Gamasutra - Joy more adult than violence?

In an editorial entitled Can joy be more adult than violence?, Leigh Alexander ponders about this question. Citing Michael Abbot, game critic about shooters and E3:

"What concerns me about the avalanche of shooters we see at E3 every year is the way they're showcased as the very best the industry can do," Abbott tells Gamasutra. "We're told these are important groundbreaking games, but we can see for ourselves they aren't. This year the endless stream of violence felt more like pandering than ever, and I felt bored and alienated. And old. Every E3 is pitched to the same 14-year-old adolescent male as the one before. And every year I have less in common with that boy."

Leigh Alexander then asks Honeyslug's Ricky Haggett and here's what he has to say:

"Allowing the player to 'perform' within the game, with interactions rich enough to support a degree of creativity - perhaps even allow players to do some exuberant showboating," Haggett recommends. "Game actions which aren't required to succeed, but provided purely as a way to enhance the performance can help a lot here, as does the ability to chain together different game actions in interesting ways: the more variation the game allows in how the player interacts with it, the better."

In conclusion, Abbott says this:

"Ironically, as that 14-year-old seems to want ever more 'adult' and grisly games, I find myself yearning for more 'adult' games that enable joyful imaginative play. Violence in games feels played-out. I'm hungry for experiences that tap into other human impulses.