What do you actually ENJOY about games and why?

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There's a lot of doom and gloom on these forums lately, along the lines of 'I hate this game, this game is overrated, this series has become stale and uninteresting, background politics...' Gaming is about enjoying yourself at the end of the day in the same way any kind of entertainment is, so let's have a positive thread. Just say right here what kinds of games you enjoy playing and why.

No shaming, no finger-pointing, no name-calling (no matter WHAT it is they like to play)... Just nice, casual discussion about why we enjoy the games we do.



Me? I'm a big indie fan. I love playing little fast retro flowy games like Dustforce, Super Meat Boy and House of Dead Ninjas. I love that ultra-fast twitch reflex kind of gameplay, especially if the mechanics are smooth and polished. Really gets my head working and getting in that zen state of mind is fun.

I love random generation in my games above all else, no matter how 'samey' the detail in the landscapes can be. I just find exploring a randomly generated environment very soothing, mysterious, lonely and intoxicating, even if it's just a series of grey rolling hills littered with little enemies.

I love a well crafted, otherwordly environment with the air buzzing with fractured radio signals, sad airy synths and moments of utter silence.

I love a well directed and unique aesthetic. Shadow of the Colossus has affected my own art a lot over the years. Any kind of minimalist aesthetic also seems to strike a chord with me.

I've also found recently that I get very hooked by implicit game design. I picked up Mirrormoon EP on Steam and I'm enjoying it so much. It's utterly mysterious and pretty dense at parts, but that is why I adore it. Same goes for Swords & Sworcery.

I'm also a fan of dungeon crawlers, as long as they're challenging enough. Playing games like Diablo 2 and Torchlight 2 with my buddies are some of my best gaming memories. Same goes for Minecraft. I think I just love that feeling of being part of a team in a big, dangerous world where everything wants to kill you.


Those are some of the reasons I enjoy gaming and game design, written at 2 in the morning by a slightly intoxicated Australian man. I'd be very interested to hear why you enjoy this particular form of entertainment too, probably for entirely different reasons to my own.

Cheers.

 

[Tom_green_day]

Good gameplay. There's a reason I love Borderlands 2, Mass Effect 3 and The Saboteur and at least one of them is a mish-mash of 2 other series (the latter).
Also a nice world is nice if it's properly open, Skyrim to me will always have the best ever game world. I like open worlds when they're actually open, not just Assassin's Creeds city and then countryside but nothing really there to do. Or Proto/Infamous where it's just a boring old city.

 

[Pink Gregory]

You are more likely leapt on for praising something, rather than condemning something. It's a shame, really.

I just like looking at things and hearing things and doing things.

 

[veloper]

You are more likely leapt on for praising something, rather than condemning something. It's a shame, really.

It could just be that the odds are against fans, because of Sturgeon's Law: ninety percent of everything is crap.

For the sake of staying informative, we could implement another rule: the negative piece about the game is also crap, unless there's also good recommendation for something else to play instead.

OT: what makes a good game is a very broad question. I like stupid fast action like Super Meatboy, but also slow tactical games like XCOM (the original and the new) and I also like puzzle adventures like Primordia. I even love to hate RPGs. All the games I like can be challenging, but the different challenges are incomparible and not all challenges are fun (fighting the controls usually sucks).

 

[Racecarlock]

Imagine someone handing you a baseball bat and leading you into a room full of pottery. Then saying "You can break as much as you want and you'll get points". Now I know both sandbox games and top down plane-based bullet hell shooters have slightly more challenge than that, but still.

Also, when I couldn't drive, they handed me some keys and said "SPEED LIKE YOUR BLOOD IS MADE OF RACING FUEL". And I did and it was fun and I fell in love.

 

[veloper]

You are more likely leapt on for praising something, rather than condemning something. It's a shame, really.

It could just be that the odds are against fans, because of Sturgeon's Law: ninety percent of everything is crap.

For the sake of staying informative, we could implement another rule: the negative piece about the game is also crap, unless there's also good recommendation for something else to play instead.

OT: what makes a good game is a very broad question. I like stupid fast action like Super Meatboy, but also slow tactical games like XCOM (the original and the new) and I also like puzzle adventures like Primordia. I even love to hate RPGs. All the games I like can be challenging, but the different challenges are incomparible and not all challenges are fun (fighting the controls usually sucks).

technically the question is "what do you enjoy about games, and why," not "what makes a good game." FYI

The answer is still much the same (because enjoy good games): I enjoy very different things about games, from challenging fast action, to slow thinking man's games and there's little these games have in common.

