A good story full of unexpected twists
Interesting characters that grow as the game progresses
A world that is extremely original and mind blowing (like Spira)
Beautiful soundtrack
Fun and enjoyable gameplay
And good graphics (they don't have to be great, they just have to not offend my eyes)
When we dance, it looks just like Fire.
When we sing, it sounds the same tone.
I'm going to distill it down to just one major element. Although the experience as a whole that is created by every element of a game coming together is essentially what's going to make the game good or great, I'm going to throw the inclusion of meaningful choices out there as the most important single aspect for me.
Now meaningful choice can take any number of forms. It could be as simple as choosing between different routes in a single player FPS (and yes, despite their modern linearity they still have multiple paths through sections much of the time, at least in the good ones), deciding which class to play to most help your team in TF2, which spells to teach a character or party composition in an RPG, or whether you're going to rush or expand, or when to scout and what to do with the info you get from it in Starcraft. The choices don't even necessarily have to be something that you sit and ponder over like you'd find in dialog options in games like Fallout 3 or Mass Effect. They can be fast and require split second decision making, just as long as they have the potential to dramatically affect what happens in the game and your experience playing through it.
There are other factors that can come into play as well, often working in concert with choices though, like the challenge level of the game. Choices become less meaningful if there's less challenge because the consequences of choosing one thing over another are lessened.
Now this isn't to say that graphics, art style, sound, music, story, and characters aren't important but without the ability to make meaningful choices I not only feel less engaged and immersed because I feel interaction is key to immersion, but I start to feel like I might as well be watching a movie instead of playing a game.
BOOM nailed it in one! If gaming isn't fun then why bother!Originally Posted by Jessweeee♪
Dunno.
I really only get into JRPGs and some hack and slash stuff, and an mmo on the side. Hack and slash is pretty easy to keep fun, and the day they screw the ones I play up, then I'll laugh at their stupidity. As for rpgs, just get a great musician and awesome storyline matched with believable fun characters and an entertaining world and your set. Keep the battle system not too complex and don't waste so much time on graphics that any of the more important elements get forgotten. With an online game I usually chose them with my real life friends, so the social side is always set up before hand, but to make them enjoyable I like them challenging and worth striving for something. A great guild system is needed. PVP optional but never forced and classes that actually stand out far and wide from the others and each having a very high needed desire for raids.
I think what makes a game good is it's production crew. People who have a vision and want to convey it through a video game. They need a good director and writers just like if they were making a top selling movie. The best games are always created this way.
For example, the Final Fantasy series and it's interesting events leading to some convoluted story. Uncharted 2 as well and its crazy camera work making a movie-like game. Shadow of the Colossus with it's smurfing beautiful world. Kingdom Hearts for bringing classic disney movies to life. Final Fantasy 7, 8 or 9 and their interesting direction with their environment's art style. Also, Chrono Trigger with its interesting time travel storyline. These games all captivate the audience with their unique concepts and artistic perspective.
Games are like the next level of storytelling and the technology for it is only getting better.
Gameplay above all.
If the gameplay is bad, it doesn't matter how well everything else has been made. Gameplay can make or break a game just like that, since it's what makes a game "fun to play". And yes, "exploration" goes into the gameplay category too.
Characters are probably the second most important thing for me. Characters > story. This is what made titles such as Star Ocean 4 fail horribly. In Tales of Vesperia ( which is awesome simply because of its excellent characters and gameplay ) I had trouble picking a party, because I liked too many of the characters. In SO4, the characters were so awful I had a hard time picking because I didn't want to use anyone.
Super Robot Taisen og Saga is a title that honestly has very few things going for it beyond gameplay and characters. Yet I absolutely love it, simply because of the gameplay and characters. These two things are what makes a game fun to play in my eyes.
Story and music comes in after that, building up tension and creating atmospheres. But even if one of these two are lacking, I can still enjoy a game if the gameplay and characters are good enough.
I can't even come close to answering this question because of the different genres I play; what makes Gran Turismo 5 a great game has nothing to do with what makes White Knight Chronicles a great game.
The least generic and most interesting thing in here so far was Vivi22's explanation of meaningful choices.
What makes a game good (to me) is when I enjoy it.
As for what makes me enjoy a game, there's just so many different answers to that question, and there's no way I can come up with a universal rule to what makes a game enjoyable.
For example, an RPG like Bahamut Lagoon with a really deep story, lots of customization with teams and dragons, and a really strong emotion inducing soundtrack is really enjoyable to me.
Yet, a platforming game like New Super Mario Bros. Wii has none of those things (the soundtrack is still enjoyable, but it doesn't evoke emotion remotely close to the level of Bahamut Lagoon), yet I still enjoy it for totally different reasons, like really awesome multiplayer, all the different co-op tricks that can be pulled off (synchronized ground pounds, using players as jump springs, etc.), classic nostalgic Mario gameplay, and memories of playing that game with friends and family (especially all the ridiculous deaths and mess-ups in co-op).
And in rare cases, there are games that are just either insanely glitchy and unfair or plain awful (like Van TT or Quad Desery Fury). Yet I enjoy those games because I don't immediately dismiss them for their questionable quality. Though the game's quality is bad, there are usually some things I find amusing about those games that make me keep playing them (like Van TT's death scenes, the track's "shortcuts", Quad Desery Fury's wipeout animation, etc).
A decent challenge and a decent story that gives me a purpose to endure said challenge are really the most important fun factors in a game for me.
I like Kung-Fu.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
