I thought of this thread when I read this in an old film magazine the other day (Empire June 1992)

In an article about the then soon to be released Basic Instinct and the giant hoo-haa about its content:

There was a violent video game that came out about 15 years ago called Manhunt. It was noteworthy at the time because the violence was so much more brutal and “realistic” than the typical fantastical fare. Borrowing from horror movies at the time and if I am remembering right, the main character is a criminal who is kidnapped and put into a death trap type of scenario where you have to sneak and fight your way out. Infamously one of the stealth takedown moves is sneaking up on an enemy and suffocating them with a plastic bag.

I’m not too squeamish with video game fantasy violence, but this one was too disturbing for me. Even worse, when the game was ported to the Wii a few years later with the motion controls on the Wiimote, I read I think that you actually used the controller to mime stabbing the game enemies. That feature may have been pulled before commercial release. I honestly don’t recall off the top of my head, and I don’t care enough to look it up.

But the fact that this game even came out at all but people are so squeamish about nudity is utterly ridiculous. Twisted priorities indeed.

I'm not a gamer, but the amount of attention that is placed on things like nudity but not the actual concept of the game astounds me.  Things like Call of Duty personally sicken me, as it presents war and killing as a game.  No, it's not real, but it is based on real events and the object is to kill people.  I do not liken it to a war drama in film or tv, as those don't require you to actually take an active part in killing.  They are using war as a backdrop to either tell a historical story or a human drama presented within that perspective.  Sure, bad war movies glorify killing and destruction as much as the games; but, the games market themselves as if they are honoring the people who fought in those wars.  As a veteran who was lucky enough to never have to face taking a life, I find no pleasure in a game based around doing such things, with no real world consequences.  Real combat veterans have to live with the death and horror they saw for the rest of their lives.  They don't get to hit restart.

Now, to be fair, I have played shooting games, though more earlier ones, where things are more abstract.  I used to onw the Nintendo game Rolling Thunder, where you operate a secret agent who has infiltrated a villain's secret lair and you shoot it out with his henchmen. They are hooded goons with pistols and machine guns and you move past obstacles and try to take them out.  I had less of a problem in the abstract.  The more realistic it became, the more problem I have.  I tend to prefer more abstract games like Galaga, where you have a spaceship firing on bug shapes and similar abstractions.  I did play the Terminator 2 arcade game a few times and did take a slightly perverse pleasure in shooting the humans in the back, mainly because a character would turn and yell "No!" when you accidentally hit one.  From a gameplay aspect, they obscured your shots at the terminators and getting them out of the way made destroying the terminators easier.  I sucked at the game, though, so I only played it a handful of times.  Stuff like Doom and other first person shooters never did much for me, even as an abstract.