I'd say its about time spent and how seriously you take it. I used to play BF2 in a clan and take part in ladders etc. and at that time I was playing for 4+ hours every weeknight and maybe 6-8 hours a day at the weekend. That got a bit much though, although thats the sort of time you need to put in to get good unless you have strong natural talent. I never was REALLY good - I played in a match against one of the professional clans once, think it was team dignitas, and they were all over us. It was quite a humbling experience.
After BF2 I switched to Eve. At one point I was really putting the hours in on that, even more than before probably, up to 10 hours at a stretch. That was mainly while mining or running exploration scans which means you can go away for 5 minutes and do something else. These days I only play every other day or so, and often thats so I can chat to mates on vent. I'll probably get more into it next time they patch it, but maybe not.
I said I was a "hardcore gamer", but I also realise that I have lost about 3 years to doing not much else except work and blow up virtual things. It can be quite corrosive to your life.