 

[krazykidd]

Story and challenge. Especially if they go hand in hand. Dark souls is a good example. Story ( or lore) wize it's all doom and gloom against all odds, the gameplay reflects that. I want me be pushed to my limits. Feel like i am acheiving something everytime i'm gettin closer to my goal. Especially if the goal is saving the world

 

[Pink Gregory]

You are more likely leapt on for praising something, rather than condemning something. It's a shame, really.

It could just be that the odds are against fans, because of Sturgeon's Law: ninety percent of everything is crap.

I like to think that it's a different 90% for each individual

 

[Saelune]

Character creation. I like making my own people to play as. Also enjoy open world games where I can just mess around, and deep worlds that I can get into. And yes, The Elder Scrolls is my favorite game series .

A good story though can work wonders on me. I love the FEAR series...for the story though mostly.

 

[duwenbasden]

I greatly enjoy games where the gameplay is not limited by the plot, sort of "Yeah here's the story, you can probably follow it, but no rush." There is no other media that let you do that.

Also, cool companions are also good. I like to track the wasteland with my Deathclaw, or terrorise Skyrim with J'Zargo.

So, games that let me create additional stuff and make my own story. "The dragonhorn, slayer of Alduin, champion of the Empire, fell down a 5 foot ledge and died."

 

[piinyouri]

Fun. It could be crazy good, super polished extremely well balanced gameplay.
It could be having a great story or characters.
And it could just be making my own characters and stories.

Also character creation.
I.....I have a problem. (Glances at 25+ characters on Borderlands 2)

 

[Sarah Kerrigan]

I like the escapism, the ability to be someone else for a little while, projecting yourself as said character and bascally leaving the real world for awhile.

 

[Legion]

It depends on the kind of game.

I love strategy games because they fulfil my slight OCD tendencies (I make such pretty bases).

RPG's allow me to immerse myself in interesting worlds and are the only games I ever really look at as "fantasies".

Shooters are great fun for the rush in multiplayer games when you get into tense fights. The elation you feel when you completely wipe the floor against a decent team is often worth the frustration of when you repeatedly get your ass kicked.

Then I enjoy games such as Minecraft that allow me to flex my creative side, and I also had a great social circle when I played online.

Games such as The Walking Dead and The Last of Us are the kind I enjoy as they get me emotionally involved.

 

[Matthewmagic]

Ya know I am a big survival horror guy. Yeah the industry isn't giving me a whole lot of love anymore but I'm replaying silent hill 3 right now for the same reason this thread was started. It was like I forgot why I chose this hobby.

I'm also a big old classic JRPG fan, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 8 and prior, and Earthbound. As well as Western RPGs like Skyrim, I have the witcher 2 but I haven't started playing yet.

I also love experimental games Like; Mirrors Edge or The stanley parable.

 

[Drake the Dragonheart]

Good question OP.
As for me, I would say part of it is the escapism, I.E. doing things I can't do in real life, things like wield magic/psionics/mystical/inhuman/supernatural abilities or swing a pair of great swords or fight monsters, etc.

I will admit I can be a bit of a meglomaniac in a game. If you give me a skill tree, I want to max it out. I enjoy playing characters as powerful as the game will let me be. For me it's how many enemies can I mow down with a single spell or use of a skill or attack. I know that sounds like a lack of challenge and for most just mowing down waves loses interest after a while, I don't know maybe something is wrong with me there. I like having everytool at my disposal, and few things give me greater pleasure than being able to one-shot a super powerful enemy with a first/low level skill
I am the same way with RTS's. I pretty much try to overrun the enemy with a crap-ton of everything.

That said, I appreciate good story and gameplay. I enjoy playing with friends although I haven't been able to do it as much lately.

 

[COMaestro]

I just like the chance to escape the real world for a little while and immerse myself in a different world. That's why I tend to like games that have a story to them, especially as I have gotten older and my tastes have matured. I don't really care that much about competitive multiplayer, though co-op is very enjoyable. I don't really care about sports or racing games, as I find them too repetitive after a short while, plus there's no real story to them. Otherwise, I've played and enjoyed pretty much every other genre that I have played.

 

[Something Amyss]

I like fun and/or relaxation. Both are kind of subjective, and sometimes even possibly at odds. For example, I can find high difficulty fun in the right context, but it's not a very relaxing experience. Some games can give me both. I like games where what you get out can be varied. I can relax in most sandboxes or I can go completely balls to the wall. Sort of similar with music games. Rock Band and Rocksmith can be both for me.