It's because, ultimately, games of all sorts (not just video) are in this funny realm where we don't think too much about what we're doing beyond the mechanics of the game. The story wrapped around the mechanics becomes the chrome added to the machine that generates the fun; required for the total experience, but maybe not the essence of the game.
After the housing crisis in the US, do you still play Monopoly? How can you without sympathizing with all those people who got foreclosed on while the banking fatcats got rich?
The tight feedback loops of videogames make us examine them more closely, but, truly, games have always done this.
All that said, I don't enjoy CoD and the like because I'm not a FPS kind of guy, and I don't like the glamorization of war. But I had a lot of fun playing Warhammer 40k for a short time after college, so... does that make me a sociopath?
After the housing crisis in the US, do you still play Monopoly? How can you without sympathizing with all those people who got foreclosed on while the banking fatcats got rich?
The tight feedback loops of videogames make us examine them more closely, but, truly, games have always done this.
All that said, I don't enjoy CoD and the like because I'm not a FPS kind of guy, and I don't like the glamorization of war. But I had a lot of fun playing Warhammer 40k for a short time after college, so... does that make me a sociopath?