What makes a game good?

[countkillalot]

Let me have a go at this ...


Gameplay (definition: The collective experience of playing a game): Broken down to two parts:

Enviroment: A consistent art-direction with working together with audio (music,ambiance and FX) and script (dialogue and voice-acting) to trigger the (what i personnally have found to be) the key element of immersion

System: A small well-balanced (personnally prefer asymmetric) set of rules that make sure the player always feels they are being treated fairly (even if that is not the case)

and last but not least: POLISH .. nothing can ruin an otherwise decent game than a lack of QA.

It's hard to make a bad game with these in mind

/ $0.02 :]

 

[Kelbear]

Polish.

Whatever the games chooses to present, whatever innovation or lack of innovation they bring, it MUST be polished.

Halo 3 didn't bring much new to the table, but everything it brought was done well, and that is why I enjoyed it, even though I didn't like Halo 1 or 2.

 

[SantoUno]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this... ENTERTAINMENT. If you have absolute fun with the game and play it for hours on end without realizing how much time has passed, it must be really good. Honestly, no one could complain about a game that has no story or a stupid one or unoriginal and cliche concepts if the is so fun to play that you don't mind it not being sophisticated.

Seriously, if a new game came out that had an epic story, flawless gameplay, and introduced a whole new concept of games still can't be considered good if it's boring and you don't like to play it for long.

In all seriousness, entertainment is supposed to be the basis of video games, yet everyone seems to forget that when they want a great story and good gameplay mechanics and impressive graphics. I don't care if a game falls flat in every other area, as long as it's real fun to play for years to come then it's a good game.

 

[BlackJack47]

AS long as i can get into the story and feel like the character i'm happy...this obviously means I'm into the who rpg thing

 

[Casual Shinji]

What makes a good videogame?

They do..............Yes, them.

 

[Rigs83]

[HEADING=1]Not Sucking![/HEADING]
Violence helps.

 

[Stoic raptor]

As long as its fun, nothing else really matters. (My profound comment of the day.)

this. The story or graphics dont matter, as long as the game is fun.

 

[esperandote]

being fun to play and better if it has replay value.

 

[TelHybrid]

It really depends on the game itself as to what makes it awesome. Some aspects that may be awesome for one genre, might not be so great for another.

For example, racing games. A decent storyline would not help the quality of it at all, it would be a pointless addition. People enjoy racing games just for the gameplay and nothing else. If they added a plot to Forza 3 or GT5 I for one would not be impressed. Hell even Mario Kart doesn't bother with plotlines. That's just how I and many other gamers like to keep it.

Another example is Sonic Adventure. The levels playing as Sonic were awesome, and Tails' levels were fun as well, but the rest of the characters had pretty awful levels to play (well in my opinion anyway, I'm just using this as an example). For argument's sake, this is a good example of a game where they tried to add too much extra stuff instead of keeping to one level type that people want.

This question is a bit generic to answer and would take a big essay to uncover what makes a game "good". Even the most awesome game in the world will have some gamers who dislike it. It's all down to personal tastes in the end.

 

[Aqualung]

Lots of sexy male leads I can fantasize about.

Clearly.

 

[Ansem-The-Wise]

Originality.
Funny/clever dialogue.
Decent story.
Good characterization.
Good gameplay.
Replayability is always good.

And of course, the biggest requirement . . .

Is it fun?

 

[MaskedMori]

Many factors such as:
Gameplay
Story
Immersion
Overall satisfaction

 

[Et3rnalLegend64]

Story and gameplay are probably my top 2. Good writing and graphics help a bit (awesome graphics aren't necessary if the rest of the game suffers). Hopefully the characters are likable instead of being "just there" people.

 

[henrebotha]

Immersion.

Just about the only games I play nowadays are RPGs, and with good reason.

...Well, that and CivIV, but that's different because I'm *addicted*.