Wow, you managed to rile up the jerk in a lot of people.
It's an interesting idea, but I don't think it would work. Three reasons.
1) Gore and Gratuity are used to sell a game, but only as a way of expressing violence. Ban gore, and they will just fall back on plain old violence. Censorship tends to have out of whack priorities. Shoot a civilians for giggles, without showing the consequences, fine. Shoot a zombie and show blood, bad. Shoot a hooker, its only bad if she accidentally shows some tits. Ban gore, and developers will just look for ways to sneak gore in. Be ahead of the pack, even if the pack is set back very far. It will be a distraction from making a good game.
2) Violence is easy to use in a video game. It makes it very obvious where the obstacle is, and what you must do to said obstacle. So we start to associate violence with childish power fantasies. The thing is, many of the most beautiful, high-art games out there addresses violence in some way. Where would Silent Hill be if it didn't show things that made censors uncomfortable? Could The Path exist in a form even remotely resembling what it is without making a few people uncomfortable, and interpret some disturbing things? Whats interpreted as gratuity is overused, but it is still a necessary tool in a devs toolbox. And when a developer starts thinking that its high time they start addressing issues like sexuality, you don't want them looking at censorship, and giving up on there magnum opus for fear of it getting shut down by some parents group.
3) Censorship is bad. I realize that your just looking for a silver lining, but I don't think the support for that idea is there. Innovation will come from including more ideas, not removing old ones.
