Which is the best part about playing a game?

Becoming soaked in immersion. Like Rapture in Bioshock. When you become immersed with the narrative, the characters, the gameplay, the atmosphere...it creates something that neither books or films can replicate.

Being engrossed in an intriguing environment and being challenged (not too hard though!).

Getting 100% and pushing my skills and gameplay mechanics as far as they can go

I always need to feel as if I'm working towards achieving something worthwhile. In a racing game that might be to master the tracks, unlock more of them and earn better cars. In an action adventure game I'm helping characters that I care about successfully complete their adventure.

The whole "shooting people for the sake of shooting people" or just levelling up my stuff for the sake of levelling up my stuff...that doesn't cut it at all.

Playing?

It has to be fun or engaging. No matter how beautiful it looks or how innovative the gameplay/physics are if its not fun i don't care much.

In sports games it's taking a lower rated team and try to make them better, using rookies or players thats only got 2 or 3 years playing. Racing it's learning a track and having good lap times.

I think the best part of playing any game is becoming totally immersed in what you're doing and almost forgetting you're actually playing a game. And it's at that point that I realise that the game has done it's job.

Good times...

I'm going to be completely honest here: my favorite thing about video games in general are the cutscenes. I think visually stunning & plentiful cutscenes are the only thing that can single handedly save a game. Sure, cinematics are not the only important thing, but they are definitely more important than any other aspect of any given game.

A game is fun when its not making me shoot things.

I dont need 69 new targets to shoot at every time i turn a corner.

I dont need my twicth, reflexs to be tested. Test my brain, my strategy if anything. Some games rely too much on twitch reflexs rather than strategy.

The best part of a game is the experience of being in the game. I dont need to be constantly challenged. A quick example i could use is the vehicle thefts in GTA4. You are required to find certain cars for i think it is brucie? or maybe someone else. Anyway you find the car & have a nice casual cruise back to the drop off point. That is an experience in itself

Im playing through Saints ROw3 at the moment & it also has vehicle theft missions as well except that when you do steal the vehicle & attempt to take it to the drop off point all of the suddent the game throws a ridiculous amount of cops at you, sets up road blocks, all hell breaks loose, etc & it completely kills the experieince. I dont need to be challenged at all times. It should have been a simple steal car, drop it off mission.

Becoming soaked in immersion. Like Rapture in Bioshock. When you become immersed with the narrative, the characters, the gameplay, the atmosphere...it creates something that neither books or films can replicate.

NeonPink22

I agree 100%

A lot of the time it's for immersion. However, I'd be lying if I didn't mention those "holy s***" moments where something so crazy or awesome happens that usually is not always intended.

Being primarily a strategy and RPG fan, I like to see the development of my Characters/Party. As I work hard to enhance and develop their skills and find/craft the best equipment, I get to see my hard work pay off and get to see the benefits in action.

As for playing other games (which I do like to do), I like to see myself get better and better, and of course, the simple entertainment of playing the game.

cprmauldin is getting 100% worth it? i recently replayed ff12 and due to 1 mistake i missed the chance for the zodiac spear, meaning another restart? nope i am gonna finally use action pro or codebreaker which ever works (for the 1st time too on my ps2). the only game where i maxed leveled some characters was ff6, (forgot the names of those bull type dragons behemot or something) and it was fun (also cause the game is ultraawesome, atma weapon rules). i cannot understand the sole purpose of even replaying let alone being perfectionist unless you are but a faq writer.ambitiousknight

Honestly? Not always worth it, but it depends on the game and how much you want your party to be top-notch. Though I haven't played FF XII, there are a couple games that I've played through a subequent time to make sure I obtainted a specific piece of great equipment or maxed out my skills.

Other times multiple characters/parties are fun to explore different options. For example in Dragon Quest IX, there is many classes to choose from and a max party of four. Therefore, it is very worth it to go through the game again and try out different party builds, as well as to experience all that the game has to offer.

It is an excellent stress relief from work and life and the ability to just soak myself into an imaginary world with no real life consequences.

One big misconception or, rather, commonly held view that is playing a game from beginning to end will somehow produce a less/non- transitory state of happiness or amusement. I don't think that it is worth my time to be a very dedicated completionist, when life is so short and many other things deserve my attention. But, yes, I suppose you can say that immersion is what makes a game fun (just like being in the moment of watching a movie, reading a book, listening to music, etc.).

The oh so many choices in which you can customize your character(s)! I LOVE skill/talent trees because it gives me a good reason to play the game again, but going down a completely different path.

I'm going to be completely honest here: my favorite thing about video games in general are the cutscenes. I think visually stunning & plentiful cutscenes are the only thing that can single handedly save a game. Sure, cinematics are not the only important thing, but they are definitely more important than any other aspect of any given game.

JakeMeltzer

Well at least you're honest about it, but it makes very little sense to me to play video games then. Movies are 100% cinematics and therefore offer you exactly what you want. It sounds like you're playing video games for something that another medium does many times better

but then your favourite game is LittleBigPlanet 2 which is all player controlled so now I'm even more confused

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