The classic counterargument is that game design (or, more broadly, interaction design) is the art medium, not the game. The game is the result. A basketball pl

The classic counterargument is that game design (or, more broadly, interaction design) is the art medium, not the game. The game is the result. A basketball player might not be an artist, but the person who created the idea of basketball could be called one, under this premise. Now, most computer games are way more complicated than basketball due to what their platform allows, but the argument remains that the rules of interaction and the responses of the game to player's actions are designed to provoke some specific response, or even used contemplatively, even if you were to change what actual medium those responses were in (for example, text-based dungeon crawlers versus something more visual like For the King).