If your fingers are stained with Cheetos rather than blood and dirt....

Are actual predator drones being used to kill innocent civilians, with the occasional actual terrorist victim thrown in?

If the people on the screen get their heads blown off, do they reappear later without a scratch? Are they serving their third, fourth, fifth or sixth tour of duty?

Do the people on the screen have families back home living on food stamps and other government assistance?

Are VA hospitals being filled with amputees who, if they ever are released back into the real world, will find it extremely difficult to find jobs in a nation with 9% unemployment run by two parties determined to out-do each other in cutting benefits while spending billions on pointless wars?

Are those same hospitals- facing cuts themselves, of course- becoming overwhelmed with trauma and depression cases?

Does the result of the violence you see on the screen lead to grieving spouses, boyfriends and girlfriends? Does it create a population of orphans on two continents?

Is the action on the screen destroying the economies of at least two nations? Does it require that at least one of those nations make deep rends in the social safety net, including Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid in order to keep it going? In short, does what we are viewing require that one nation empty it's treasury into a bottomless pit, while another nation is returned to the stone age?

If you answered "no, of course not" to all of the above, then the answer is quite simple: This is not Real.

I swear, if one-tenth of you Gamer losers would drop your fucking joysticks and head down to the nearest recruitment center, we could conquer the world.