whats the most important thing in a game?

[Sven und EIN HUND]

Story I'd say, but of course, story is not a game without good gameplay, as gameplay gets old fast without strong story. Here we have a paradox, so- head explodes-

 

[IamQ]

Gameplay. Just look at Left 4 Dead. No story what so ever but people still love it.

 

[Uncompetative]

A sense of empowerment that overcomes the fundamental disability of the (comparatively) inarticulate controls.

Hence, Goldeneye 007's Free-Look Aim mode makes the gamepad as nifty as a mouse (and arguably easier than aiming a real gun, which has two points to line up on a target, not merely one), Bond can crouch and lean out from cover making him feel vulnerable and human (and thus making your successful survival as him under fire all the more significant), yet can pop out of cover for a fraction of a second to headshot an enemy before they have time to react. The game makes killing the enemy a bit too easy so you never blame the gamepad interface and start the game feeling totally badass and Bond-like, yet in later levels it rebalances by increasing the challenge/number of enemies (and not always having an enemy miss deliberately miss with their first shot).

Story, plot and character development are insignificant by comparison. I am sick of playing so-called games made by frustrated movie-directors.

 

[pyramid head grape]

I will say the right answer three times then the second thing twice and the least important once.

Game-play game-play game-play!!(they call them games for a reason)
atmosphere atmosphere(it got to feel real)
storyline/plot(this is were most games trip and brake both there legs yes i am looking at you MGS2)

 

[pyramid head grape]

Plot and Story
Every game has to give the player a good reason to kill a million billion space aliens or save the helpless princess otherwise the player will say "F*@k the princess let the whore die!" thus defeating the whole purpose of playing the game in the first place

Silent Hill 2 style (although I liked it) "You know what to hell with this" says mean character number 1 gets back into car and fucks off home. But if your not having fun or scared to death you won't give a shit what happens to the princess, owned by pyramid head or not.

 

[Vault101]

Im a huge sucker for story the reason why I love dragon age and saints row 2 (being the PC port it could be a little annoying to play)

that said it dosnt always have to be brilliant, but good enough to make me want to know whats going on

if a game has bad gameplay a good story can save it for me

 

[SturmDolch]

Agency. The player needs to have some impact on the world around him, whether that be major moral choices, or just how to approach a new room filled with bad guys to shoot, or even just how to fit a Tetris block into another.

 

[Vault101]

Story. If a game doesn't have a compelling enough storyline, I get extremely uninterested very quickly.

I agree

especially when you know theres a story but you completley lose track of it

like The witcher... I quite as soon as I realised "wait....WHY am I in this clayfeild? seriously whats going on?" that and it was boring

or Far cry2 form what I can gather the story is about a guy who kills the enitire population of South africa in self defence

 

[Jack of Spades]

Story, characters, and have atleast decent graphics. I'm tried of people saying a game is bad or stupid because it has PS2 graphics.

 

[vongola_mist_daemon]

graphics are not importantcomparing to storyline. Unless its designed for just shooting shit for example killing zombies or online FPS. oh yea don't forget dinosaurs are ok.

 

[Nopodop]

Gameplay and story. Good graphics are helpfull to see what you're doing but aren't too important.

 

[Danceofmasks]

A high skill ceiling.

Without which I may as well be watching a movie.

 

[insectoid]

Fun. Why would I play a game for entertainment if I wasn't having fun?

 

[Fr]anc[is]

An amount of enjoyment roughly equivalent to the amount I paid for it. Shooting bees at splicers? Yes. Sucking blood, kicking ass, in a true RPG? (Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines, $20, Steam, everyone reading this buy it now, patch 7.3) Yes. Showing me 3 really neeto new toys but only letting me play with them for 5 minutes before making me go back to Modern Warfare 1, No