The author is sarcastic, but actually quite right. We don't have many games that actually explore violence, give it a deeper meaning or use it as a rhetorical device (like GTA V did superficially with the torture scene). There are many games with a violent shell, but it's actually about scoring points. Killing an enemy in an FPS gives me the same kind of satisfaction as solving lines in Tetris. The last time I played…
Most likely because the average person doesn't want to explore violence that way. I love some FPS games, but not because they are violent. I like how fast-paced and strategic they are. The same goes for movies. Most people will watch movies with some violence, but movies like Saw don't have mainstream appeal.
Sounds like something an Indie game could achieve. But even in mainstream titles, I think violence could be explored, as long as it's not the main theme. Many TV shows lately have violent scenes that go beyond mindless splatter. I think the torturing scene in GTA V went into the right direction, but it's just not there yet. In TV shows, such devices are usually used for character development, to mark major plot changes or to emphasize the setting the show plays in. Those scenes revolve around who, how, where when and why in regard to violence. And I would love to see that applied to games as well.