A game is a piece of interactive media where there is both an objective and a condition for failure. That's it. Without one of those, it's not a game. Period. Just to give some examples of what is/isn't a game: Flappy Bird: game. Stanley Parable: not a game. Antichamber: game. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: game Kerbal Space Program: not a game (as of now. In the future there'll be a game attached/made) Minecraft Survival Mode: game Minecraft Creative Mode: not a game. Animal Crossing: not a game. Mario Bros: game. Clear? Win/Lose = Game, no Win/Lose = not a game. However, everything I listed is still interactive media.
So how would you define an interactive media that isn't a game? Or would all interactive media be considered a game? My above comment simply used the classic definitions of the words: Video = on a screen. Game = Win/Lose. "Game" would work whether it is a video game, an audio game, a board game, a physical/sport game, etc. If you define something like stanley parable as a game, then by definition, shouldn't a haunted house be a game? It's essentially the same thing. You walk through an environment that is already created with no objective other than to walk through it and look at the environment. Sims is literally just a life simulator. Remove the "video" part and you literally get real life. You are working from a group of things that are classically called a "video game" and then attempting to define video game by using the titles that you've already determined to be as such. I think the big "argued" genres of interactive media are: Simulations/Sandboxes (kerbal space program, sims, minecraft-classic, etc). Visual Novels and Interactive Stories (Heavy Rain, Clannad, Katawa Shoujo, etc). Simulations make you want to say they are games, because they look and feel like them. However, you have to consider simulations that don't look like games as well. What separates the "game" ones from the "non game" ones? To provide a clear definition, a line needs to be drawn somewhere. Otherwise it's just subjective babbling. Unless you are saying something like nasa's solar system simulator is a game? What about farming simulator and goat simulator? are those games? What separates the sims or animal crossing from them? For visual novels and interactive stories, are they games? Stanley parable is essentially an interactive story with free motion/control. This particular genre actually stemmed from CYOA books (flip to page X). Are those books "games"? Why or why not? Ace Attorney falls under this genre as well, even though there's a bit more interaction. This is why I put the dividing line at Win/Lose conditions. Remove the "video" part and see whether or not it'd still be a game. If yes, then it's a game. If no, then it's not a game.
I find it interesting that you say Animal Crossing doesn't have a win/lose state. Does creating your own criteria for win and loss mean that it isn't a game? For instance right now my goal is getting all of the Zelda items that exist in AC, clothing and all. I also find it interesting you say Minecraft's creative mode is not a game. It is still "playing" in a sense, as you would with legos or something similar.
You can make mini/micro games to play within animal crossing, but animal crossing itself is not a game. Legos arent' a game either. They are a toy/tool. You can make games to play with lego or mine craft creative, but they in themselves are not games. In Animal Crossing, there's a timer item. It basically just creates a "game end" situation. You can then use this timer to create various games (tag, fishing competition, etc). And on the new one, there's an island with a variety of games you can play. Minecraft is a game as a whole, because it has a win/lose. The win case is to go to the 'end' and defeat the dragon. The lose case is simply dying. Hardcore mode would be the closest match to a "game". Survival has unlimited lives which somewhat reduces/removes the lose condition. Creative mode also removes the win condition, making it an interactive virtual sandbox. That said, interactive media can easily be turned into a game, by adding "home" rules. Just like games can be made with just people (and nothing else). Tag is a game. But a group of people is not a game. If we just had "interactive" as the criteria, you could argue anything is a game. Buying food would be a game. And that's simply silly. A game is something with an objective and a way of failing to achieve that objective. The objective (win case) could be "get X amount of money" and the lose case being "die". In that case, you have turned life into a game. Inherently it's not a game. There's no win condition and no lose condition. But you can artificially add them. So when I classified the above as game/not game, I was going off the default included rules. Anything could easily be turned into a game, and any game could lose it's "game" status, by changing what you consider winning/losing. I could say: "seeing the game over screen in 100 games is my win condition" and "seeing a single credits screen" is my lose condition. Then I have made a game of playing games. But with no win/lose, you aren't playing a game. It's simply a toy or a piece of art.