ABSTRACT
Play is normally regarded as a matter of pleasure and leisure, as being just free and friendly fun, as creative and harmless activity mainly related to children and their positive development and innocent laughter. This has been criticized as an idealization and romanticization of play (Hjelm, 2012). Empirically and analytically, the harmless fun aspect of play is only one part of the story. Hazard games may produce ludomania, a dependency on destructive power. In sport, anorexia as part of sport dependency is a well-known phenomenon, and risk games endanger the player’s life. Here, however, attention shall be directed towards the larger field in the history of play and game, which unfolds between children’s soldier play and military training.
