Games are art, IMHO.
Why are we even discussing if games are art or aren't? Or if we need games to be considered art by "critics" or other people who aren't gamers?
We love our art...and that's all that matters.
Art captures something and makes it matter, really making us feel or think about something - whether its a story, graphics, characters, a world, game design, level design, the music, or whatever the case may be.
Games do it different than most mediums - b/c we can actually interact with the story, game, or perform actions. Movies don't normally have this aspect at all. Books can let the person's imagination go wild, picturing whatever the writer has provided for details or the reader can fill in some blanks if the writer hasn't provided certain elements (purposely or not).
Some games, they look like gorgeous moving paintings. Some games, they're art b/c they look like moving comic books. Some games - they have these huge, detailed beautiful open-worlds to explore. Some games, they push graphics in such a technical manner, we are simply amazed at how far technical quality has came.
Some games, have insanely good writing like Planescape: Torment and their quality of writing is artful in itself. Some games like Bioshock Infinite, make us look and think about its subject matter, such as racism and violence.
