[Galaga Bee]

Well, as I've said before, you can either look at it as being a way to "increase" the violence in the game, or as being a way to "decrease" the violence in the game (by not choosing it as an option). Either way though, I've never been a big fan of "scaling" the violence in any game (such as "turning off the blood effects", for example).

It takes away from the immersion if you are able to alter the graphical effects according to your own squeamishness (what a great word - "squeamishness"). Not only does it use up valuable resources by creating multiple visual effects for the same action, but it also takes away from the realism. If I shoot somebody in the head from 5 feet away with a .45 calibre pistol, his head should explode. Likewise, if I punch somebody in the gut just barely when they're on their last legs, their head *shouldn't* explode.

I suppose you can debate whether or not Fallout is meant to be ultra-violent (IMO, yes, but within reason), but that's a different topic. Regardless of what it's "meant" to be though, IMO the developers should create one game, with one system of graphical effects, and if it's too violent (or not violent enough) for too many people, then the developers haven't done their jobs. Sure, there's always going to be people who aren't satisfied if the game doesn't meet every single one of their expectations exactly, but I definitely think that it's possible to create a game which finds a delicate balance between violence and non-violence.

As an add-on to this discussion, I think that historically speaking, the "bloody-mess" option was mostly just a way for the developers to dodge criticism at the time because of the level of violence in the game. It allowed the developers to say that people were being given alternatives to decide just how much violence they wanted to experience, thereby giving them the excuse to make it more violent, so long as people can opt out. Video games have become much more violent since then (just take a look at games like "Condemned" or "Doom 3", which owe a lot to the Fallout series for desensitizing people), and while Fallout 1 and 2 were pushing the envelope for violence when they were released, much of it seems relatively tame by today's standards (although some of it is still fairly extreme, which is a testament to the game's longevity). Given the kind of controversies today surrounding other games like GTA, I think that as long as there's no pornography, Bethesda should be able to get away with making the game with as much or as little violence as they want without including some sort of "violence slider" to appease their critics.

Edited:
What, no suggestions of your own?