I really didn't get Shakespeare until I saw it performed. His plays are plays for a reason, after all. That's enough (for me) to blow away the "requires authorial control" theory: no two performances are the same.
Or any book: everybody reads it and has a different mental image of what's going on. (How many people read Dune and saw it as Lynch did?) In a book, you're given fixed words and given free reign on the visual and auditory axes. In a game, you're given fixed audiovisuals and given free reign on plot. I don't see how one could be inherently artistic, and the other not. Only a movie reviewer (where virtually everything is fixed) could claim that lack of viewer participation is the defining attribute of art.
Or any book: everybody reads it and has a different mental image of what's going on. (How many people read Dune and saw it as Lynch did?) In a book, you're given fixed words and given free reign on the visual and auditory axes. In a game, you're given fixed audiovisuals and given free reign on plot. I don't see how one could be inherently artistic, and the other not. Only a movie reviewer (where virtually everything is fixed) could claim that lack of viewer participation is the defining attribute of art.