i have survived war, though i was young. still, i enjoy war medias like novels, films and games still and reading/playing them does not really bring me any frightening thoughts or memories or nothing.

i also did required national service, but thankfully i never saw combat or anything.

I could imagine that people who survived war are more interested in war - or rather about stuff how to avoid it, or how they start. Which isn´t about video games - and i guess they can still distinguish a game from reality. Like playing a shooter war game is not really about war, but about aim and reaction time - and some coordination and map knowledge. It might be different for people who get instant PTSD when they see any military or think about it - because they not only survived war, but also saw all kinds of stuff, or were personally involved as torture or rape victims.

Depends how traumatising someone’s experience of war was.

Originally posted by Χάρης:

Are people who survived war less interested in games that involve war/ military?

its more like games glorify war incorrectly. games drag out the exciting parts of military action, and ignore all the parts the 'build up' to that point. the real work that leads up to a successful military movement on a battlefield, and the sweaty and thirsty labor from hundreds of people working together like a swiss watch to make it all happen.

the planning can take months, the actual action can be over in less than an hour XD

And i think that's ok, games should not reflect reality too closely - whats the fun in that? plus its really, really funny when some civs play call of d00ty and think they're hard. endlessly enjoy that.

Do you mean regular citizens or people that serve/served military? I know alot of people that were deployed in afghanistan that play alot of Arma or Squad, thats usually the only games they play. But i also know a guy that serves in the military and dont want get bothered by it at home and he only plays nintendo games to calm down.

Some of my mother's cousins, who served in WW2, wouldn't go to fireworks shows.
Or go to war movies either. I suppose they would not have played military games either.

War vets do and play video games a lot, WoW being one of them. They do speed runs of WoW for vets, I've seen it before, it was interesting.

Originally posted by Hammer Of Evil:

Originally posted by Χάρης:

Are people who survived war less interested in games that involve war/ military?

its more like games glorify war incorrectly. games drag out the exciting parts of military action, and ignore all the parts the 'build up' to that point. the real work that leads up to a successful military movement on a battlefield, and the sweaty and thirsty labor from hundreds of people working together like a swiss watch to make it all happen.

the planning can take months, the actual action can be over in less than an hour XD

And i think that's ok, games should not reflect reality too closely - whats the fun in that? plus its really, really funny when some civs play call of d00ty and think they're hard. endlessly enjoy that.

True, though I think glorifying it is kinda wrong ( whether accurate or not ). But then again, I guess all action games kinda do that in a way, at the end it depends on who's playing them.

Originally posted by Boba Shred:

Do you mean regular citizens or people that serve/served military? I know alot of people that were deployed in afghanistan that play alot of Arma or Squad, thats usually the only games they play. But i also know a guy that serves in the military and dont want get bothered by it at home and he only plays nintendo games to calm down.

Sorry I should have mentioned that. I mostly meant regular citizens, but it's ok to get some opinions from those who serve or served in the past too.

Also seen "doctors" try to treat people with Meth addictions with some first person shooter video games...

I guess it would depend largely on the role someone had in a war they survived.

I remember a canadian grandma was falsely accused of pirating fallout 4 and her response was "Why would I play a game about war?"

I imagine that depends on how severe their PTSD is (if any).