I'd argue that architecture is design. Sculpture is the art counterpart of that, perhaps? First, you need to figure out what art is. Then you need to figure out what games are. They both overlap in areas. Does it matter? No. Does it rile the internet masses up into talking about it on discussion boards, getting overly…
I think what keeps Ebert (and others with a similar opinion) from seeing the potential for games to be art is that he's thinking about them in terms of media he's more familiar with. Ebert is a film critic. He's used to seeing things in terms of people crafting a viewer experience through character development, narrative…