I've always been curious on this one - perhaps because I 'swing the other way' if I may be permitted a small Bon Mott.  More than once, in articles, on this site, everywhere in gaming circles - I've seen the strong opinion people prefer shooting people (a'la COD, MOH, etc. etc.) rather than aliens or fantasy creatures (a'la RFOM or GOW).

Now, this is not to say GOW or RFOM aren't popular - but the feeling of the majority seems to be I'd rather shoot a human being avatar in the face rather than an alien or somesuch fantasy creature in the face.

Personally, from time to time (perhaps due to my travels) the fact that so many games want me to shoot a lot of Germans and Arabs (with some Africans thrown in for good measure) or play 'for the dark side' and shoot a lot of allies troubles me slightly.

Also, I know I personally prefer my games to have non-real world settings and bad guys - so I actually prefer games like RFOM to GOW vs COD and others (please note I'm not saying they are better games, just expressing a personal preference).

So I was wondering - what do you prefer?  And if you prefer shooting humans, why?

I have my own views on why the preference for shooting other humans might exist but I'll keep them to myself for the moment as I want to see what others think.

I think it is because people can relate to it more. How many times has some person made you think "man I wanna kill that MOFO." I know people have made me feel that way. If a person says no then they are a liar. We do not have any aliens on our planet messing with us or pissing anybody of in their everyday lives. I personally agree with you because I like shooting all things. Hell... I even blow my own self up in games if I can just cause its funny. In conclusion, everything must DIE but humans are the best things to shoot. Personal opinion.

I prefer not to shoot anything. It troubles me that at least 50% of today's games basically consist of "kill 'em all".
Recently, Microsoft claimed to have the "greatest holiday lineup in video game history":
Bioshock (shoot), Orange Box (shoot), Halo3 (shoot) and Call of Duty 4 (shoot). Hooray for variety.

Link's Crossbow Training is as far as I will go.

sucks to be you then.

human nature

because humans enjoy killing evil men.

I think it's mostly a US thing. Other parts of the world prefer shooting aliens.

 Nah. Luckily, there's a small company called odnetniN that successfully refuses to churn out FPS by the dozen.

perhaps if you'd chose not to dismiss these games based solely on the genre they reside in, you'd realise that you were missing out on some of the best gaming experiences of recent years. such a pity.