Okay Mr. Theater major we get it, you're upset. About what though, we're not really sure. Perhaps instead of indulging yourself in your somewhat creative tangent, (or whatever the heck that was that took up most of your post) you could look outside of the creative box for once. Art is a vague and subjective term, as is the saying "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". Games can technically be called an art form because it's a creative medium. People can take it as a major in college. It's already a work of art because it's creating something using a medium. In this case, an interactive world is created through the use of binary code and technological replication (or Virtual Reality if you will).
What many people (mostly politicians and old-school "artsy" hipsters like the OP) fail to realize is that games were always an art form ever since their creation because they seamlessly marry traditional art (scenery painting, character designs, textures etc.) with computers (binary code, virtual reality, network simulations etc.) If you don't believe me, go and play a game, even the old school ones. They all needed a team of programers and artists to make this reality that we take for granted everyday possible. Games also incorporate the art of writing and story-telling, acting or theater, and music as well.
Now with all of those "art" related fields incorporated into your average game, how the hell can you claim that games are not art? Is it because of the violence? Well, wake up and smell the coffee, violence has been involved in theater since ancient times. Cavemen often depicted violence in their cave drawings. Music was slow to violence, but some pieces had a rather barbaric rhythm and nature to them, and movies don't seem to be entertaining at all unless there's violence in it. Literature has always contained violence as well, heck even the Bible has violence in it. Therefore, violence is just a part of our culture, our nature, and the world around us. We couldn't get rid of violence if we tried. So if you're trying to claim that violence is what holds games back from being an art form then you really need to get off your soap box and do some research.
