Cloudscape

The possible psychological dangers of violent videogames is proportional to the realism of the simulated emotions of the opponents; and except in the most labile individuals, this will also be the only important factor causing desensitization.
Even though all but some psychotics will rationally know that the characters aren’t real, anyone will empathize with their emotions. This occurs in any form of fiction and even in daydreams: but there is a huge difference between imagining feelings from a neutral viewpoint and imagining causing them.
At first, causing simulated pain will automatically go along with feelings of guilt. To cope with these empathic feelings, it is possible that regular players become desensitized.
They overcome the empathic feelings because they know that their actions have no consequences; they still know that in real life their actions do have consequences, and only psychotics would be inclined to think otherwise. However, it has been proven through brain scans that human sense of ethics is not based on reason, but on emotion. In a moral decision, reason follows emotion rather than the other way around. Unfortunately, our emotions make not make much distinction between reality and virtuality: it makes such distinction only to the extent that the two differ in realism.
Many people will argue that, since it is only a game, only people who cannot tell the difference between a game and reality will undergo significant desensitization. Empathizing with characters from videogames would occur only in people to whom imagination has become almost as important than reality, if not more so, such as many schizophrenics or autistics. But consider that many videogames have become extremely realistic, and that it’s only a matter of time before they become indistinguishable from reality except through memory.
Suppose that you killed people in a game and it was so lifelike that the only reason you know it to be a game is that you remember you entered into it: you hear your opponents’ screams, their pleadings, their moans, you see their expression, their wounds, their blood, their internal organs — all this as realistic as reality itself. The potential dangers of immersive virtual reality in violent computer games are quite apparent — upheaval, traumas, desensitization, psychopathy, dissociation, even psychosis.
In conclusion, for the psychological health safety of the players, it would be safer if either simulated emotion from the opponents should be forbidden in first person shooters, or games that include them would by law require regular psychological screening.

"Its astonishing in the Inner Worlds - the Innerverse..."
— Silvis Rivers, schizophrenic artist

Teachers of enlightenment will tell you to live in the here and now, and for this reason meditation will often focus on sensations, especially physical sensations such as breathing -- yet, this omits part of the here and now. For it is a mistake to think that everything that happens inside one's head, that is, one's thoughts and fantasies, is not part of the here and now.
Consciousness is comprised of two parts; the outside world and the world within - the "innerverse." However, there is no clear line between the two. They are not as such distinct, except in that one cannot affect the other unless you let it.
The innerverse, however, is by far the most complex part of our lives. Our mindscape varies constantly, much faster than our physical environment. Thoughts shoot through our heads all day, and for many people with a vivid imagination, the same counts for daydreams. Some schizophrenics know little else beyond their inner world, which is why they can live detached from the "real" world -- this may make them seem unemotional, but when something happens in their inner world, they can react highly emotionally to that: in this way they may feel as much affection for imaginary friends as other people do for real friends, while feeling little affection for real friends.
It may be important that we learn to control our inner world at least as well as our outside world. After all, how we feel depends on the former rather than on the latter. Meditation can help us become more aware of our sensations - what happens in our outer world - while hypnosis can help us become more aware of our imaginations - what happens in our inner world.
Through visualization, we can not only become more hopeful about those things we'd like to see come true, but they will also in themselves make them come true in a way -- in our (day)dreams.
There will be a day that schizophrenics will be seen as true geniuses. Over the past centuries, the innerverse has become more and more important because of art, which is basically an expression of our inner world! Music, books, poetry, movies, videogames, even science -- anything that is notional is part of our noosphere, which is basically our collective innerverse. These things become more and more dominant in our lives, especially as we slowly come closer and closer to achieving immersive virtual realities.
The Innerverse has something divine: because we are the Gods of our own inner worlds. We are almighty over our fantasy, at least the amount of fantasy we do have. The nature of our world will more and more become like that of our innerverse, until our entire universe has become like one big dream. One day science and fantasy will meet: everything we can imagine will be real, for anything we be able to conceive of, we will be able to create.

See also:
Love of Beauty