I think is a matter of personal opinion, for me video games are not art. Video Games must be fun to play thats their most basic function only then they can be an expresion and transmit feelings but first they must be fun.

Art on the other hand can be anything and is not chained by the "fun" function.

I challenge anyone to play Okami and contend that it is not art.

Irrelevant question. Art and Video Games are both concepts that are too broad to be defined universally. Any discussion on the topic is semantics.

My sisters babys cousins aunt clara lee said Grape soda is better than Xbox do you agree?

Merriam Webster's definition of art:  

"Something that is created with imagination and skill and that is beautiful or that expresses important ideas or feelings".

Yes, I think games can certainly fall under that category.  There are unquestionably artistic elements in many games, but even the programming finesse that goes into the gameplay can be viewed as artistic.

Now, tell your GF to call her professor a stupid-head.

If anything about art is known it is that anything is art. Anything. ANYTHING. A.....N.....Y.....T.....H.....I......N......G

So yeah, video games are art.

Kojima agrees with me:

Kojima said: "Art is the stuff you find in the museum, whether it be a painting or a statue. What I'm doing, what videogame creators are doing, is running the museum - how do we light up things, where do we place things, how do we sell tickets?

Kojima went on to say that "Art is something that radiates the artist," arguing that "If 100 people walk by and a single person is captivated by whatever that piece radiates, it's art.

"But videogames aren't trying to capture one person. A videogame should make sure that all 100 people that play that game should enjoy the service provided by that videogame. It's something of a service. It's not art. But I guess the way of providing service with that videogame is an artistic style, a form of art."

Kojima went on to discuss the nature of interactivity, using the example of concept cars. "You don't have to be able to drive a car, but if it's called a car and it has artistic elements in the visuals, then it's art.

"But an actual car, like a videogame, is interactive, so it's something used by people, so it's like a car where you have to drive it. There are 100 people driving a car; they have 100 ways of driving it and using it. It could be families driving the car. It could be a couple driving a car. The owner of the car could be driving along the coastline or they could go up into the mountains, so this car has to be able to be driven by all 100 of these people, so in that sense, it's totally not art."

That art teacher should return their degree to where ever the hell they got it. Art is a form of expression just like any movie or book or painting. Deciding how the controls work and what choices to make.

Games offer a dimension of art that Movies could never dream of. In a movie you are following one pre-determined path through a story, but in a game you can take many, and see how those choices affect the game.

In a way an artist can express more of themselves through video games than a simple painting or movie. Lets say a game developer wants to communicate the harm that guns can pose in the streets, so the player in this game would have a choice of fighting in gun violence or becoming the criminal destroying the city with guns. In the first choice maybe he stops the guns, but at great cost to himself. In the second choice he becomes a gang kingpin and the world becomes covered in gun crimes.

Ask her if she has ever heard of Graphic Arts. Then ask why they have the word arts in it. Lmao.

If...

Art may be considered an exploration of the human condition; that is, what it is to be human.

So imho for me if a game uses innovative techniques and an innovative artistic design in a unique story that expresses the human condition, then I say it's art.

IMHO Some Final Fantasy games have done this, Ni No Kuni has done this in some areas, Red Dead Redemption has done this in some areas, Bayonetta has done this in some areas.

The story for me has to express some human condition issues and effect you. The artistic game design has to be a hybrid of hand drawn art and have some originality/creativity and draw you in on some level to hold your attention or simply be breathtakingly beautiful. It should make you take notice, and give you something to think about/question in the world. And hopefully it teaches/communicates to the subject something of value in a fun/interesting/exciting way. That's my view on art.

My art teacher said he considers games to be works of art, so there!

Edit: Also since video games contain other established art forms within them, (narrative, music and video) I cannot see why they would not be art based on that alone.