What's most important to you in a game? Graphics/Sound/MP etc

As I’ve now put in about 40 hours of gameplay into Rise of Legends, I started thinking about what influences me to play a game for more than a couple of hours when I have so many choices. When I sat there and analyzed “what” I liked best about RoL, it actually surprised me what I felt was most important (and it’s relative across most genres for me).

I’m curious how everyone else rates the following categories for importance. I realize gross generalizations are just that… but when you come down to it, you can generalize for most games. Gameplay is a no-brainer… but seeing how so many games don’t prioritize for gameplay - it’s still included.

  • Graphics
  • Sound and Music
  • Gameplay (including AI intelligence)
  • Multiplayer
  • Replayability (or lengthy gameplay)
  • Story/Campaign

I’ll start my silly thread with my own preferences:

  • Graphics - 7
  • Sound and Music - 10
  • Gameplay (including AI intelligence) - 10
  • Multiplayer - 0
  • Replayability (or lengthy gameplay) - 9
  • Story/Campaign - 8

For myself, sound and music is the one thing that can ultimately tie a game together, or let it fall apart. My fav game, System Shock 2 would not have been the game it was without the excellent sound. When I replay music from Daggerfall it brings back great gaming memories (especially the snow and tavern music).

  • Graphics - 9 ( for newer games yeah but I still play older games with dated graphics )
  • Sound and Music - 8
  • Gameplay (including AI intelligence) -8
  • Multiplayer - 4 ( depends on the game and type of game really)
  • Replayability (or lengthy gameplay) - 7
  • Story/Campaign - 9.5 ( for me the story can make or break the game no matter how good everything else is. If I cant get sucked in to the game then whats the point of playing? )

*Gameplay
*Interesting ideas
*Graphics
*Sound and Music
*Story
*Replayability
*Multiplayer

This is hugely plastic, though, and every single game I can think of that I like makes this list a lie in one way or another - this is just a vague and basically worthless approximation. Added my own category because it’s an important one to me and I think to a lot of people.

EDIT: Oh bother, I just ranked them in order of importance. But I’m not giving them a number - that stuff is for chumps!

  • Graphics - 8 (love the purty, though I can easily put up with dated graphics for a good time)
  • Sound and Music - 10
  • Gameplay (including AI intelligence) - 10
  • Multiplayer-really depends on the game.
  • Replayability - 8
  • Story/Campaign - Also really depends on the game for me. If I bought it to play online it would hardly matter (unless it were an rpg of some sort). If it is a strictly singleplayer game then I’d probably have to say about an 8.

As with all generalized ratings I have to mention I’d tolerate some crappy parts if a game were to absolutely knock my socks off in at least 2 of those catagories (in some special cases even 1 catagory).

  • Graphics - 8-9. It really depends on what type of game it is, though. If it’s an RTS, I want to be able to tell my elephants from my opponent’s turtle riders, or if it’s an action game I want the animation to be pretty. If it’s a TBS or something, I don’t care all that much.

  • Sound and Music - 6. Unless this includes voice acting, in which it’s probably a 7. Sound and Music is just icing, mostly, but when it works it works great.

  • Gameplay (including AI intelligence) - 10. It’s a game.

  • Multiplayer - 8. Many of my favorite games have been primarly multiplayer, and often games are far more fun with other people.

  • Replayability (or lengthy gameplay) - 4. If I’m not going to have a good time the first time, why would I play it again?

  • Story/Campaign - 9. This is almost part of gameplay - and it’s difficult to get pulled into a game without good story. (I’m more forgiving to sandbox games in this aspect, however, because you can create your “own story”, in a sense, while other games force you to play their crappy ones.)

  • Graphics - 2
  • Sound and Music - 2
  • Gameplay (including AI intelligence) - 10
  • Multiplayer - 0
  • Replayability (or lengthy gameplay) - 10
  • Story/Campaign - 1

Fans of the message board will find things to like about this thread, but it falls short of its true potential. In the growing meta-thread genre, this topic includes all of the basic mechanics, but is missing the spark of inspiration found in such classics as Washington Post buys Slate.

  • Graphics - (7.1) This thread is really scraping the bottom of the barrel graphics-wise. Without even a single picture of Levar Burton, the graphics (or lack thereof) are reminiscent of threads from more than five years ago.

  • Sound and Music - (8.2) If you read this thread aloud, you’ll have sound comparable to the best of the meta-threads. The downside is that you have to do the work yourself.

