Chess: A Life or a Game?

Well..I've been thinking..i really can't see chess as just a game..I'm in to it for a couple of years and it's getting bigger and bigger every day..you know i'am a guitar player and a sound-engineer but chess..has almost overshadowed my professions. I spend a lot of hours a day reading chess books (practical, theoritical, all around, GM bios) and i really see my self inproving, but the more i learn the more i understand: Either i go to my town's chess club so as to become an athlete(or even a national master someday), who trains regularly and explores seriously the game and all its aspects or...stay with mediocrity and self-education for life just for fun and just for playing around (which is respectable enough)... What do you think?       

It's a game.

Yes, definitely a game.

Google what Paul Morphy said about this topic.