Back in 1996, before the Grand Theft Auto era, I read an article of an interview with the game designers of the 'Command & Conquer' Real-time Strategy video game in PC Gamer Magazine.
When asked why they decided to make the followers of NOD (the bad guys) an army of MASKED THUGS they responded, "We found that players did not enjoy seeing their human characters die & had a negative reaction to killing other human enemies. What we found out was that if we put masks on the enemy, it dehumanizes them & makes it much easier for a player to kill them like they would a monster in another game."
I remember that article clearly to this day.🤔
Heh... look around.😒