Hail. Long time reader, first time really needing to comment.
Regarding SCM's second point...
I find I have a need I have a hard time defending. I like gore in my games. I'm not a slaughter flick fan, never had a taste for the lure of disemboweled teenagers. But in gaming I want gore.
I want the mess because it reminds me of what's really going on.
I love fighting games. Tekken, Soul Calibur, Virtua Fighter, Guilty Gear, King of Fighters -it's all good on one level or another. But sometimes the hyperkinetic violence is just too...fake. Too sterile.
I like to be occasionally reminded hacking at a mostly unarmored, and frequently nearly-naked, human body would result in horrific wounds. We, myself and the game's own developers, need to be reminded on occasion that underlying the pursuit of perfected violence is _death_. It's not a spiritual evolution or philosophical abstract, it's perfecting the conversion of some cheeky leathervixen into a steaming pile of sundered anatomy.
I love Soul Calibur, but whipping a 25lbs razor-edged slab of steel into someone doesn't make them _bounce_.
Same with shooters.
Black was excellent, Quake and Doom and all the rest are quite dear to me -but I hold the most respect for the first Soldier of Fortune. Enemies you could disassemble via machinegun, targets that screamed and howled as they died less the leg and the arm I caught dangling into view from behind their otherwise effective cover. Enough of that and I just was sad and nauseous. And that's _good_. That's a unpleasant but necessary reaffirmation of my own humanity. I understand I am pantomiming murder for my own entertainment. And I say yay, cuz it's fun.
I haven't killed anyone in real life, and despite the occasional vitrolic diatribe driven by some new political shennigan I have no real drive to do so. But every so often I need to be back in touch with what the violence really creates, to be forced to face that I'm tearing at the canvas of humanity's own image with my brutally quick reticle and snap head-shots.
For all the escapism involved I want to sometimes face what a rifle bullet through the skull really does look like, so I can be sick and glad and move on to the next episode.
PS: Reminds me of Manhunt, a title very much about blurring the pleasure of stalking and killing "people" with the satisfaction of gaming. Also deserving of a mention is The Warriors. Probably the only title I can think of that dared propose that constant brawling would result in torn clothes and blood leaking from every visible orifice -as opposed to a lamb white karate gi.