Either death is avoided through the game lore: Pokemon, Splatoon, Lego games, RPGs where enemies disappear in puffs of smoke rather than leaving a dismembered corpse lying around. Or there's Resident Evil, Sekiro, Doom and the like where the enemy is a fantastic monster for which there would be no real life corollary.
That's an interesting question tho ..I'll try to put it in context..
It's pretty inarguable to say that killing has always been the primary activity in gaming .. I killed my fair share of aliens playing Space Invaders as a kid in the early eighties for sure. A lot of human activities, especially sports, are simulations of combat but safer and less harmful to the loser.. One of the positives of living in civilised society. We play games in part to satisfy these base urges and that's totally cool but, like I said, there's a separation between games/fantasies and real life.. Just like a fight in a movie is cool and exciting but is definitely not cool or exciting IRL.
What I went on to propose was that I believe everyone has some degree of separation between real and virtual violence but where you are on that scale is variable according to your personality and life experiences. So, virtually killing an innocent animal absolutely is inconsequential but, especially given improvements in graphical representation over the years, it's too close to what would be a cruel real life act for my comfort.
Ahhh I dunno .. I may be a huge hypocrite between what I say and play (Ring Fit, Jotun, Civ 6, MK8 online atm.. you decide). Last time I can remember playing what I'd call a realistic simulation of violence was GTAIV 10 odd years ago.. I was so rubbish at that game I'd even obey the highway code stopping at traffic lights and the like!.. Needless to say I don't think I played for more than a couple of hours before realising it wasn't for me even though I played the shit out of Vice City in the day.
