I roleplay in every game I play that it is really possible to roleplay in. I completely create my own character, much the way an author of a book does. This character seems to take on it's own life, and often, I will do something, purely for roleplaying, that I wouldn't have chosen to do. I think this is relevant to your question because it depends, who am I being in the videogame? Most of my characters end up being gallant fighters or kind hearted in some way or another. Thus, they would never do anything like that. However, some of my characters are more evil, and would do evil deeds, even when I, myself, would rather not, unless there is a reason not to, as long as there were no impercussions for anyone, then I would have my character do evil deeds.
I wouldn't kill anyone in real life though. I can't think of anybody that I would kill, even if I was given a gun, them chained to a wall, and amnesty for the murder. I simply don't find enjoyment in causing people pain. Now, certain videogames, for example, Halo 2, make you kill people. Those people are unrealistic, and there is no way they could be even closeto real, so I don't care about them.
I used to think like this: Violent videogames are not the cause of violence, they are an outlet for violence. Something that occurred recently in my life has slightly changed my mind.
My little brother is about 11 and a half years old. He plays the most violent games he can find, and he enjoys for example, Mortal Kombat 5 and 6 with the blood turned to maximum. He likes Legacy of Kain:Blood Omen 2. He likes anything disturbingly violent and bloody, inclding any horror movie he has ever seen. I finally talked him into discussing why he doesn't like George Bush, (neither do I, but I have a reason) since his usual response is, "I'm not gonna tell you, jerk." Well, he answered, "He started the war with Afganistan and Iraq over the terrorism. Why didn''t he just bomb them all?" I was horrified. I don't know if he likes bloody things because of his bloodthirstyness, of if the bloody things cause his bloodthirstyness. Either way, it has at least subtly affected my views on videogames.
I really can't answer this question properly, since I don't know what my answer is. While we should try to uphold out morals whenever possible, what if we are roleplaying a character with different morals, or playing a FPS like Halo? There is no clean cut answer.
Btw, I brought up a similar topic in Oblvion General a few months ago. Mine was about the moral implications of "killing" the new RAI. A random picture prize to whoever can tell what the reaction is.
