Deciding what's outside the bounds of propriety and good taste is a matter of taking into account a few factors. First, the audience must be considered. Video games are, first and foremost, entertainment. People don't generally come to them for enlightenment, or social commentary, or critical thought. Obviously, there is nothing keeping games from those concepts, but by and large the reason most people pick up a game is because they want interactive entertainment.

Depending on the story the game holds, there is room for rumination of some form or another. The Final Fantasy series of games typically take a high-level philosophical approach to issues of existence, racial and cultural diversity, and the use and abuse of power. The Grand Theft Auto series has proven adept at exploring the complex web of relationships between operators in the criminal underground. Some might say that it's for these story elements that players come to these titles, outside of their actual gameplay.

Second, the age of the audience should be considered. An ESRB rating on the outside of the box will give a very cursory idea of who should be allowed to play the game contained inside, but it can't encompass the entirety of the content. In general, though, there are pretty well-defined rules concerning appropriate content, delineated by age.

Third, the actual purpose of inclusion must be discussed. It shouldn't be the case that controversial content is put into a game for its own sake; ideally, there is some redeeming value to making that content available. There is nothing wrong with wrapping a game around the critical exploration of a particular concept, but it should be clear from the outset that that is the purpose of the game, and not just a titillating bullet point to draw in the jaded and curious.

Given all of that, there are very few games that actually contain content that might be considered taboo. For better or worse, simple violence just isn't enough on its own to warrant warnings, though it once was. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that video games have, over the years, slowly pushed the boundaries of what's acceptable to show in a game. As graphical power and sophistication have increased, so has the realism of presentation, to the point where it's possible to simulate some pretty graphic and even gruesome scenes. But in general, on its own, violent content just isn't as fearsome as it once was.

What, then, is?