Time Crisis, Daytona USA, Counter-Strike, Deus Ex. And people liked these, because they could imagine they were someone they were not. I have been playing through System Shock 2, an admittedly brilliant game that sold poor due to the fact that it was different. And, as good as it is, it's not fun. Clever things make people feel stupid, and unexpected things make them feel scared.
People say that realism is the way computer games are going.
If you think I'm talking about Counter-Strike, I am. The reason that it's so popular is because it's so popular. Evil begets evil. People enter the online gaming whorehouse for the first time and see Counter-Strike everywhere. So of course that's the first thing they're going to get into.