Question of the Day: Is windows solitaire a video game?

Stephen Totilo raises the question after having a friendly argument:

If someone claims to have not played video games since they were a kid — BUT this person has played solitaire on their computer recently — then, are they, in fact, wrong? I say they have played video games lately. The person on the other side of the argument tells me that computer solitaire doesn’t count as a video game.

I'm against Totilo on this one.  Sure as commenter Jake points out, computer solitaire does add a timer and scoring and such, but I think in its essence it is still a card game.  I'd qualify online poker and electronic Settlers of Catan as card and board games respectively rather than video games.  Chess against an AI I might consider a video game regardless of whether it was a physical or an electronic board.

The question is really what dividing lines are useful.  I do think the term video game has some meaning other than just a game on a computer/console.  The hard/casual gamer divide is overrated in my book, but I think there's a useful cultural line to be drawn between native games and clear unintigrated transplants.  Can there be hybrids?  Sure, although absent a critical mass of "Bridge plus" designers/players I'd probably just qualify the hybrids as occupying both camps.