Originally Posted by Big D
Being able to roam the streets at will, slaughtering and robbing men and women and getting away with it - that's what I meant. Also, games such as these place absolutely no value on the lives of the characters who're murdered. It's different in a military sim, where your opponents are enemies in war. Even then, many games manage to give some sense of meaning to the lives of the enemy - the MGS series, for example. However, 'crime games' let you destroy lives, families and careers in the most grossly unjust way, without ever having any regard for what truly happens as a result. It's just a case of "I killed some guy and took his wallet", not "I killed a newlywed husband who was in his final year at medical school, and basically ruined the life of everyone who was close to him, including the people who saw him beaten to death in the street".
It's not just the severity of the violence, but also the type and intention of the violence which makes a difference.