Most 3 important aspects of a game?

[Sepho]

- Fun.

That's it, really.

Yeah, I agree with this. I don't spend a whole lot of time analyzing what makes a game fun, and if I did, I'd probably find that it's relative to the game. If it's fun, hand me a controller.

[Aphelion]

Music, Storyline:Story and Hours of Play.

Music: There's no good game to me without good music. Seriously. You can't possibly think of playing a game listening to a random techno tune in a completely ankward scene (like the death of a main character, for example).

Storyline:Story: I think the atmosphere set by the game has more to do with the music (at least to me), and not from the storyline itself, so I'm picking this one. Anyway, without a tolerable (at least) story, the game will just be...nothing. There's simply NO game without story. Even FFI had a tolerable story, but if there's a game that can't even apply a standard set in the 8-bit era or any of the recent choices of game developers or anyone involved with the production, the game doesn't even deserve to reach the store shelves.

Hours of Play: This "play time" I'm talking about probably applies more to RPGs, because it's kind of hard for an action game to be long...What I mean is, other genres are "straightforward", while RPG have many "breaks of pace": you're walking down some ruins, then you see a powerful monster and barely survive, so you decide to go back and train until you get 10 more levels for your characters...You can't just proceed like you're ready for everything, if you know what I mean...
But anyway: there's no excellent RPG with less than 30 hours. There simply isn't. I'm yet to see an involving plot with well-developed characters last less than 30 hours. Seriously. If a game can't even maintain its story and character development going even for 10 hours of talking and 20 for battling, this game probably is, plain and simple, a bad game. Its gameplay can even be astounding and brilliant: if a RPG can't keep enough hours of play so the player can at least get to know the characters he's using, it is a bad game.

Sorry for the long post.

[Discord]

Talking about the "fun" as a voting option. All of these are the indicators of fun, so it wouldn't make much sense putting 15 options in one

[Lindy]

Different games have different things that make them fun, so you can't define three things under that category.

I wouldn't go looking for story in a Space Shooter, I'd be looking for good controls, a good scoring system and difficulty level.

But if I was playing an RPG, I'd look for story, characters and a good battle system, it wouldn't be a very fun RPG if it was based on what made Space Shooters fun.

It's all relative.

[Discord]

I'd disagree. For me, storyline is a priority in every game. Even spaceshooters need a good story or they get boring after a short time. Multiplayer is a must in almost every genre, since good games are fun when you make them social too. So I really think that you can get some main points out of it.

[Sepho]

I gotta tell ya, I think the story is probably about the least important factor in the shooter genre (talking about sidescrollers here, not those fancy FPS) as a whole. They're games designed to provide fast paced fun, not envelope the user in a storytelling experience.

[Lionx]

Agreed with Timmie, Metal Slug is an awesome game with mediocore story, yet its challenge it provides is extremely good, and thats whats matter.

[UWAOOOOU]

- Fun.

That's it, really.

[Discord]

Woha, not true. There's quite a number of Shooters with a reasonable story. Just look at Operation Flashpoint or Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Surely, there are some games that are good and don't have a story at all, but don't get too picky about it

[Lionx]

Yes they do have good story, however they would still be great games without it, and no one really goes for them thinking OMG GREAT STORY! Its all about living and that headshot.

[Discord]

Maybe. Its often hard to tell if a game got a good story before you actually buy. I think that for Flashpoint story was one of the main pushers, especially in the Resistance addon.

[DJZen]

For me it's gameplay and nothing else. Want a good story? Read a book. Want eye candy? Watch a tech demo. Want to hear some good music? Here's an idea, listen to some music. I prefer Warlords to many of the games that come out these days. I'd gladly take a game with tight control and crap everything else than yet another game with an overdrawn story, pretty graphics, full orchestral soundtrack, celebrity voice acting, 50 hours of FMV and a cherry on top with piss poor control. I'm sorry, but what separates video games from everything else is the way you interact with them. If that suffers, the immersive experience just isn't there. What's the point of making a game if you're not going to make it fun to play?

[Lionx]

You mean Xenosaga? xD I treat it more as an interactive Anime though and i liked it.

[SomethingBig]

Why the bloomin' hell isn't gameplay on that list? Controls, Story, Hours

[Meat Puppet]

graphics
music
good loading screen

why would you need anything else