I understand that video games serve as an escape mechanism and allow folks to do things they could/would never do in real life, however as they make the violence more "real" it starts appealing to a different element.

In the old days (1976?) Draw! still killed someone and the cowboy you shot would fall on his backside and a daisy would grow out of his stomach. That was my first encounter with "killing" in a video game. It was corny and 'cute' in its own way. Now we have blood squirting, limb flying carnage accompanied by screams of terror.

That's just not fun anymore - it's disturbing. Realistic death is not entertaining. Otherwise we could all watch military video clips from Iraq or JFK cruising through dallas and Jackie grabbing part of JFK's head from the trunk.

At some point just knowing that it is a game is not enough. One feels like a voyeur or a sicko in training. I had made a post about comic books descent into the abyss ahwile back and the same problem exists in this other child targeting industry: comics.

Games/comics that use the mind and reward the player/reader with new mental horizons will someday be in vogue. That day is still too far away, I fear.