The more I play them, the more I'm getting into these combat flight simulators nowadays. And especially the IL2 series which lets me fly the classic fighter and bomber planes. Marvelous stuff. Now I have to agree that in a way enacting and replaying something terrible as war and person to person combat might seem odd, to say the least. And you're right of course, some persons actually tend to loose the fun aspect of games and actually want to shoot a bunch of Germans. However I think it's safe to say that those mental patients are the minority of people playing those games. It has taken some time for me to get used to the whole idea of virtually shooting others just for fun, and even more so now that computers and graphics are so powerful these days that you might almost even accidentally recognize someone walking around on the battlefield. And it's the same feeling when I'm sim racing and after a crash see some cars fly through the air. Having seen photographs of real life racing accidents I can't help wondering if they are okay, even if it is just for a split second, before realizing that it's 'just a game' and continue racing myself. For me those warfare games are nothing more than just another way of testing my skills on various levels because in the end it all comes down on how well I control the plane or car or whatever. It's not that I want to shoot down and kill pilots in a combat flight sim, no all I want is to be better in control of my plane than the AI pilot who is trying just as hard to out-fly me. And it's so much fun flying around in those old planes, avoiding all the trouble and getting home in one piece. For some reason the old planes feel more alive when flying them. With a modern jet plane for example you can do two times the speed of sound but it never feels that way. An old plane on the other hand looks, and almost feels, like it's coming apart when you reach four to five hundred kilometers an hour or when you maneuver beyond the limits of the plane, everything starts shaking and sounds so awful. You would almost feel sorry for the plane when that happens. And if it does come apart you will feel sorry, trust me ;-)