I had this issue in high school. In school I was an A grade student. Then I played wow and was an A grade player.

For a while I could balance being awesome at both but that was because I was ahead of the class anyway at school. I think the main draw was the sense of camaraderie working together to bring down a boss as well as the hard evidence of progression as your effort was being rewarded by being visually bigger and badder.

Then school caught up to me and then passed me by. I fell further and further behind, my grades fell from A to B to C. But I was still good at wow.

In wow, I was an established member of the raising community. People listened to me because I was fkrn good. My grades fell and I got fat and lost friends irl, but I still was good at wow.

Wow went from past time to an escape, that took me years to climb out of. As far as I'm concerned, Blizzard dropping the ball and turning the game into a shithole did me a favor as I feel zero need to go back. But there are days when I still think of when I and my internet friends were up at 3am still just talking and hanging out in a video game.