Why Is Drinking So Engrained Into Gaming Culture?

Without wanting to derail this into an insult/hate fest against Weekend Confirmed or any other gaming podcast, but why is alcohol so commonplace in the gaming culture? It seems as though every podcast I hear, the cast talks about drinking during the show, drinking during gameplay sessions, and drinking at cons and press events. This comes across as drinking as a prerequisite for enjoying games or working in the industry, which cannot be further from the truth.

If I were an outsider to the world of gaming and I heard some drunk podcasting, I would lose any respect for the entire gaming culture that i had.

Thoughts?