[neumann_alfred]

Voilent games can also be seen as a punching bag to vent out your anger, without hurting somebody in actual.

It can also be seen as "practice" for people that are addicted to cruelty and dominance. I don't know about you, but when I play online I am often amazed at how low people can go, and how some never tire of being mean. And I'm not "raging" either, I can usually hold my own and generally care zilch about winning or loosing random pub games; but compared to how fun it is to play with "normal people", those sociopaths really do stick out, and it's obvious they live in a world where they have everything and all the peers they could want, and nothing that reminds them of the fact they have a problem - games and gamers don't do that usually, they're the silent accomplices.

But sure, if it keeps them from abusing animals or whatever, I'm all for it. But there's just no way of telling if it does that, or if it just grows a hunger for something more real. I don't feel comfortable shrugging it off. None of this can or should be solved with laws, it's all about debate and culture. It should be legal, but I frown upon it, and I want to be explicit and vocal about it and step on people's toes. Just because some got used to it, just because so many people do it, doesn't mean it's not fucking pathetic. But so are other things, movies for example. Not picking on violent video games, or violence... more the shallow display and glorification of it.