Art In Videogames

Definitions of art on the Web:

• the products of human creativity; works of art collectively; "an art exhibition"; "a fine collection of art"
• the creation of beautiful or significant things; "art does not need to be innovative to be good"; "I was never any good at art"; "he said that architecture is the art of wasting space beautifully"
• a superior skill that you can learn by study and practice and observation; "the art of conversation"; "it's quite an art"

This is a post I have wanted to write for quite some time, and with the recent announcment that development on Beyond Good and Evil 2 is on hold, I thought this would be an appropriate time as any. So to get down to the topic I feel like videogames can be in art in the same way that film and music are. Now thats not saying that every game that comes out is art, the vast majority are not, but a select few definetly are. I would count Shadow of the Colossus as art, but definetly not Wii Sports, even though I enjoyed both of them. This definition is highly comparabale to movies as The Godfther is obviouly art, but Transformers 2 is clearly not. Now if you asked me what the distinction is, one would quickly respond one is good and the other is not. However I beleive that is wrong. I personally think that art has to have a message and meaning. A product can be fun and well developed, but that doesn't automatically make it art. The game has to be able to leave an impression on the player that goes beyond just the basic gameplay mechanics. It has to be able to impact a greater meaning that is compleatly relevent outside of the context of the game. I hope this makes sence and I hope to hearing your opinions on the topic.