FarmVille launched June 2009, so it probably wasn’t 2008 :) But yeah, video game addiction is a real thing, I know lots of people who’ve been addicted to all sorts of games, to the detriment of their lives overall.
So sad.
Game mechanics gonna game mechanic, I guess. :)
I also have a friend who dropped out of high school for games, but it worked out! He became a fairly high end professional Counter-Strike player, moved to South Korea for awhile. Then when the CS professional scene stopped being as lucrative, online poker was taking off, he moved to online poker, and did VERY well financially off of that: https://www.sk-gaming.com/content/1844754-shaguar-to-run-cs-...
When he dropped out of high school to play CS, his parents were obviously very worried, but he treated it like a job and did really well.
Post-launch, she became so addicted to her own game, she had to quit her job and lived in a small apt, forgoing clothes and only eaing the easiest of food.
At the time it was funny...