[quote=Dipper]
Please forgive my lack of coherence. 25 hours since I last slept, and I won't be able to sleep for 11 more hours. Don't be an asshole.I am interested in what you have to say, but "lol you guys think games are art" is something I hear constantly. Forgive me for being sick of that.That's two questions, math obviously isn't your strong suit I see, but fear not, I'll answer both.I want video games to be considered art so that the government won't be able to regulate it. The industry would have more freedom, and thusly be able to create higher quality games.Let me ask you two questions. Why do you want video games to not be considered art? What does the industry have to loose from it being considered an artform?
[/quote]

I'm not going to be able to convince you of anything, so I'm going to give you a suggestion. You might wind up agreeing with me.

Film and video games are actually very similar with regard to this art thing. The vast majority of both are not art. There is a niche market for artistic products in each.

I posit that video games as artwork would be similar to film as artwork. Art house video games, if you will. You seem to be under the impression that video games as art is an all or nothing deal, which it's not. Not all movies are art films, not all books are literature, and no matter how badly you want it, Mass Effect will never be labeled as art because art is not a label you can slap on to something. I could try to explain why this is and what makes art what it is, but that would take a very long time and I would be restating something that's been explained elsewhere by more eloquent and informed people. If you want a detailed analysis of this, Roger Ebert, Hideo Kojima, Michael Samyn, Aureia Harvey, and others have spoken and written about the issues of video games as art in great detail. I suggest reading them.

Back to the suggestion, art house video games will have certain definable traits, likely similar to art house films. 

So watch The Tree of Life. Watch Melancholia. Watch Punch-Drunk Love and a dozen Werner Herzog films and then come back here and tell me that you want a video experience similar to those films. I guarantee that if video games were predominantly artistic you wouldn't be playing video games. 

"But Sable, artistic video games won't necessarily be like that."

Bullshit, I'd reply, because every single person in this thread can name an art house video game made by one Zoe fucking Quinn. Yeah, Depression Quest is art. Shitty art. Christ-upside-down-in-a-jar-of-piss level art, but it's an art house video game and it fucking blows. 

As for more freedoms for the industry, you're pulling that out of your misinformed ass. As far as you understand it, I think, film is considered art and yet still heavily regulated through the law. Video games will be no different. 

TL;DR: Video games are a medium for artistic expression, but the closer you get to video games being artwork the worse, less popular, and less marketable they'll get, because no one wants to play Melancholia: The Video Game. I'll take my popcorn entertainment Grand Theft Auto V over that shit any day if the week, because it is popcorn entertainment, and that's not a bad thing. It might just be the best part about video games.