Groucho

I’ve been thinking back on my long history playing video games, and I started wondering why I liked certain games but not others. Specifically, what makes them fun? So, I’ve compiled a little list of just some of the things that I like to see:

-Variety in environments. I know it’s a cliché for games to have the ice level, the desert level, the forest level, etc. But I like it. Keeps my interest going in a game when I know I’ll have new worlds to explore. One of my gripes about Batman: Vengeance was that every level was either an abandoned factory or an abandoned warehouse. They all looked the same. Oh, and I hate crates!

-Significant rewards. No, a five-minute FMV sequence is not a reward. I want power-ups, and good ones for finishing off a boss or making some other accomplishment. The Zelda games are more or less built on this principle.

-Non-linear play/Side-quests. I like being able to make choices. I don’t like it when you finish one area and just forge straight ahead to the next. Side-quests go along with this too. I like having optional tasks that are fun and have small rewards but don’t necessarily move the games plot forward.

-Gradual increase in difficulty. This is one of the hardest things to implement in a game, since every gamer has different “skillz”. I like a continuing challenge, but I don’t want to go from very easy to mind-numbingly hard in one level. I’ve given up many a game half-way through out of frustration due to this.

-Optional Tutorial Level. These are great. They allow you to familiarize yourself with the controls and gameplay before you go out “in the field” so to speak. It’s hard to enjoy a game when you are trying to learn it and play it at the same time. No One Lives Forever had a great way of implementing this, by giving you occasional briefing on new gadgets as the game progressed (rather than overwhelming you with too much information at the start of the game).

-Intuitive puzzles. Quite simply, puzzles that can be solved through common sense, rather than having to fork out $20 for the strategy guide. Along the same lines, I don’t like getting punished for things out of my control…for example you are in a room with two doors that are exactly alike…if you choose one door the game continues, if you choose the other you instantly die…GAME OVER.

-Save anywhere. You never know when you might have to stop playing at the drop of the hat. I shouldn’t be penalized for this, and be able to save exactly where I was…not where I was five minutes ago. Too many games use “Save Points” as a way to artificially increase the difficulty.

-Replayability. When I finish a game, will I ever want to pick it up again? I hope so. This is less important for games that take a long time to finish, but more important in shorter games. The fatal flaw of Luigi’s Mansion was that not only was it short, but it had no replay value.

There are many more, of course, but these are just some things off the top of my head. What makes games fun for you?

Chaos

A good story line. I had just finished Grandia II, which was the best plot and character development I had ever seen in a game, and I started Golden Sun. So now I'm halfway through Golden Sun and have little to no desire to finish it whereas I couldn't put Grandia II down: every moment I was thinking of the new town that I would walk into, or the new weapons, or, best of all----what would happen next to Millenia, Ryudo, and Elena.
Golden Sun is nice, but there's little to no story/character development, which is why it has lost it's value to me.

Groucho

Interestingly, this is not a concern for me. I've found that the stronger that the storyline gets, the more a game slips from being a game and becomes an linear interactive movie. Pac-Man, for instance, was a great game and had a non-existent storyline. Sports and racing titles have no storyline either. Fighting titles tend to have (lame) storylines, but nobody cares.

On the other hand, in RPG's the story is more important...but I prefer RPGs where the NPC's have rich histories and storylines, while I create my character(s) role in the world. Still, I will not keep playing a bad game just to see how the story plays out, since 99% of RPGs are variations on "Kill the Foozle."

Kellehair

I don't know if it's possible to determine what exactly makes a game fun. Just look at the original Mario game. Why is that game fun? I don't know, but it is.

I can't believe you feel that way. I was the exact opposite. I had to struggle to beat G2 but I couldn't stop playing GS. You're right that Grandia 2 had an OK story, but it wasn't really fun. Golden Sun, even though it was weak in the story department, was a fun game.

Liver&Onions

What are you talking about?

LIttle yellow dude chases ghosts, little yellow dude gets chased by ghosts, little yellow dude meets girl, little yellow dude chases girl, little yellow dud get's chased by girl, little yellow dude falls in love with yellow girl, little yellow couple have little yellow babie with a beenie on... what more tory do you need? Oh wait, that was Ms. Pacman wasn't it. Damn, nevermind.

Chaos

Golden Sun has little to no character development, Ryudo had attitude (at least more than I had seen in any other games) and the love triangle was really interesting. Golden Sun was a basic Save the world and save friends/people with no storyline. The Djinn are pretty cool, but not enough to keep playing. I love a good storyline.

Josh H

It varies by Genre. I'll go through some of my favorite genre's briefly.

Platformers:

The control must be spot on. You character needs to have a variety of moves that you have to use to get through various areas. Lots of variety in the levels. Cool bosses. Lots of stuff to hunt for.

Adventure games(AKA action RPGs):

For Zelda type games, their needs to be a lot of variety in the areas, clever puzzles that make sense, a good bit of enemies in the levels, and cool boss battles that have some puzzle elements involved in defeating them.

