I find the article bizarre. Nearly every single guy I know has or had a gaming PC. Some lucky bastards got them when they were 10 years old or younger, while I got mine way in my teens (poor family). As a comp-sci grad it was nigh 100% who had one, and working in tech there were definitely lots of them (and board games + DnD were quite popular).
Either I lived in a bubble or the article is uniquely describing the North American experience. Nobody ever told me to my face they found it weird to leave a party to watch eSports or play a few rounds of whatever MMO was around at the time.
Reading that it’s now “mainstream” just doesn’t fit my experience. It was already popular before my time.