Video games have advanced to the point (graphically and in sheer size/time commitment) that they basically ‘pick your path’ novels.
Now pushing 50, I have probably read close to 5-6oo books in the sci-fi/horror/fantasy genres and in my experience, earlier games like Xenogears/Xenosaga, which were ultra heavy morality/philosophical exercises with space ships and sentient computers have set the stage for today’s epics.
The stories in modern RPGs are action heavy, deep and require thought. It ain’t all Angry Birds. Modern computer power has unlocked an immersion factor that goes beyond the printed page...but REQUIRE the very same writing. If the story sucks, the game sucks. and no big booms will save it.
AND perhaps most importantly, there are still old school ideas and attitudes that have not been totally PCd to death in them. That unfortunately is changing because libs have been working their crap into even the best games.
Yes, I’ve always thought that violent video games are not “dangerous” in themselves, but I also understand how someone with unhealthy violent tendencies (e.g. the Columbine killers) can be drawn to them. So it’s a two-way street. Typically the violence is just part of the story plot, and is not inappropriately gory.
When I was a kid, my mom read stories like “Jack the Giant Killer” to us. I suppose that would be parental abuse today. If you don’t teach your son to wear a dress the left might call it damaging to his sense of “gender choice”.