No one is saying to abolish violent games completely...but when nearly every publisher besides Nintendo promotes hyper-twitch action shooters and murder simulations as the only IPs worthy of AAA DEVELOPMENT, then it becomes a problem. In that case, murder is the top priority and a lot of time is dedicated on creating new and 'cool' ways to do it. In 2012, the traditional gamer no longer even considers a less vicious title a videogame...unless it is a sports game.

I suppose the difference between the ultra-violence in the 80s and the violence we see now is that ultra gore horror is very much a niche of the movie industry. The games that are being portrayed to the general populace and garner the most media attention are attempting to be mainstream if a bit "Mature". I think Warren Spector has a point in that it does more damage to the wider perception of games industry than good. Especially when this violence is sexualised like in that terrible Hitman trailer.

Lots of developers besides Nintendo do AAA games that are not murder simulations.

For example: Square Enix, and.... And................ Sega?

well yes and also because they make it look like badass... while real extreme violence use to be potraied as sickening and/or twisted.... it is more about context imo than degree of it... I mean clockwork orange or hellraiser where quite mainstream. they probably wouldn't make it to the big screen today. and that's just for the sake of example. heck even platoon would be sensored, look what pulp fiction sounds like on TV, it's just aweful to listen to the dialogues. but then again isn't a game like hitman rated M??? people tend to forget that the core of the gaming industry is not under 18, consoles like PSe or XB are not targeted first at people under 18. and yet more than 70% of the games are rated between E, T and E10+. you just have to check the esa fact sheet http://www.theesa.com/facts/index.asp so he has a point yes but it ain't as bad as it could be. especially since parental control should exclusively be a parent matter, otherwise you just do a demolition man kind of world with care bears everywhere. 

I'm not completely disagreeing with you. I personally think it's more an issue with marketing and media attention than the violence in the games themselves. Most games do give an appropriate context although how appropriate is debateable. The media on the other hand spend a disproportionate amount of time on violent games, even though they make up a minority of the market. 

oh hell yeah... then again as a marketing and advertising management undergrad major, i have to say media live off advertising and they answer to a demand. put that together and when you have major titles being violent pushed by publishers and when the public feeds on misery and sensational news/content. they are just following their customer trends on both side of the spectrum. I think it's too easy to blame it on the diverse industries when they are only providing what customers crave. they would be the first one to change if the mass market didn't want that any more...