A complex
In case you still have some people around you that make a fuss about the bad influence of "killer games" (as they are called in the German speaking world), consider this (as written in a beautiful essay on game architecture that is totally worth your time to read, but I digress):
Professional Counter-Strike players […] have been known to turn off the graphics entirely because it is “distracting,” leaving only the most minimal in-game representation of walls and floors. In their mind, the surface textures on a game level might be likened to a tennis court with a neon strobe-light floor […]. That narrative skin doesn’t matter because that’s not how the residents of de_dust understand their home.
Not exactly news to me, but it proves that I'm right: good players will see past the metaphors that are painted over the game mechanics. They see the innermost workings of the games, the little cogs and wheels that click into each other – and with that knowledge, they will beat the game.
First person shooters are, in the end, not so different from chess. A complex ballet of action and reaction, of knowing when to go and when to stop. An exercise in spatial awareness.
Those people that are still fascinated by the shiny pixels, the hyperrealistic dirt splattered over nondescript ruins are likely not very good players at all – and mostly too young to play those games anyway.
