Are video games art?

Are video games art?  

It's something that's been rattling about in my head for a while now.  In order to figure it out though, I suppose that I would first have to figure out what is art? It's one of those things that you kind of take for granted; knowing what art is. But in pinning it down I found the definition hard to come by for such a vague concept.   

After trying Yahoo (1 - 10 of 5,420,000,000 for what is art?) and Google (Results 1 - 10 of about 195,000,000 for what is art?) I completely gave up on writing this article.  I mean, fuck that, I'm not sorting through nearly two hundred million search results, let alone five billion - or worse yet, talking to an Art major, who would probably take even longer to sum it up - to find a good answer to "what is art?"   However after taking some time to gather myself and decide that I don't need to write thesis on art I just need a good enough answer to the subject I went to the site that triumphs "good enough" answers.  Wikipedia.  

"Art is the process or product of deliberately and creatively arranging elements in a way that appeals to the sense or emotions."  (From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art)  

Booya, good enough.  Thanks, wiki.  

I would add one little bit to defining a genre of art, that I've noticed.  What makes one thing art never seems to translate into other mediums. Such as, a verbal description of a song does not hold the weight of the song itself, nor would a painting of a book convey the depth of the written story, and so on.  While the derivatives of the original art may be art themselves, they are not so for the same reason.   

Now, as I sit here with a list the size of my arm of games which neither appeal to the sense or emotions, I find that I could probably forever site examples of video games that are not art. They are everywhere.  But should those disqualify them all as art? I mean I could easily point out movies, songs, or writing that one would hardly triumph as examples of art in their respective mediums.   But that doesn't disqualify them as a whole.   

So I decided to go through as many games as I could remember playing over the years that I liked the most. My long term memory being what it is (Thanks, Internet!), I found myself with only a few, recently played gems in the bunch. Fewer still that I'll mention because I feel these exemplify their field.

BioShock  

Almost as long as video games have been made there have been people who have used them as a story telling medium. The best example of this I can think of is the 2007 game, BioShock. Its a steam punk style, 1960's level of technology, where you find yourself in an Ayn Rand Objectivism inspired underwater failed utopia called Rapture (does that sentence make any sense?). Forced to fight off the insane inhabitants of the city, make morally gut wrenching decisions, while trying to find out what your true purpose is there, in a rich, lush story.    

It's the only time that I can remember finding myself so engrossed in the plot twists and back-story of a game that it became a discussion point with my friends. Comparing notes to parts that made us jump out of our seats or audibly cuss out our TV's/monitors because of the characters in the story at certain plot points.    

All in all a very emotional story line but Bioshock is also one where the story telling elements are so intertwined in the gameplay itself, that they can not be separated.  What made BioShock great would not work if you were not in control of the main character.     

Auditorium  

Auditorium is next on my list.  It's quite simply a game of light and sound.  Vastly different than BioShock, it's more of a game of beauty rather than substance. Part of a growing genre of "casual games" that lets you pick it up where ever you are and play it for a few minutes to a few hours. At your leisure. There's no story, no characters, no mutant nut jobs in SCUBA suits trying to hunt you down; just a beam of light, musical boxes, and the tools needed to manipulate the light.  Designed to stimulate the senses and relieve emotional tension rather than build it.   

Simple and elegant.   But is it art?  

I would not advise anyone to pick up and play through 40 hours of content to experience Bioshock, but I would urge you to try out Auditorium for yourself and let me know what you think.  Its a web based Flash game you can find here (http://www.playauditorium.com/) made by the people at Cipher Prime.   

I don't list these as proof that video games are art.  I don't think what is and what isn't art can be decided upon by a single person.  I'm not even entirely convinced myself of their artistic merit.  It may even be that the answer is so subjective that the question can never be definitely put to rest.   

What do you think?