Introverted or Reclusive?

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I don't have many friends. I like to spend my free time at home reading or playing video games. I hate crowds and will do anything to avoid them. I've always thought that I was introverted but today I had lunch with my parents and they told me I was being a recluse. Is that true? When does introversion become reclusiveness?

I would say that if you are comfortable with your little social life, then you're an introvert.
If you limit your social life to an uncomfortable level (for any reason) then I would call you a recluse.
AFAIK American culture has very little understanding for introversion, so your parents may not understand.

I just happen to be both. I have a very small circle of friends I keep at arm's length, and do not socialize very much. I pretty much stay locked in my bedroom, and don't come out, except to make meals and use the toilet.

Introversion is a natural inclination to keep oneself to oneself, but does not preclude social interaction; Introverts just don't typically initiate social contact, but they don't necessarily avoid it. Introverts may range from mildly antisocial to simply shy. Introversion is a broad personality type.

A Recluse avoids social interaction of any kind, and even the possibility of inadvertent contact. A Recluse shrinks and hides from others of their own kind and cowers behind walls (literal and metaphoric). A Recluse may react to social contact with fear or open hostility. Reclusiveness is a form of mental illness.

A Recluse is also slightly different from a Hermit, in that a Hermit may eschew social interaction, but Hermits generally are not hostile to, nor fear human contact, but abstain for personal reasons, such as religious devotion or meditation, or freedom from stress, etc.

The danger with too much reclusive avoidance of social interaction, is that at a certain point, it begins to feed upon itself, driving others away, and reflexively shrinking into itself as it interprets the silence as rejection.

One eventually comes to realize how utterly lonely one is, yet may have lost even the minimal requisite skills for establishing contact with others. It's an invisible prison.