Adults can get rather... Uncomfortable if a children's game doesn't hold a standard of wholesomeness, can't they?
I can still remember all the pacifist adults getting their batik in a twist whenever me and my friends at school played war on the schoolyard. I don't know what they reguard as the ideal game for children, presumably playing fairies in a flowery meadow, but our stickwars were not one.
But then again, children does have a tendency to faultlessly gravitate towards less appropriate games. Once, on an excursion to the woods, the teachers sat us down to make pine cone animals.
(Oh, how very wholesome, no?)
http://cdn1.cdnme.se/cdn/6-2/1000951/images/2009/bild1101_39844268.jpg
It took about five seconds until they became hand grenades, with pins and everything.
I remember that one of their rickety arguements was that we'd selfishly trigger post traumatic stress experiences in the refugee kids, who had recently arrived from real wars. Interesting point, but they neglected to notice that those kids were eagerly playing war with us.
Right, sorry, I've leaked nostalgia everywhere. On topic; children are much less vulnerable to games with a violent subtext than you'd think. And even if they would become scarred psycopaths for playing violent games, it'd be impossible to stop them. The rephrasing is less for the comfort of children, and more to satisfy neurotic parents.
