"Playing at Violence"

I read Pacifique Irankunda's "Playing at Violence" article in The American Scholar recently. It reminded me of one of my former professors, a Vietnam veteran, who liked to talk about how he had never hunted after being "in country." "After hunting humans," he said, he lost all interest in using a gun and hunting.  

Having survived a civil war, Irankunda has similar feelings about violent video games. It's not a diatribe masquerading as an essay. Rather, the contrasts he presents will make you think about people's fascination with and enjoyment of war-based video games.