  • Gameplay (and AI intelligence) - (9.4) The gameplay is just fun. That’s right: it’s fun. The Artificial Intelligence intelligence is about average for a thread of this type, which isn’t saying much, but it’s something. Did I mention it was fun?

  • Multiplayer - (9.5) Multiplayer is definitely this thread’s strong point. In fact, it’s pretty much the only point.

  • Replayability - (8.1) As with most multiplayer threads, which is to say all of them, replaybility is what keeps people coming back for more. How appropriate.

  • Story/Campaign - (7.3) This thread has all of the usual clichés. If you’re a fan of meta-threads, you’ll definitely enjoy it. Otherwise, I’d give it a pass.

  • Alan

I wont rate them but for me increasingly the most important factor is becoming how good/flexible the multiplayer is, and I crave above most things co-operative content that is as deep or deeper than the adversarial content.

No specific categories, but the two questions that must be answered “yes” for me are (1) is this engaging and (2) is this satisfying. I can’t be bored and I can’t be frustrated, or I lose interest. Everything else is negotiable.

Story, followed immediately by play control, followed immediately by gameplay. Everything else is usually secondary.

for me,

replayability
gameplay.
controls
multiplayer
story
graphics,
sound

sorry too late for me to comment on right now.

General fun & polish are the most important thing for me, but I did realize a few years ago that sound and more specifically music are way more important than I had previously given them credit for. When I look at a list of some of my favorite games of all time (eg. Legend of Zelda, Mario Bros, Lemmings, the Legacy of Kain games, Halo, etc) they all have fantastic music… coincidence? Not entirely.

I give them all a 7-9.

I think the planet I’d like most to visit if Pluto, because it’s named after a dog.

-Tom

It’s different depending on genre, but universally Gameplay is most important so I’m just not going to mention it. Most important feature besides gameplay based on genre:

RTS:
Control/Interface (by far)

Shooter:
Level Design (I guess)

RPG:
Choices and Consequences (duh)

The Rest:

Music/Sound - Not that important. Only certain games like Thief or System Shock really make awesome use of it.

Multiplayer - This is more important if the game was designed for multiplayer first or only. (Tribes, MMOs, etc…)

Story - Most game stories suckass, so whatever. There are some great ones, but for all genres other than RPG/Adventure, I don’t get my hopes up. If the story is good, it’s a plus.

Replayability - Maybe second to gameplay.

Graphics - Fuck Graphics. I still play those old text-based adventure games. In fact, I’m playing the newest one right now! It’s called “Microsoft Word,” and while somewhat minimalist compared to Zork, it’s soooo awesome! Right now, I’m engaged in lethal combat with the “File” monster. Every time I attack it, it spawns a veritable army of other monsters, like “New…”, “Open…”, and “Save As…”! It’s like Diablo, but with text! Oh, did I say Diablo? I meant DiaBLOW! 'CAUSE I’M SO HARDCORE!

I find the whole notion of separating a game into little pieces silly. (And, hence, the review sites that carefully split the score down into neat little categories hopelessly absurd.)

A game is formed of many parts, which support each other. What’s important is that the whole be a good (dare I say fun?) game.

What’s annoying is when a game that’s strong in some areas is brought down by weakness in others. Most often, this is a case of excellent graphics and poor everything else; it’s trite to say it, but there’s too much focus on graphics these days. Not just to the detriment of gameplay, but also sound, music, voice acting, and plot.

  • Graphics - 8
  • Sound and Music - 5
  • Gameplay (including AI intelligence) - 10
  • Multiplayer - 6
  • Replayability (or lengthy gameplay) - 7
  • Story/Campaign - 9
  • Hot Babes - 11

Bruce

Blu-Ray - 5
Riiidge Raaacer! - 10
Historically accurate giant craps - 7
Real Time Weapon Switching - 9
A controller, that will require me to stand up and move parts of my body that are not my fingers - -3
A name that’s not an acronym and has no numbers - 2

Gameplay is king. All I ask of the graphics and sound are that they don’t annoy me. GTA3 failed in this regard as the radio ads that were clever and amusing the first time were just plain aggravating the hundredth time. But the game still rocked, because gameplay is king.

Co-op can be a plus, especially if it’s a game my girlfriend would like. Hardly ever play versus multi, and never play on public servers.

Replayability can also be a plus, but pretty much only for TBS games. I hardly ever replay other types of games, and never anything with a story.

The other big one is continuous fun. Any kind of level grind or repetetive crap will drive me away right quick.