I remember before I began to drive I played a lot of Burnout. It was my favorite game. When I first went out behind the wheel my dad interrupted me playing Burnout so we could drive to the grocery store. If anything, I was more sensitive to my surroundings because of the game. I didn't want to end up in a crumpled up car.
Now, I played a lot of Halo 2 late at night in high school. My parents never cared about the violence, but only if I was playing instead of doing my homework, or if I was staying up really late on a school night. A lot of people see videogames like Halo and talk about kids being into them because of how violent they are, but for me it was really about the competitive nature of the multiplayer. I played online with my friends working together as a team. That's what gives me the rush, and I'm sure the same is true for the other millions of people who play it. But there's this idea that people play these games just because they like shooting stuff up and love the blood and gore (which halo isn't even that bloody or gory), and It's going to be a while before the media stops focusing on this and focusing on the mental health issues that really cause people to to bad things.