Fighting games:

Spot on control, that's easy for beginners to pick-up (button mash), but at the same time can be mastered enabling the experts to destroy the button mashers. A good variety of well balanced characters. It does no good to have 25 characters if 10 of them are weak and useless. A balanced fighting system. Every character should have some way to block or counter every attack by every other charater.

Sports games:

Again spot on control. Play must be real to life. Players should move realistically and the computer AI must be great. The NBA2K games are the only ones to really accomplish this so far.

As for Arcade games like Blitz or NBA Street, they simply have to play fast, have quick easy to use controls, and have some balance between offnense and defense.

Racing games:

Lots of cars, lots of tracks, good control with some learning curve, and the ability to upgrade your car.

For Kart and Car Combat, there simply needs to be quick accurate control, lots of cars and weapons, lots of tracks and several different multiplayer modes.



As you can see, control is the one constant. If you're fighting the controls the whole time, you can't have fun with the game. Other than that each genre has certain elements required for the game to be fun.

Groucho

I assume you're talking about Super Mario Brothers, and one of the things that made that game fun was something I left off my initial list:

-Innovation: a game that invents, reinvents, or brings something new to the genre.

Captain Harlock

I think one of the things that makes a game "good" or even "great" is it's playability.

If a game is fun to play then everything else kind of falls into place. What makes a game fun to play? It has to give you a feeling of emersion. That's what alot of games fail to do. That's why Metal Gear Solid is still one of my favorite games of all time. You get imersed in the game. If a game is well designed i.e. great graphics, good premise, storyline, good control design it all helps to give you that feeling that you are part of the game.

Robb

Chaos

Right on!! Grandia II did that for me-----------it drew me into its' world---I couldn't wait until the next time Millenia, Ryudo and Elena met, I craved knowing more about them and their pasts'. Golden Sun never drew me into it, which is why I can't bring myself to finish it.

Joshic

Something that makes a game good for me (which hasn't been mentioned yet) is graphics. I really don't care about how good a game's gameplay is, if I don't see really nice graphics, I'm inevitably going to be disappointed and not want to play the game. Call me shallow if you will, but that's just the way it is in gaming. It's always been about graphics. If I wanted a good story and didn't care about graphics, I'd go read a book.

Josh H

I'm totally the opposite. I couldn't give a rats ass about graphics. Gameplay is all that matters. Good graphics are just a bonus.

The obsession with graphics is one of the things that's killed the PC game market. Sure their are a lot of great games out there. But for every great game there are ten games with no gameplay at all that are just put out for computer geeks to drool over the eye candy and brag about their new video card and other system specs.

outer-edge

I think it depends on the genre, but sometimes even what the game itself already has or does not have.

For example, typically I love deep stories in RPGs, but sometimes a simple RPG (simple in design) only needs a simple story, i.e. Golden Sun, Dungeon Siege.

I think what it simply comes down to is does a game have its own style? Is it different enough, in any nmber of areas, that it is appealing?

Kellehair

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Outlaw

Yeah thats a good point I'm the same way sorta. Its kinda like music...I can't really describe what makes good music, but I know it when I hear it.

As far as what makes games fun....I'll take a stab...it really depends on the genre or what mood I'm in. I mostly like action adventure or rpg type games, but I also play a lot of other genres too. I like the length, story, characters, and music of rpgs. For action games it would have to be the gameplay, controls, and graphics. For adventure type games like Resident Evil or Silent Hill even the mood and atmosphere of the game can make it cool. I'm also a huge niche game fan, like Rez, Shenmue and Harvest Moon, but probably because I'm just strange normally . Sometimes these games are so different, bizzare, and "fresh" that makes them stand out from normal games and end up surprisingly good. (I'm referring to Incredible Crisis on the PS1) But again its hard to describe what makes a good game I probably left out a bunch of stuff I couldn't put into words.

gcribbs

I figure it is talking about how many consoles they will sell is what makes gaming fun


actually graphics need to be decent. however i do not need the best and greatest in order to love or like a game. after awhile as long as the graphics are all right the game will either pull me in or not. If not I guess I might notice weaker graphics

of course maybe older game players who used to play games with horrible graphics by todays standards might be more forgiving.

I know many of my old games had weak graphics but they pulled me into the game in spite of this.


Today all to often games will pull me in with the great graphics then put me to sleep with the boring or repetitive gameplay

so in conclusion how many consoles...

Jeremy517

Games need to be difficult in the right ways. I hate games that are hard simply because they overwhelm you with 500 enemies at the same time. I also hate it when enemies "cheat" to make it hard (MoH:AA sniper level, I'm looking at you!).

I'm in the graphics-don't-matter crowd. I still paly my Atari 2600 a lot. Kaboom is damn_addictive.

RoQuEr

games must be challenging. It can be mind warping puzzles or precision hand-eye coordination, but it can't be too dull or repetitive. Sound and graphics are irrelevant. I can pull out a 6 year old game and enjoy it as much today as I did then. See nethack