To me, the art of carving chess pieces is quite separate from the art of inventing a game such as chess.

With most "big" games, I get the feeling a story is being pushed on me that I would completely reject in its own right -- if it wasn't for the skinner box like game elements, that are like the sugar that makes the motor oil go down. And when the story is good, it would be just as good or better as a short story or novel.

I'd say industrial design is an art, it certainly it can be pursued as one. But the art is the process of designing, the resulting screwdriver or toaster is a tool. Architecture is art, the result is a place, a home, but not a piece of art. Admittedly, I can't even fully define my own subjective notion of art, but that's roughly what I think. I mean, I think painting is an art, and the result is also art, but I don't think that about buildings or cars. Making music can be an art and the result can be art, but it also can be a crime and the result an atrocity. Anyway..

Likewise, game design is an art, but the result is a game. It's a game at best, at worst it's like a ride through something as convincing as a creationist theme park. Yeah, there's free ice cream maybe, and some of the displays are very well made, and sometimes I can pick which attraction to go to next, where I'm welcomed with beaming smiles -- but I know why that is, because someone is trying to sneak something in with all that.