1. Content: Mini games, a fleshed out story, character development, post-game content...etc I want my money's worth, even if the story is amazing, games in Australia are expensive and I'm not paying $60 - $80+ for a game that's >15 long (I'm looking at you bioshock infinite). I'll wait for the price drop.

2. Characters: Even if the story falls short, memorable characters are what makes a game worth playing. The game can have an amazing world and plot but if you don't care about the characters, it lessens the impact and overall fun of the game. Characters are crucial to a games popularity, people love characters you can relate to, sympathize with or laugh with. Once you have great characters that's when the fan-art, fanfics, forum discussions all take place, amping the popularity as more people learn about it and add to the fan base, for example Persona 3&4, Disgaea, FF, KH, Fire emblem..etc

3. Gameplay: If the gameplay is terrible, what's the point of playing? Gameplay is a crucial part of a game because if the story is cliche and the characters are lame but the gameplay is super fun, that'll be enough to motivate most players into finishing the game at least. For example Pokemon, Yokai watch, harvest moon, advance wars...etc games like these generally have kind of cliche story, 1-dimensional characters but the gameplay is so addictive, you get hooked.

3. Story/plot: I don't even need to explain this one.