O the irony...

[S.R.S.]

That's not ironic, it's coincidental.

 

[Angerwing]

They're not rated higher because of the idea of people dying. They're rated higher because of the graphic imagery.

Ragdoll physics + shotguns are much more graphic than a pre-designed death animation.

 

[CommyGingerbreadMan]

People are surprised by gore being OK in some instances? Really? This is from the same rating system that if ONE boob is shown, the game is AUTOMATICALLY M.

 

[Mozared]

At least partly because of the point of view.

First person shooters are called that way because they are... first person! Which means that you are seeing the guts fly out of that other guy just as you would see it in real life. RTS's give you a god-like viewpoint where the details are less obvious.

 

[Cinnonym]

The morals of our society are weird...

Nah, not weird, just psychological. The human mind can't sympathize with more than (a shockingly small number) one other human at a time. It's the same reason that a news channel's human interest piece on the American war on terrorism will focus on a single individual's death even though there are so many more. So it makes sense that a person would be more affected "witnessing" a man shooting another man as two fictional representations of whole countries battling in, err, usually much lower quality.

 

[zehydra]

Because firing a gun is a more significant impact on you since you're the one actually committing the violence as opposed to telling others to do it for you.