I love the constant superiority by people from outside video games, who comment on them with things like this and the "OMG VIOLENCE!" quotes. They always seem to place the blame squarely at the feet of the people who make the games, and those who buy them, when I can't help but think that they just need to realise the somewhat obvious fact that men enjoy violence.
I'm not saying that every guy in the world wants to go out and beat the crap out of one another, but any man with testosterone kicking round their system will get a visceral kick out of some form of simplified violence and it's not just video games. Playing with army or cowboy stuff as kids, action films, or all the many sports out there, all are riddled with subtle forms of violence, or the assertion of male physicality in some way, and yet people are afraid to admit that they just might like it. It's just a male thing, born through centuries of surviving in the wild, and it's not going to change any time soon. We're not going to become killers just because we enjoy games any more than footballers become killers because they fight on the pitch, or kids become killers because they shoot each other with plastic guns. Rather, it's a release, and a way to let out the aggression that occasionally plagues us.
Teenager boys are simply the most susceptible to violent games because they have an excess of hormones pumping through their system at that age, and games provide one of the easiest ways to satisfy those urges. There's no real physical effort required and being online gives you anonymity and the ability to have complete control over what you do, while still providing you with that whole male competetiveness/dominance experience that gives you such a rush. It's can see how it becomes so addictive to some of them, but I don't think everyone else should be punished for some childrens' lack of discipline and their parents being unable to properly help them beyond fighting with them and threatening them stupidly.