How much longer until videogames are accepted as an art form or beneficial to society?

[jboking]

Are you a hardcore gamer? Really get into games and look for those cult games?

Yes, I would say I am, and have in fact played and own the entire MGS series, plus quite a lot of cult hits (I own Portal. I like Portal. But it's not like God came down, shat out a game, and that game was Portal. Portal's good, clean fun, but not the most amazing entry into the game industry.)

The problem is, it isn't us hardcore gamers that need to be changed. It needs to be the casual gamers and the media who view games as toys or as murder simulators.

And of course, the hardcore market is COMPLETELY innocent of making video games appear to be less than an art, right? It was nice to see you not even address what my post was about. That's always good. The point is, their view of video games is beside the point as soon as you assign a definitive definition to a the term 'art', as you did.

By your definition I already used an example of a game that could be considered 'art.'

It's also nice to see that you haven't bothered to address my point that no one here is trying to call playing a video game an art, but rather making a video game an art. Developers as the artists. The fact is, developers do make works of fiction that have the ability to effect people emotionally. That does not mean all video games will be art, simply that video games can be art.