Should Video Games Be Considered Art?

With the recent shift in video-games, all moving towards a more cinematic experience, one must wonder, are video-games a art-form? That all depends on your personal definition of art. I personally define art as, a well formed, moving idea. Although some would disagree with me, what I may consider art, someone else may consider a slab of mud. So within my personal confines of a art-form, then yes, Video-Games are Art. They may never reach the level of renown of say, a painting by Michelangelo, but millions of nerd across the world have cried, gasped in shock and awe, and reveled in good and evil deeds alike. Perhaps the user of said art medium, is more the interpreter of if it is art or not. Yet have we limited the creative tables so much, that anything beyond the confines of the accepted mediums, cannot possibly art?

The question, I think, is more one of possible limits. Do we limit our interpretations of art and it's various mediums, by only the established, or more by an open spectrum of pieces that move us. I don't find The Mona Lisa, at all moving. Staring at it for hours on end would do no more for me to change this, than staring at boiling water. But I do find my characters dying in my video-games moving, gut-wrenching even. Yet these are not time tested classics. They've been made 10-20 years prior, at the most. They will gather no real value. Time does not add to their preciousness. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Despite the obvious nostalgia you'll get from playing a arcade game from the 80's. When comparing it to the "Photo-realistic" graphical prowess of today, they are ugly, bland and unappealing. Why then is there a debate at all, you may ask, and my answer is one simple word, Recognition.

To be recognized, and given the legitimacy of your chosen form of expression, is perhaps one of the greatest honors one can get. For video-games to be recognized as art, would mean that they are no longer confined to " Nerds" and "Social Outcasts". We would go from being scrutinized for out lack of social efforts, to being understood, as struggling art junkies, which in my opinion, isn't too much better. But it, perhaps, would lend some understanding, as to why these "toys" are so interesting.

To close, maybe the video-game industry should strive less to be "art" and more to be itself. An industry that empowers young people to be creative, think outside of their chosen box, and learn more. To solve problems using their brain-power, and too let their imagination, not their surroundings, be their limits.