What matters most to you in a game?

[Alucard von Elru]

Gameplay. A game generally needs excellent gameplay to be considered worthwhile by me. If its play mechanics are fun and impressive, and I can keep coming back for more, and it doesn't feel like a chore to play, it's at the very least an above average game on this merit alone.

Placing in an important second are things like storyline/storytelling, sound design, visual/artistic design, and the overall atmosphere that these various aspects work to achieve. I consider all of these aspects to be of equal importance. A game's storyline can be interesting, but it can be told in abhorrent ways. A game's storyline can be almost perfect, but horrible voice acting/music placement can drag the overall production down. Visual style is also important. Notice how I use the word "style". It's nice to have a game that is ahead of its time technologically, but in the end it is most often the games with incredible style whose visuals end up aging well. I remember character/environmental designs, and the overall cohesion of the design, for far longer than the buzzwords advertising companies slap on the product.

[KentaRawr!]

Bah, graphics are just for advertisement in most cases. Unless something unique is done that affects how I perceive the game, then it's not too important to me.

It depends on the game for everything else.

[The Unknown Guru]

Story, story, story, story, story. I barely give a damn about the gameplay as long as the story is deep, philosophical, long, and epic.

[darkchrono]

Where would many of you rank Xenogears?

A game that has a storyline that pretty much blows 99% of other rpg's away but gameplay that is rather lackluster.

[Ichimonji]

Gameplay. Story isn't important at all in a videogame as long as it's fun. One exception being the Ace Attorney series. But yeah, story is a neat bonus, but gameplay is most important, imo.

[darkchrono]

I feel story is most important.

If a game doesn't have a good story all you're doing is running around with a bunch of stiffs who you couldn't give a hoot or a holler about.


Where as if a game has a good story but poor to average gameplay I feel it is much easier to direct your attention totally to the story than it is to direct your attention totally to the gameplay (if a game has a poor story).

[Rostum]

I feel story is most important.

If a game doesn't have a good story all you're doing is running around with a bunch of stiffs who you couldn't give a hoot or a holler about.


Where as if a game has a good story but poor to average gameplay I feel it is much easier to direct your attention totally to the story than it is to direct your attention totally to the gameplay (if a game has a poor story).

Yeah but video games doesn't just consist of the RPG genre.

(For example, take an RTS, as long as the game play is good no one could give a stuff about the story)

[Skyblade]

I rank story and gameplay as about even. If both of those are tops, the game is awesome. If one of those is bad, the game is bad. A game with a great story and terrible gameplay won't interest me long. Similarly a game with great gameplay and poor story will lose my interest as well. A game mediocre in both departments will be better than one that is awesome in one aspect and pathetic in the other.

Graphics are utterly unimportant. Some of the greatest games ever made have graphics that wouldn't warrant a mention in today's gaming industry.

[darkchrono]

I rank story and gameplay as about even. If both of those are tops, the game is awesome. If one of those is bad, the game is bad. A game with a great story and terrible gameplay won't interest me long. Similarly a game with great gameplay and poor story will lose my interest as well. A game mediocre in both departments will be better than one that is awesome in one aspect and pathetic in the other.

Graphics are utterly unimportant. Some of the greatest games ever made have graphics that wouldn't warrant a mention in today's gaming industry.

Yes but I think you are exagerating things abit. Many of the 'poor graphic' games you are talking about are probably older games (and at the time they were released their graphics were considered decent to good.

If a game released today had the graphics of a ff7 then it would most definitely affect the enjoyment of the game (and it would show a lack of effort on the producers parts by not using some of the resources that they most likely had available to them).

Now before anybody comes back by saying you didn't play ff7 until 2006 (and the graphics still didn't matter to me). I'd just like to add that it is easier to forgive the poor graphics on an older game because you know it is an older game.