Motion Blur in First-Person Games

Over the many years, I've been playing video games, and more specifically first-person video games, I've noticed a certain aspect that is in many games that I can't quite seem to understand the purpose of. If you haven't noticed from the title, I'm talking about motion blur of course. 

Motion blur is the apparent streaking of rapidly moving objects in a still image or sequence of images. It results when the image being recorded changes during the recording of a single exposure, either due to rapid movement or long exposure. Think of it as when you're turning the camera around rapidly or the camera focuses on a gun in the player's hands. 

The problem I have with motion blur is that it creates a sense of blindness in some cases in video games. Even in racing games with an over the car view, it seems like everything around is blurred and not properly textured. Whenever I want to look around in-game to enjoy the scenery or I'm in the middle of a fire fight, the sudden camera movement causes motion blur that I find disorienting. Whenever I'm given the option to turn it off, I always turn it off.

The only reason I could see is using them for PR footage since it looks more cinematic when viewed as a trailer or machinima. But during normal gameplay, what is the purpose? Our eyes already account for the effects. Motion blur simply blurs the screen excessively to the point of annoyance. Depth of field on the other hand chooses for the player where to focus. Why would I want that loss of freedom? Our eyes naturally blur whatever we're not focusing on. Say it's a first-person shooter and I look at my gun, my eye naturally blurs the background, and vice versa. If the game is forcing the peripheral to be blurred and I want to glance over to the side of my screen to spot an enemy without moving, I am instead shown a blurrier image. I can't imagine a scenario I would ever want this. Games aren't still images or movies where we need to be shown where to focus, so why do game developers keep including these useless features?

I think this is part of the overall emphasis on post processing effects the last 5 years or so, the large majority of which make the game look or play worse. Light bloom is another culprit but at least when done minimally it can add to the imagery and realism. I must admit though, I can't think of a time this was ever the case. For the most part, post processing effects simply serve to make the image look blurrier. If game developers focus on the core tenants of textures, models, and lighting, and use the post processing for subtle improvements, I think we'd be better off.

What do any of you guys think? Do any of you enjoy the use of motion blur, or does it just give you a headache like it does to me. Also, if any of you know any uses of motion blur that were used well, please comment about them below. I would like to know from anyone. Until next time.