Well, as long as art is about creating emotion then I suppose video games will win the debate, I suppose when my dog chews up my cell phone I can frame that on the wall as well.
A lot of things create emotion, what really counts is how you interpret that experience. One perspective on modern art has the interplay between the art and the viewer as being the most important aspect of that art. Modern art isn’t worried about realistic representation, beauty or even symbolic representation, it accepts that each experience can be personal and unique. I’m not sure that Halo falls into that kind of experience.
It might be better to think of video games as thoughtful examples of emotional design. I’ve seen games like Dear Esther create a very different experience that is less about emotion and more about creating a unique experience. Perhaps that is an example of the start but for most video games the art debate is still wide open as far as I’m concerned.
Outgrown Games 