what is a video game

[Zomber_Jesus]

I blame the Swedes, personally. 

I think the best frame for thinking about games is that while books and movies aspire to "show, don't tell", games have the option to "do, don't show".  In other words, the added layer of interpretative value is there because games have interactive mechanics, the details of which communicate things other mediums are incapable of. Jon Blow is a good example of this - both the rewinding in Braid and the lines in The Witness aren't just a means to winning. They have symbolic depth that you get to experience by acting in their constraints.