"I'd rather shoot a human being avatar in the face rather than an alien or somesuch fantasy creature in the face."

I don't know if this is true. I like to kick some alien butt. I think its more a question about the whole scenario: realistic scenarios vs. fantasy/science fiction scenarios. If you look at movies real-world scenarios are much more prevalent than Sci-Fi. This is completely opposite in Games.

I would never shoot another person - in real life - unless my life was in danger. If someone is busting caps at me, then they deserve to be own3d. Seriously, in most games, I am just walking around, packing a BFG and fools wanna step up to the plate and pop shots at me. Oh yeah, they deserve the rounds I pop off at them.

Killing enemies? If they want me dead, gotta go FTW ...

FINALLY ... I hit $1,000 again ...

Yet there's all those Vietnam games...

I wonder what the response of US / UK gamers would be if a great FPS hit the market (I mean COD4 level of excellence) but you played an Arab foiling a US / UK plot (led by a spilnter group in the military of course) and had to take out lots of marines and SAS soldiers in the process...

I think the humans angle comes from the following areas:

1 - multiplayer - it became massive thanks to Doom and there was nothing better than knowing you were playing (and beating) another human being (who was smarter than a computer controlled foe)... and I think this started a trend that playing against human avatars meant they were smarter than aliens and therefore a more worthy foe

2 - while aliens, etc. are seen as SF or fantasy and perhaps harder to relate to - humans and real world settings make all to familiar gambits (something reinfored by films/TV) and therefore have a broader appeal.  So some don't like SF settings, some don't like fantasy settings but most can relate to real world settings.  I would note that while I always prefer more outlandish settings (I figure if I want reality I'll go out into it, while onscreen I can be in deep space, etc) many dislike it when settings move to far from more the norm (I remember the outcry about Xen in Half Life as being too alien and too difficult to adjust to).

3 - we see humans as the toughest enemy in real life therefore in games they also represent the toughest and therefore most worthy enemy

4 - most aliens and fantasy creatures are just humans in disguise anyway - i.e. Trek like they mostly are humanoid and easy to relate to - which reinforces the notion of fighting people in familiar settings

5 - the known fasination many males (16 to 26) have with war and combat scenarios - so fighting humans and fighting in settings such as COD4 allows you to satisfy that fasination

Actually, I'm going to stop there as none of the above really gels for me.  I'm really curious about the clear, strong like to big titles and fighting humans (or very close to human aliens) vs games such as SMG and his friendlie ilk... but I need to think about it more.

Let us open our Bibles to the book of Foxhound.

-"Some people just need killing". -Solid Snake 4:22

I enjoy shooting aliens as much as the next guy, but if Snake says it, it must be done.

*BOOM* Crotch shot!

durr... I just love masturbating to corpses of human beings!Alien corpses just don't do it!

OOOORRRRR maybe instead of using some Freudian interpretation, we could start asking if perhaps maybe the games like CoD and RFOM offer either a simpler gamestyle or better storyline, and don't clutter down the game with incredible, yet gritty, graphics

Besides, aren't we on Call of Duty 4 or something now? What about the other games, which ones are new IPs and which aren't. For that matter, some people do want to go up against human characters, because it makes it FEEL more challenging(not just some dumb AI controlled alien, but humans, who are potentially as smart or smarter than you are), which is the whole point of a game like that; to challenge yourself.

I don't know, right now, I'm playing Metroid Prime 3, and it's awesome as hell. It's like Zelda, but FPS and in the future. I'm just irritated at this supposed look into the human psyche based off of this.

Just turn on the TV--i watched extreme makeover, home edition and saw all the differnt people comming togther to build a house for a needy family...so....

People
Luckiest people
People who shoot peo-ple...


[Sorry, couldn't get this out of my head after reading the thread title.]

I'll tell you what I really hate - in games where you help someone and they turn on you - and sometimes, it's not their fault. In Mass Effect, there's a mission where you got into this lab - you meet some soldiers who you help out for a lil while. But after wiping out some aliens, you end up facing the same guy you helped earlier. I hate being put into that position.

The only things I am disturbed by are the assassination missions in GTA. I mean, you kill reporters and wives ... that's over the top and would prefer to not do that junk. My rule of thumb is - if fools are shooting at you, return fire.

Mad Skillz, out ...