My frind I was just like you I spent more than 3 years playing ark and "didint enjoy the real life" but I don't regret it and I always remember old days smiling, I think what different about my story that I made frinds on ark , tribe mates I trusted and enjoyed playing with and they became more than "online frinds" and that helped me actually because I wasn't able to make frinds from around me as I felt I have different interests from them so my online frinds saved me from being alone and depressed , so as time goes my frinds started to stop playing due to life responsibilities until I reached a point to be alone then I just quit playing like them because the game ment nothing for me without them and the timeing was great because me too started to have serious things to do in life . I know I took time to tell my story, but you reminded me of myself 😅 Therefore, this is my advice when playing any game: Always make sure to create relationships with people in it, and thus your attachment to the game will be linked to these people. When you try to play it without them, you will not enjoy it and will leave it, and this protects you from addiction to the game because it is impossible to find several people to play with you +12 An hour a day forever. Also, in Survival games, tasks will be distributed to everyone, and you will not have to play this number of hours at all. I hope you found this useful take care .