What's the most important thing that makes a game valuable?

By valuable, I mean the kind of game you come back to and play often. A valuable game withstands the test of time and remains fun in spite of the progress of the gaming industry.

While I don't think it's ever a single trait that makes a game valuable, I wonder what everyone thinks the most important trait is.


Discuss: What makes your most valued games so favored?

It has to be atleast AA otherwise it is a crap game of no worth and has no right to exist.

Gameplay and story are very important in most games but if the gameplay is really good (killzone 2) ill play it no matter what. Multiplayer is secondary to me but i do enjoy good multiplayer.

It has to be atleast AA otherwise it is a crap game of no worth and has no right to exist.

ActicEdge

LOL most people here treat games like that.

It has to be atleast AA otherwise it is a crap game of no worth and has no right to exist.

ActicEdge

[QUOTE="ActicEdge"]

It has to be atleast AA otherwise it is a crap game of no worth and has no right to exist.

mstc_Q

Depends on the genre and sub-genre.

[QUOTE="ActicEdge"]

It has to be atleast AA otherwise it is a crap game of no worth and has no right to exist.

mstc_Q

I'm gonna go with story.

[QUOTE="mstc_Q"][QUOTE="ActicEdge"]

It has to be atleast AA otherwise it is a crap game of no worth and has no right to exist.

SpruceCaboose

Could not have said it better myself

[QUOTE="mstc_Q"][QUOTE="ActicEdge"]

It has to be atleast AA otherwise it is a crap game of no worth and has no right to exist.

SpruceCaboose

[QUOTE="mstc_Q"][QUOTE="IronBass"] Because what's "better" is completely subjective. People that play and enjoy games play what they want, now what other people say it's better. SpruceCaboose

I have the same feeling Fear 2 got a 7.5 but it is one of my fav. games this gen. The story is very good and so is the gameplay.

[QUOTE="ActicEdge"]

It has to be atleast AA otherwise it is a crap game of no worth and has no right to exist.

mstc_Q

Because I don't let other people dictate my purchases. I am not going to go out a AAA fps over a A platformer or RPG just because it scored higher. That is a waste of my time. I'm not gonna go out and buy AAA warioware smooth moves over sub A monster hunter. Reviews are nothing more than source points where you gather information and then make a decision, nothing more since I don't enjoy letting others make my decisions for me. Rune Factory Frontier is coming out in a week, it will probably score A however it interests me and I like what I see, thus I'm going to try it. I can make my own choices.

Rent a game first, try demos, etc. There are other avenues besides spending money buying the games.SpruceCaboose

I disagree with renting. Where I live it costs $8 to rent a game. For $8 these days I could almost get a downloadable title - and tacking on $8 to any video game price can be the difference between reasonable and rip-off (Yes, I view renting as tacking $8 onto the price of the game if I ended up deciding it was worth a purchase.) The only time I can see renting being worth it is if you can do everything there is to do within the rental period and then never look back at the game after you've milked everything you value out of it.

I wholeheartedly agree with free avenues for trying a game (demos, playing at a friends house, etc.) Listening to the reviews only, I wouldn't have known that Killzone 2 totally sucks because of button lag, or that Super Smash Bros Brawl wasn't at all the fighter its predecessors were because of tripping and other factors. But, especially with the Wii, free avenues aren't always an option.

You know, I put Artistic Design up there because of Shadow of the Colossus.

I wouldn't say that game has a particularly good storyline, or even that the gameplay itself is terribly epic (Stripping it down to its raw mechanics), but with its presentation in art direction in combination with the music it makes the game epic enough that I still pop it in occasionally to view those grand moments.

I guess there aren't enough SotCs out there for that option to get any votes.

no enemies not fun enough IMOtOtalPWNaAe

[QUOTE="tOtalPWNaAe"]no enemies not fun enough IMOmstc_Q

[QUOTE="mstc_Q"][QUOTE="tOtalPWNaAe"]no enemies not fun enough IMOtOtalPWNaAe

Fun factor and presentation.

I have to go with gameplay, there ara 10 years old games that you play today and you still have fun, but for a game to be eternal, it also has to have a great production value, like Blizzard games.

How much pain it brings me :D

I would say replay value.

That is fun.IronBass

^Exactly. If a game isn't fun, it can GTFO of my sight! :x

Imo the gameplay/fun is the most important but story, graphics, etc are important too

Gameplay is the most important attribute to a great game.

Uniqueness is second. Because there's so many competition within each genre, if it doesn't stand out then it's just another FPS/RPG/RTS etc. Games like TF2 and MGS4 comes to mind.

It would be a sum of number of hours of enjoyment. So if you played an RPG for 30 hours, and enjoyed only about 10, yet you played an adventure game for 15, and enjoyed about 12, the adventure game would be more valuable. That's how I see it anyway. I don't find multiplayer adds all that much to value because I generally don't enjoy it that much most of time.

The experience.

If its an amazing experience for you, you're going to love it. It cant really just be story, just be gameplay, etc etc. It varies from game to game and sometimes what makes a game great is difficult to put into words.