidance out of a rough childhood and took refuge in games, which may have helped me survive) feels like an unmoored state that contributes to our collective apathy over existential crises (looking at you, anthropogenic climate change, which will be an "interesting story" but not one I look forward to living through part of and ultimately dying in :). What can we do to reduce the stressors we escape from, and/or increase our ability to respond in healthier ways?
My main hope for writing this is that it helps anyone who wants to spend less time playing games take the steps to do so (for the rest of you who can moderate their playtime, hats off to you, too ;). I would love to discuss all this more, but my relationship with social media is similarly troubled and thus I almost never wade back in to learn more from responses. I DO learn quite a bit from so many of you, and I'm grateful for the depth and breadth and moderation of HN discussions.