Look, I get why people hesitate to call video games art. They're interactive, they're commercial, and yeah, a lot of them are just mindless fun. But that doesn't disqualify them. Painting can be commercial too. Movies are definitely commercial. The key is intent and expression. A game like Journey or Shadow of the Colossus deliberately uses visuals, music, and gameplay to make you feel something specific — loneliness, wonder, loss. That's what art does. It communicates an experience. Just because you push buttons to move through it doesn't make it less valid. Interactivity is just another tool for storytelling. If a painting can make you feel awe, and a film can make you cry, why can't a game make you reflect on your own choices? They're not better or worse than traditional art. They're just a different medium. And that medium absolutely qualifies.

Look, you're making a false distinction here. You say games are "engineered experiences" but so is every single film ever made. Movies have directors, writers, cinematographers, editors — that's a committee too. Does that make The Godfather not art? Of course not. And this idea that art needs a "singular voice" is just gatekeeping. Games like Disco Elysium or Kentucky Route Zero absolutely have singular visions. The fact that they let you interact doesn't erase the artist's intent — it amplifies it. You're choosing to experience their world on your terms, but the emotion, the themes, the message — that's all crafted by human beings trying to say something real. Your toaster analogy falls apart too. A toaster doesn't make you cry about mortality. A toaster doesn't make you question your ethics. Games do that all the time. You're confusing "has rules" with "isn't art." Chess has rules. Still an art form to some. Games are just the next step.

Let me hit you with a stat: The Museum of Modern Art has officially added 40 video games to its permanent collection. That's MoMA — not some basement gaming convention. They don't put toasters in there. You keep saying games change meaning based on the player, but that's actually what makes them MORE artistic, not less. A painting sits there. A film plays the same every time. But a game? It adapts to you. That's not chaos, that's a conversation between the artist's vision and your experience. And about your Sims example — so what if some games are silly? Not every painting is the Mona Lisa. We don't disqualify all films because Adam Sandler movies exist. A medium can have trash and still be legitimate. The fact that games can make you feel anything at all — guilt, joy, sorrow — proves they're art.