Generally deterrent. However, if people already have violent tendencies and are violent people, extremely graphic and gruesome games might desensitize them to violence.
We're more sensitized to violence than ever before in history. It used to be normal to cheer on executions while a crowd watched. Violent video games aren't making people any more violent or accepting of violence than they already were.
The thing is though that in certain already violent people, video games and movies that are almost impossible to discern from reality can remove some degree of sensitivity to suffering. Obviously I’m not saying that people will watch Saw and then go shoot up a school because that would be ridiculous, but in some people combined with 1 million other things, it’s not ridiculous that seeing many violent images over many years will make them less sensitive to suffering.
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