There was a phrase for this in the "old days" too, it was called "Lost in Make Believe".
As pointed out in numerous other comments, this phenomenon is not limited to video games. It can also happen after seeing movies, or even reading books. Especially with long series of books, I knew several people in high school who started living "The Lord of the Rings" and even "Clockwork Orange".
There are significant differences though:
1) As mentioned in the article: the extreme realism of video games
2) Often under emphasized: the amount of a person's waking hours spent in the activity
3) Of very serious consequences, i.e. modern incel-ism: the extreme violence of many video games
4) Something certain to get me downvoted: the significantly increased susceptibility to "Lost in Make Believe" of people raised in the internet/"phone" era (this point is very intertwined with point 2)
I can see how these factors can cause the "Lost in Make Believe" phenomenon to be much more serious with a modern gamu than with previous media. The extreme violence is certainly not unique to games either, books and movies also exhibit it, and bad behavior from role playing Clockwork Orange could rival Grand Theft Auto in some people.
There was a phrase for this in the "old days" too, it was called "Lost in Make Believe".
As pointed out in numerous other comments, this phenomenon is not limited to video games. It can also happen after seeing movies, or even reading books. Especially with long series of books, I knew several people in high school who started living "The Lord of the Rings" and even "Clockwork Orange".
There are significant differences though:
1) As mentioned in the article: the extreme realism of video games
2) Often under emphasized: the amount of a person's waking hours spent in the activity
3) Of very serious consequences, i.e. modern incel-ism: the extreme violence of many video games
4) Something certain to get me downvoted: the significantly increased susceptibility to "Lost in Make Believe" of people raised in the internet/"phone" era (this point is very intertwined with point 2)
I can see how these factors can cause the "Lost in Make Believe" phenomenon to be much more serious with a modern gamu than with previous media. The extreme violence is certainly not unique to games either, books and movies also exhibit it, and bad behavior from role playing Clockwork Orange could rival Grand Theft Auto in some people.