That really doesn't address the specific impulse toward slaughter though, unless your school was considerably rougher than mine was.
Well no, but human instinct isn't an absolute. What we're talking about is a specific subset of the human populace - the action gamer, which still isn't that huge comparatively. I mean... okay, follow this.
So you've got this village, right? And in that village you've got the hunters and warriors, you've got the priests and chieftains and teachers, you've got the doctors and nurses and scholars, and you've got the homemakers and carpenters and artists. Now the warriors mostly descended from other warriors, priests from priests, etc... there's always going to be some caste migration but that's fine. The point is, most people "know" early on what their instincts are like, and it shapes their interests. Those of the combat caste tend to prefer hunting and competitive sports, because that's pretty much their bag. But the more constructive types will generally go off and do something else, take up some crafts, play house, that sort of thing.
So here's the thing: consider a ball.
BALL! You give a ball to to one of the warrior-jock type kids, and they'll do a million fucking things with it. Pass it, punt it, hit it with a stick, throw it at a hoop, bean each other with it... so many things you can do with a ball. It's the quintessential sports thing, it's the
perfect sports thing, because it just happens to have a number of qualities that work well for sports: it's cheap, it's simple, it's durable by design, it's portable, and it's mobile - you can chase it around like a running animal. Sports kids love their balls!
Now, give the same ball to a craftsperson. Is it useless? Hell no! It's got dozens of interesting qualities. It's a basic shape with many special properties, and can be incorporated into a number of designs, like say, bead necklaces. Okay. But is it
the quintessential crafts thing by virtue of its specific nature? Well, no. It's just a ball. There's nothing bad about balls, but there's just as much charm to, say, cubes. Meh.
Okay, so let's flip the switch and try paint.
When you think of art, you think of painting. And why not? With a little paint and some training, you can create anything on canvas. Literally, anything. And it's not just an easel, you can paint a house, a sculpture, dye fabrics, faces... okay, even balls. A true artist would find joy in painting your balls.
But for sports, is paint that useful? Sure, paint plays a role. You paint fields. You paint faces. You paint equipment. Sometimes you play with those painted balls. Paint is a tool used in sports, but is it
the tool used in sports? Nah.
So you're probably getting where I'm meandering with this, which is two* things:
Video games as a tool are most - not only, but most -
most useful to those with combative leanings. For a variety of reasons which have already been covered. The challenge aspect is built right into the evolution of the medium, and the murder aspect appeals to a particular instinct
present in some people which is otherwise impossible to satisfy. And this leads directly to point B:
The earliest and still largest population of gamers are the hunter-warrior types. Or in short, video games are violent because they sell easily to violent people. Does this vindicate Jack Thompson? Well, no, unless you want to sue the NFL for doing the same sort of thing. It's not hard to wander outside the medium and still find shockingly casual depictions of war and combat. Did you ever play Chess? Are you ready to defend your overactive conscience by trying to convince yourself that you don't know what taking the enemy's pawn represents? Gamers have been doing this shit long before Space War ever convinced nerds to subject their friends to fiery deaths in space. Which again segues nicely to the last point:
Focusing too much on the 'violence' in video games or the violence in 'video' games is a little myopic. Hey guys, what are the best selling console games of all time that weren't forced on you with the purchase of a system?
1. Wii Play (Wii – 27.38 million, Wii remote bundled with all copies)[69]
2. Nintendogs (DS – 23.26 million, all five versions combined)[69]
3. Wii Fit (Wii – 22.61 million)[69]
4. Mario Kart Wii (Wii – 22.55 million)[69]
5. New Super Mario Bros. (DS – 22.49 million)[69]
6. Pokémon Red and Blue (Game Boy – 20.68 million approximately: 10.23 million in Japan,[48] 9.85 million in US)[19]
7. Wii Sports Resort (Wii – 19.16 million)[68]
8. Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! (DS – 18.72 million)[69]
9. Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES – 18 million)[98]
10. Mario Kart DS (DS – 17.90 million)[69]
11. Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (DS – 17.39 million)[79]
12. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2 - 17.33 million)[105]
13. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii – 15.81 million)[68]
14. Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec (PS2 – 14.89 million shipped)[94]
15. Wii Fit Plus (Wii – 14.52 million)[68]
16. Pokémon Gold and Silver (Game Boy Color – 14.51 million approximately: 7.6 million in US,[19] 6.91 million in Japan)[48]
17. Super Mario Land (Game Boy – 14 million)[98]
18. Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day! (DS – 13.71 million)[70]
19. Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire (GBA – 13 million)[78]
20. Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen (GBA – 11.82 million)[79]
Ignoring #1 which was basically a consolation prize for having to pay out your ass for a second controller: #1 has zero violence whatsoever, #2 has a boxing minigame (against a punching bag), #3 has firing turtle shells at karts. #4 is the first game with any actual "killing" (that killing being limited to goomba stomping), and
there is only one game on the entire list in which you ever directly harm human beings. (Unless you really do blast Team Rocket repeatedly into outer space in the Pokemon games. I dunno.)
On the PC side, it goes to hell a lot quicker with omnicidal WoW taking up spot #3, but #1 and #2 are both versions of The Sims in which you... wait, nevermind. PC gamers are basically dicks.
Still,
my point is that it's not incorrect to say that a lot of video games are inherently violent - because a fucking lot of video games are inherently violent - but it's no more fair to say there's something specifically primal about them that makes people want to kill than it is to say there's anything specifically primal about
a ball! that makes people want to kill. People will want to kill no matter what you do. And then some people just want to watch you drown in a pool because you're too damned fat to climb out without a ladder.
Video games don't kill people. Irrecoverable cerebral failure kills people.
* I caught this six hours later and left it in to illustrate how much forethought I actually put into this rambling mess.