Also, not all video games are about action! I'm thinking first off here of a lovely gem named Spiritfarer, which is a combination time management game and platformer. (It's supposed to be an easy platformer, but it's only easy to people reasonably good at platformers). Spiritfarer is entirely about relationships, establishing who characters are through their associated quests and activities. It would almost certainly have won major awards if it hadn't been released the same year as Hades, which blew everything else out of the water.

The Nebula Awards, presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (formerly Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) has a category for game writing that is typically won by a video game, although it's also open to tabletop RPGs and interactive fiction.

The first Hugo for Video Games was awarded as a special award at Discon III in 2021. It should be ratified as a main category at Chengdu WorldCon in 2023...I can't imagine it won't be and if it isn't, likely somebody will try again in a few years). It was won by Hades, which was widely accepted as one of the best video games ever.

I think part of the issue is the disparaging "play video games all day" as a way of saying "don't care to get a job." We don't just disparage the creators of video games but also their consumers...

But yes, video games are art, and they come in a wide variety of formats.

Another good game was Kentucky Route Zero, which also suffered from not being Hades (2020 was a particularly good year), which is a creepy, Gothic visual novel.

The 2021 game writing Nebula was won by a tabletop RPG (rare, but everyone got their projects out in 2020 and 2021 was a light year). But I'd still like to highlight the wonderful Wildermyth from that year, with it's comic book style art.

Video games. I can't play a lot of them because of my dyspraxia (I did struggle through Hades to the first ending). But I will never, ever say they are not art.