I'll chime in and quickly say I played way too much League of Legends for a good decade of my life for some people's taste (sometimes averaging 20-30 hours a week). I'm sure other people will have way outdone me in terms of time commitment, but its still a lot. The thing is, I always got good grades, made a point of being productive, and performed or excelled at my job. Even though from the outside it might have looked like the game was a problem, it really was just a way to fill extra time because I felt like I didn't have other better options to fill that time. All that to say that I agree that the game likely isn't all that important to them, it's more that other things that should feel important don't feel that way either due to the child's lack of perceived consequences or lack of wisdom. But really just my two cents, I'm not going to profess to be an expert or anything.
Echoing CitrusFruits here. I did the same. Lots of LoL (and still do on the mobile version), but I still did extremely well academically and I continue to succeed in my career. I simply choose to fill my extra time with video games because that's what I like.
I don't think video games itself is necessarily the problem, it seems like the kid may be facing some intense external pressures in life that they need to escape to something; the escape just happens to be a specific video game.
I have a sibling (I'm omitting gender to obscure which sibling it could be) that my parents were extremely overprotective over; they had a lot of problems with just life in general. I had them live with me for around four years and covered as much as I could for them while their job was to just graduate from college.
They couldn't do it, and I ramped down my support for them over time and had them eventually move out. They said it was the best thing I ever did for them because it forced them to face life and they eventually got a job, found a place to live on their own, and also get therapy. They were diagnosed with ADHD. After getting appropriate medication, they were able to complete schooling successfully.
Sometimes you have to let the chicks leave the nest; let them fail and fight. Sometimes medication might be required to live a normal life. There's only so much one can do as a parent or a sibling, but in the end, it's their life and you need to let them live it out.
So true. I still play videogames quite a lot, and I have been fortunate to have a successful marriage, family, and carreer (so far). Videogames are my hobby and way to relax. I rarely watch TV, movies, or sports or, honestly, read books. It's mostly video games. That's just what interests me.
