One of the unexpected things that happens when you play realistic video games for hours and hours is that your real life starts looking somewhat similar to your game life.  This can be a problem when said games include violence and other types of crime.  This wasn't an issue with earlier games, since most days you don't find yourself encountering floating blocks of bricks with magical flashing coins.  But newer games are so much more life-like, and sometimes it can be confusing whether you're still playing a game or not. 

On a related side note, I refuse to use video games as an excuse for my actions, like those stupid kids who shoot people and blame it on video games, because that rationale is about as solid as reading a Superman comic and thinking you can jump off a building.  Unless there are important parts of your brain missing, all people have that little check valve in their heads that helps them determine whether something is right or wrong.  And most people use that check valve, regardless of what they see in movies or do in video games. 

One example is from the Grand Theft Auto series, which is well-known for including many different types of crime and violence all in one game.  One major component of the game (as referenced by the title) is the act of stealing cars.  When you steal a car in the game, you typically drive it around until you crash into too many things and it blows up.  So you hop a few curbs, hit a few streetlights, and then ditch your ride and get a new one.  After playing the game for a while, I remember getting into my real life car one day in a parking lot and almost hopping a few curbs to get out quicker, before I realized that I was still making car payments and it wouldn't be wise to rack up more bills. 

Another example is from Half-Life 2, which for some reason included a lot of carefully placed 55-gallon explosive fuel containers.  Whenever you wanted some more bang for your buck, you'd simply wait until an enemy got close enough to one of the containers, then shoot the container until it blew up and killed your enemy.  The problem with these fuel containers is that they look surprisingly similar to these floating cylinders scattered around the lake near my house to warn about depth or something.  Every time I drive by them, I want to shoot at them, not because any of my "enemies" are nearby, but simply because I like blowing things up (in video games). 

The final example (for now) is from the game Borderlands, which included a lot of swarming animals and bugs that liked to attack you indiscriminately.  Early on, I would do my best to avoid these creatures because they were more trouble than they were worth, but as I got better I would kill things at random almost out of spite for previous attacks.  I'd see a flock of flying bird-like animals and just shoot them all down for the heck of it.  It turns out that compulsion followed me into real life, where I routinely see birds circling overhead and have a strong desire to shoot them out of the sky. 

In conclusion, don't turn off that check valve. #entertainment