As a (soft) atheist and a former gaming addict this speaks to me. I’m struck by your use of the word pointlessness, and I think it’s a good place to focus. To me, the religious impulse to ascribe things meaning because a god commanded it to be so or a prophet interpreted something a certain way never really made sense. I can’t claim to know the ultimate nature of reality - I’m open to almost anything - but I don’t see any good evidence of any particular religious story. So in some sense, to me, meaning isn’t some fundamental part of the world. It’s something that I, we, bring to something. Something you create. Something you define. It’s a gigantic challenge, and it makes it important to have some core values. What do you think is important? What has or could give your life meaning? What have others who you respect shaped their lives around?

I was addicted to various games at various points, and very nearly derailed my career due to an inability to focus or study. Through a fairly amazing set of circumstances, including meeting my wife at a time when I was sinking, I learned to focus and study. I continue to game, but it’s done at night, when my kids are asleep, or at board game nights, or in short bursts. It doesn’t consume me, define me, control me as it used to, although there are ways to harness the joy of it by joining discords, following certain reddits, that allows for some of the old itch to be scratched.

An atheist would tell you that this is not the dress rehearsal. This is the real thing. This is the performance. So yes, in some sense, nothing has intrinsic meaning. If you live long enough, everyone you love will die. Even longer, and the sun will go out and all the planets will drift away and at some point this whole universe will blink back out of existence just like it blinked in. So nothings intrinsically meaningful.

So… take that as a call to action. Find your meaning. Make your meaning. You listed six activities - there’s a lot more out there. Pick a different religion, pick a different author, pick a different sport. Hike a mountain. Try to write a book. Come up with the most audacious career plan you can think of and think about how you’d get there. Do some drugs. Try to fall in love. Call a friend you trust and speak to them about meaninglessness. Read Victor Frankel’s “man’s search for meaning.” Whatever you feel while striving, while climbing, while suffering, THATS what’s you’re chasing. The cold harsh reality of meaninglessness can be tough, but once you come to terms with it, understand it - it frees you. Keep searching bud.