I've got a three-year-old and a wife with some health issues, so I don't have the time for gaming that I had in my youth either. The time I can and do carve out is usually mobile gaming whenever I have down-time (waiting in the doctor's office, etc) or, like you, gathering around the old kitchen table with real people in the real world. My opportunities are fewer and more far-between, but I've found they're certainly more rewarding!

Video games can be a great hobby and a fantastic distraction, but like anything else when taken to extremes can take over. Your life can and does suffer from it. Cutting them out as drastically as you did certainly changed your life for the better, which shows just how much time and energy the old you was sinking into playing them.

I think it's really interesting that you replaced these single-player strategy games almost exclusively with activities that require other people. Getting together for more tabletop gaming, sitting down with your friend regularly to teach you French, hanging out at the coffee shop long enough to get an inside track on how to brew, joining that nerd-centric gym (holy crap that is awesome), heck even reaching out to Jason - they're all things that rely on interpersonal connections to some degree or another. No wonder all the relationships in your life have gotten better!