The biggest appeal of the first-person shooter (FPS) genre is the sense of immersion. You are in the game. You are the character shooting Nazis, or zombies, or gangsters. You see the world through their eyes because their eyes are your eyes. You connect in a very real way with your avatar because you are the one saving the girl, or killing the bad guys, or, in some cases, killing the good guys.
You get to be someone without limits or morality if you choose. You can be the hero, or you can waste your time writing your name in the wall with bullet holes. Movies are passive; the violence in them is seen and not actually experienced. In games, especially FPS games, you on the couch are the one perpetrating all sorts of heinous acts by your own actions. This fact is one of the reasons legislators blamed Doom for the Columbine shooting... but socially normal people can tell the difference. No matter how immersive a game is, when you turn it off, you're back in the real world. Sure, you might be a little sweaty and your adrenaline will be pumping, but you can tell the difference. Games are the best (legal) form of escapism on the planet. Everybody wants to get out of their own skin sometimes... what better way then to get into someone else's space boots and mow down some aliens?
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