Let's start with a simple syllogism. Premise one: Art is any human creation that expresses ideas, emotions, or a worldview through a crafted medium. Premise two: Video games are human creations that use visual design, narrative, music, and interactive systems to express ideas and emotions. Conclusion: Video games fit the definition. You can't say a painting is art because it evokes feeling and a game like Journey or Shadow of the Colossus isn't, just because you can move a character. The medium doesn't disqualify the message. If a film is art because of its composition and story, a game is art because of those things plus its mechanics as a form of expression.

Look, I get where Exvinity138 is coming from. I used to think the same way — video games were just toys, right? But then I played a game called "What Remains of Edith Finch." It tells a family's tragic history through interactive vignettes. The way you experience each death — as a child imagining a fantasy, as a worker in a cannery — isn't just gameplay. It's a designed emotional journey. You can't separate the message from the mechanics. That's what makes it art. Exvinity says games are just entertainment products. But so are symphonies and novels, if you reduce them that way. The question is whether they can express something meaningful. I'd argue they can, and often do. A game's rules can make you feel powerlessness or joy in ways linear media can't. If we accept that films and comics are art — both commercial mediums — there's no logical reason to exclude games. The medium is different, not lesser.

Let's establish some common ground first. I agree that not every video game is art, just like not every movie or painting is art. Nobody's arguing that Candy Crush is on the same level as the Sistine Chapel. But here's where you lose me, Exvinity. You're saying games can't be art because they're made for profit or entertainment. That's a non sequitur. Shakespeare wrote plays for paying audiences. Mozart wrote symphonies for royal patrons. Commercial intent doesn't strip something of artistic merit. The real distinction you're missing is intentionality. When a team creates a game like Disco Elysium, they're making deliberate choices about color palettes, dialogue pacing, and gameplay mechanics to express a philosophical worldview. That's no different from a filmmaker choosing a tracking shot or a poet selecting a meter. You're stuck on the "game" part of video game. But the medium is just the container. The content inside — the expression, the themes, the emotional impact — that's what makes it art.