After seeing the impressive trailer for Journey I realized some development studios use gaming media as a platform where gameplay is secondary to artistic expression.

Being in the design industry myself I feel this is an extremely interesting and significant development since video game platforms allow its users to immerse themselves in the creative visions of the artists.

In one way or another, games like Flower, Ico, Osmos or Heavy Rain (from a narrative point of view) all bring interactive art to the living room in a rather novel way.

What other games do we know focus more on an artistic vision rather than cliche gameplay mechanisms ("collect 'em all!" etc.) or graphic prowess?

another "games/art" discussion.....*groan*.....

So I take it you don't like art, or do you just feel uncomfortable talking about it?

Limbo is one, it does have a few good puzzle elements to it but it is overall a short game that seems to focus on the dark art style with some gruesome deaths; though due to it being a side-scroller with a minimalistic art style it isn't all that gruesome.

I've always adored games in the style of Ico and Flower.

The Path, The Graveyard and Small Worlds are other great examples of this.
Artistic video games can honestly be incredible and beautiful when well handled. The concept of interactive and immersive art forms is just scratching the surface, and I'd like to see it develop.

Not many mainstream games approach this level of artistic depth, with maybe some like Shadow of the Colossus, Heavy Rain or even Okami being exceptions. It creates too many misconceptions that video games can only function as entertainment and a time killer, when the media is so broad and can branch off into so many radical directions. We're finally seeing people use it as a narrative form in recent years, and some indie games like Braid pushing the artistic aspect of the medium, but it's not enough.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

For me, anything can be art.

Art is the embodiment of your imagination. It's like you're taking what's in your head, and share it to everyone in a creative way, no matter the form. It can be a drawing, a painting, a musical composition, a movie, a scuplture from a potato, a construction made from junk... It can also be a video game!

And to those who says that "Video games aren't art because they are violent", then consider this. I'm sure there are violent paintings and, it's official, violent movies exist. I'm also sure people wrote poetry that involves war and killing! So I consider that violent video games aren't exception. I can consider all of them as art, because it involves an embodiement of an imagination!

Games are an orgy of art. Music. Story. Visual. Sometimes even gameplay falls into it more than ever: Ico is the first that comes to mmind.

What does the actual game play have to be to be considered art?

These aspects which you named (art, music, story, visuals) - they don't really relate specifically to video games. Game play is the only thing that fully relates to games.

If a game can be considered art solely because of its soundtrack, visuals and style, what's the supporting argument to the claim that the said game couldn't just as well been a movie or a play or a book etc?

You're right. Even with those combined elements of music, story and visuals, without the gameplay, there is nothing to separate videogames from animation.

What makes video games unique as an art form is definitely playable aspect. It's how well it can pull you INTO the world the music, story and visuals create that causes a game to stand out. The ability to make you a part of that world, to create an emotional attachment between your avatar and yourself, and to let your actions control the end result are all techniques totally unique to the interactivity.

The strength of gameplay as an art form comes from how well it ties into the other elements and immerses you.

That is exactly what I mean! Video games as an art form are a compelling platform because they're interactive and often give you reasons to immerse yourself or surrender to the creative vision of the artist.

It's hard to articulate, but a lot of it has to do with motivation. Games give the artist a mechanism to hold the user's hand and provide reasons to look beyond the face-value appearance of the artwork.

The orchestration of music, visuals and narrative are all part of it, but it's the interaction that makes the difference.