I have so many feelings about this. On the one hand, I don’t question the existence of such an addiction. Save for Fortnite and Star Trek Online, I’ve never really gotten into online gaming, but I know quite a few people who have. And I know quite a few people who routinely exhibit the behavior you referenced in this article — isolating themselves socially, dropping way more money into loot boxes than they can afford to spend, and so on and so forth. So in my experience, video game addiction is a very real thing. And it’s really not surprising when you consider the wide range of things to which people can become addicted.

On the other hand, I have little doubt that critics of the industry will try to find ways to use this as an excuse to burden developers with unnecessary regulations. That’s a fight I’m not looking forward to, but I suppose it was inevitable, especially considering the growing influence of the industry on young people in particular.