For comparison, I was playing the N64. :P

Depends on the mindset of the person playing and how the content is presented.

Games are fiction and fiction's point is to let people take brief glimpses into other lives. When the game is not immediately distinguishable from real life there's a problem. Just like other forms of entertainment, where that line is depends on the person involved. Children and mentally disabled people are the most obvious groups that have trouble with this, but all adults simply have different tolerances.

I think there's a realism event horizon after which the game is not immediately distinguishable as fiction for some people, and including murder/rape/etc in games after that point isn't OK. There's also the overwhelmingly problematic view of rape and abuse in many cultures that makes portraying or encouraging those actions in a game much less acceptable IMO.

TL;DR It depends on how the content is presented and how the person playing interprets it. Different people will have opposite reactions to the same content, which is why we need options to manage the level of possibly objectionable content in games.

Have you asked yourself why ?

Surely, in real life, you value a human's life even higher than an animal's life (like, wouldn't redirect a rolling boulder towards a family of humans in order to save a family of dogs, but might do the opposite). So, what reverses this hierarchy in video games ?

It's not a rhetorical question, I do not even say that it is wrong or hypocritical. I'm just trying to pinpoint the factors that lead to this.

i know that old console, i dont remeber the exact date so i had to Googlge for it

Nintendo 64 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64
The North American version of the Nintendo 64 officially launched on September 29, 1996. It was launched with just two games in the United States, Pilotwings 64 and Super Mario 64.

.. but i assumed it would be somewhere in the late nineties.
I have seen a gamegear , gameboys from the kids but not an N64, i have seen N64 some relatives had back then.
I started with atari 2600, c64, amiga500 , amiga CD32 and lateron PC.
But back then the times were better and less crisis like now...that euro has done all of us in a bad way.

same here, and i haven asked myself why, cause i will never do it , if needed i would try to coverit up with some clotes or sheets, or a bag or whatever, and lock it up and throw away the key... with luck if it might escape changes are very very small it would hunt me down for the rest of my life, as for human lifeforms, they have thoughts , other then animals have, and they will get you if they can so you have to get them first.
Some will seek you for the rest of their lives, with animals its more instinct: if you manage to get a way chances are very small the animal will keep looking for you and get you after decades, but humans will.

Just because animals can't defend themself if they are assaulted by human beings, even if they are big, heavy and full of claws. But I can (and I have to) make exceptions to explore the "gameplay" of a game (dogs in Red Alert for example).

Most often, humans can't defend themselves either (that's why serial killers and terrorists have it easy). And, in games, gratuitous human killing and gratuitous animal killing present usually the same ease or difficulty...

"Humans" are not only over-weaponized military grunts.

I'm not sure it is one.

No in terms of morality. The only time it is considered wrong for me is if it means a failed mission and having to restart or reload.

Huge difference between a "murder" in a video game and a murder in real life.

No, but it makes me feel a little lousy sometimes. I even gave myself a trope, "The Author is a Bastard."

To the OP, no but if it makes you feel wrong then you may as well not.

Also what about the people to whom you deny existence by not booting the game they feature in, or that you eradicate en masse by quitting - or worse, uninstalling ?

Yes it is wrong to kill in a videogame.

I couldn't resist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvPR0upXoXg

That reminds me, do you have a larger version of that avatar! :D

wrong or right, it doesnt stop people from killing in video games or real life