Robot

Robots are awesome. They are also one of the most common video game protagonists and enemies.

The author suggests the following:

Ethical Destruction


Robots are a common video game enemy because they are all cold, heartless machinery bent on human (player) destruction. It is assumed that any robot opening fire should be prepared for termination, and getting the jump on an unsuspecting robot is perfectly reasonable, even if stealth is an option. Ergo, a violent act perpetrated on a robot is not objectionable in the eyes of most people, especially parents of young children.

So, there. That's why we have robots and other automata as destructible agents. We can get away with selling that to a kid. Mega Man seems pretty black and white, good guys, bad guys, no one really gets hurt. Just moving metal and electronics, right?

Fear
We know the risks. Computers can calculate data in massive quantities. Eventually, they'll do it faster than we can. Their brains will operate beyond our level.

But we try anyway.

Mega Man X starts its intro off with a tech sheet and a warning. Thirty years of testing and X awakens to a world at war. Suddenly there's all kinds of viruses and double crosses and some shadowy Sigma guy keeps coming up and... where was I? The Mega Man X franchise attempts to look at what might happen when the robots start to take over. It starts off well and eventually stumbles thematically, but there's usually a decent action platformer underneath.