For the majority of human existence violence has been a major and vital part of our existence. One could argue, and I do make the argument, that our immense capacity for violence is one of the main reasons we as a species have lasted so long.

Back in the day when we hunted and gathered humanity was not at the top of the food chain. We hunted and were hunted by big cats, wolves and other natural predators. All of which were stronger, faster, and who were around millenia before humanity made its first tentative step as a people. When we came into conflict with other tribes of humans and could not reconcile peaceably we had to fight. Much like death, humanity has walked side by side with violence since we became a species.

The inception of civilization in the fertile crescent did not diminish the need for violent tendencies. Territorial disputes, border skirmishes and all out wars followed us down the centuries; fine tuning this atavistic trait. Knowledge, philosophy, discipline, and religion while important landmarks in the evolution and progression of humanity as a whole, would have meant nothing if we did not have the capacity to defend these institutions through violent means.

Up until the middle of the 20th century, practically everyone knew violence and recognized the necessity to be able to meet such a threat in kind. Whether it was living under the rule of a tyrannical king, carving out a home in a hostile territory, or fighting a world war; humanity knew the bite of violence and how and when to dish it out.

But now (Western) society has progressed to a point where very few people feel such a threat. We live in suburbs with gated communities and home security systems; there's a grocery store or two just down the road in practically every town; those of us who live in big city apartments notice regular police patrols and a visible police presence on virtually every street corner; we travel to work in metal boxes with air bags and crumple zones or ride in steal cages called trains; we go to work in air conditioned office buildings were we spend 8-10 hours a day in cubicles or offices hunched over a keyboard.

Human society has become docile, boring, and for the most part safe. But while our society has changed and is becoming increasingly quick to change, human nature is not so easy or quick to do the same. We are still animals with violent animalistic traits. And just as domesticated animals sometimes attack without warning or apparent reason or lions raised in captivity who have no previous history of violence suddenly maul one of their handlers; you cannot take the beast out of humanity.

Yes, we are more highly evolved than most species. We have reason, compassion, and love but these more noble aspects of our nature did not forge the path that humanity has walked and that stretches out before us still. They tempered it to be sure but without our propensity for violence we would have died out as a species eons ago.

We need violence, we need to see violence and to experience it, if only as a spectator, in order to satiate that darker aspect of our psyche. This is why boxing was so big in the twentieth century, why we watch football and hockey, this is the reason the UFC has exploded so quickly as a sport and this is why movies like 300 and Hostel are so popular.

But where this satisfies us passively, video games give us a more active role in the violence. When playing Gears of War or God of War we can actively take part in the blood and gore and mayhem. We can direct the way and means in which the character, our proxy, maims, disables and kills our opponents. Violent games enable us to exhaust all of our aggression and our pent of frustration's until we have reached a state of catharsis.

This is why ever increasingly violent video games, FPS in particular, have become so popular in the last decade. Whether knowingly or not people are seeking them to satisfy this base need within them.

Many disagree with my opinion including my father. We have had many discussions over this topic and despite the fact that he loves to watch boxing, cheers when he see's a particularly hard hit during a football game, and openly laughed when he discovered the chainsaw for the first time in DOOM, I can't get him to see this need we as humans have for violence. I can understand his desire however; the want and need to see humanity as a peaceful and socially evolved creature who has moved beyond our baser instincts.

I can understand it, I just don't share it. We are what we have always been. Animals. Clever animals but animals none the less.