This is addressed to everyone who feels that now games can't be censored anymore: the game in question still has to be deemed artistic. Really, I can't even think of a game out now that would be deemed "for the public good". (Unless we really do need to call upon the plumbers of the world to save us from an alien/Hell attack on our Mars base that invaded from outer space, and these plumbers all had skill trees, attribute points, and gun-swords).
Video games aren't art in the sense that society understands it now, with the idea being that art is expression which elicits an emotional response. And, let's face it, they can't be. Games can't necessarily be an expression from someone (directors, authors, sculptors, painters, photographers) because video game companies can't hand you a finished product. Every game is a blank canvas or a jumbled picture, waiting for a gamer to either create or solve. (Sorry, FPSer's; of all genres, yours is the one I see the farthest from ever being deemed culturally important since they're all essentially "Mow down hordes of aliens/demons/nazis/arabs to get from here to there".) In that way, the gamer's themselves become the artist, and whatever sort of emotional reaction they have to the game is what they bring to the table.
You could argue that this is simply a new form of art, and you wouldn't necessarily be wrong. The whole idea of postmodernism was that the finished artwork was less important than the actions taken to create said work. But, let's face it, our actions in video games aren't weighted in our personal struggles or emotional experiences; it's about doing what's fun. And that's ok with me, because games should be exactly what they're called: games. Stop trying to make them what they're not because you think people will take gamers more seriously. Games shouldn't be taken seriously, they should be taken as a GAME.
TL;DR: Games may be eligible to be deemed artistic, but I doubt they will be.
PS: I, personally, wasn't sad when Aeris died. As with all JRPGs, I was glad it was one more annoying voice I didn't have to listen to.
