I'm getting really sick of a bunch of pretentious asses trying to definitively tell me what IS and ISN'T art as if there were some kind of objectively absolute standard for determining such a thing. Listen you idiots--if I make something and say it's art, and other people buy or view it (or whatever) and they say it's art, then guess what? IT'S ART, and it doesn't matter what anybody else says. That. Is. The. Whole. Damn. Point. Really, you can argue that modern art (for example) isn't art at all, but I'm afraid that'll leave you having to deal with a whole bloody lot of museums the very existence of which disagrees with you. There are honestly more kinds of art than can be found in a museum in any case. The building of fine furniture is an art. Architecture is an art. Both these activities have very strict guidelines and rules governing their performance, they have specific desired outcomes, but they're art on top of that none the less.

Honestly, if YOU don't think it's art, then don't bother treating it like art. If somebody else thinks it is, there's bloody well nothing you can say that will make it not so. Just deal with it and get on with life. Reason I'm so (obviously) riled up about the matter is that, being an old time gamer, it seems to me the reason about 99% of the stuff coming out of the industry these days is utter crap--including stuff from major designers--is that they don't treat it as an art. And I miss good games :(

I'll conclude by saying this: I have played games that I considered to be true works of art in their construction and their presentation. Fallout I/II serve as perfect examples of this. There was just something undeniably artistic about the presentation of those games. So don't tell me games aren't art.