Most Important Gaming Element?

What is the Most Important Game Element to you?
I understand all these components are highly relative yet I do believe most gamers have a particular inclination that surfaces over the course of their gaming lives.

Control - Not just responsiveness but comfort, intuitiveness, aptness for the given game, and flexibility.
Visuals - Art design and related aesthetics.
Sound - Musical composition and the appeal of sfx; again, aesthetics.
Story and Character - Story, plotting (events), dialogue, character design, and character development.
Level Design - Layouts of the gaming area, you know, the part you play in. This defines the sophistication of the levels, their intricacy, originality, aptness for the given game, and distinction from one another.
Genre and Dimension - Only play FPS, fighters, dating sims? Or does it have to be in 2D? Both preferences belong here.
Technica - Hardware pushing and special effects in all categories.
Difficulty - Fairness, value for money, frustration factor, time commitment, and all sorts of demands on the player. This might be your pick if you find the majority of games either too easy/hard, too simple/complex, too short/long, etc.
Innovation - Will you only play something ostensibly new? Are all sequels and similarities instant failures? If so choose this.


Can’t decide? That’s fine, you’re still welcome to post. Only, no opinion, no vote.

I decided to go with "Difficulty" since that's the closest thing I could come up with: I like games that reward one's intellect and reflexes and investment of time. I like games that do those things in a manner that seems fair, is accessible to mastery without relying on memorization (at least, memorization beyond what comes up organically as part of gameplay) or other repetitive behavior, and avoids wasting my time in any way.

If that's not in place, the game itself just isn't fun to play, and fun -- in the sense of being entertaining, rewarding, engaging, glad-I'm-spending-my-time-on-this -- is really #1.

The next tier after that would probably be overall aesthetics, control, and level design. Story/character, technica, and innovation are towards the bottom, especially story -- the purpose of a video game's plot is usually to stay out of the way, and only once in a great while does a game do better than that.

Genre for me is a subset of the other categories; if I rule a genre out it's because it so often fails the difficulty/fun or aesthetics tests -- the entire worldview represented by the leading exponents of several genres is basically inimical to my own. But I'm also bad at visualizing and navigating 3D spaces, so there's that too.

While most of those are important, and it varies by game, level design seems to be the most important one to me overall. Control's very important but I can generally adjust to odd control schemes or poor cameras. Bland or shitty level design is harder to deal with.

Ooh, tough to decide. Control and innovation are my biggest things, but not in any particular order. Also, I don't care at all if the genre advances and makes the earlier game technically less intuitive. But I always get hooked on a game because it does something relatively new or better than before. Crap. Innovation it is.

Normally, I'd say this is a tough choice, and I suppose it is but the OP did such a good job of defining the categories that my choice is clear: genre. I don't think dimension is important as long as it works, though. I've spent more time with a lousy fighting game or poor racing game than I have with even the best of genres that I'm not interested in.

Controls man, it's always been the controls!

Blast Processing.

Jokes aside, I can't play a game if the control and design aren't good and compliment each other.

Unless it's an RPG. If the story is bad in an rpg, and characters need way too much exp to level up to a reasonable level, it just urks me.

The most important gaming elements are fun, challenge, and engagement.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Zz Badnusty

The most important gaming elements are fun, challenge, and engagement.

---

How can I enjoy my fun, challenge, and engagement when the controls are fucked!?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Zz Badnusty

The most important gaming elements are fun, challenge, and engagement.

---

Well, for a game to be "fun" it depends from all the factors in the original post. If some of the factors aren't "right" or the combination isn't good enough, the game is not fun. How fun is a game with bad controls and level design for instance?

Anyway, its a pleasant surprise that, at the time i'm writing this, nobody yet voted for story (although there are only a few votes). Im just tired hearing all the time how good or bad the story is in this game or the other. Plus, lately, games are becoming more and more like movies with more cutscenes and less gameplay. Who cares about story in a freaking videogame anyway, unless its a plot heavy RPG?

I voted for level design.

Replay value, if a games not worth a shit, there's no reason to go back to it when you finish or if you finish it. If a game can hook you in because it's good enough, and the controls are fine, then you'll want to play again and again.

Where's the "all of the above" option? I like games that are good in all areas :p.

In all seriousness, very good job on the poll, doesn't have a silly option like "fun" which everyone would choose since "fun" is actually related to whatever of the other choices a person cares about.
I'ma go with Level Design, not because I think it's what makes a game great, but because when it's bad it can turn otherwise great games into merely good (AoB&R) or worse (Vectorman 2).

Innovation is cool, but sometimes it only makes games worse (grappling hook instead of the multidirectional laser in Mega Turrican? Fail)
Controls can be learned most of the time and aren't really a problem after awhile (Ranger-X, SoulStar), sometimes they never stop sucking though (Lionheart)
Visuals... You probably expected me to pick this one, and it's true, after Level Design I'd probably pick this. I like games with awe inspiring artwork or effects, they pull me more into the game.
Sound if bad can typically be turned off and replaced with some nice music on an mp3 player.
Story is only important in certain genres (quite a bit in RPGs, much more in pure Adventure)
Technica isn't important, it's only relevant as a component of Visuals. There's plenty of games that push the hardware but look like shit (i.e. every modern FPS)

I think of these categories kind of like parts of a vehicle, they all need to fit together to make the whole thing run smoothly. Categories also blend together in some areas and more so in certain genres.
Anyway, I'd rank them like so:

Level Design - too much dead space, waiting around or repetition can really kill a game for me.
Controls - including the functionality of the visuals.
Visuals (aesthetically)
Sound (aesthetically)
Difficulty - that is, a reasonably high default challenge which doesn't rely too much on trial & error, as well as tweaking options.
Innovation - it depends, some genres could use more of it at the moment.
Genre and Dimension - I'm pretty open minded about this, but generally prefer 2D.
Technica - I guess this can really help with immersion in some games, having a detailed and seamless 3D world in a sandbox game, high fps in racing etc. Generally not something that makes or breaks a game though.
Story and Character - depends on genre, obviously. Few games do storytelling right in my eyes, and few games of interest to me even need it.

Game length, to me is important enough to be a category of its own as I tend to avoid longer (20h+ or so) games. I just like to be done with a game in an afternoon or a couple of days time, otherwise I'll probably lose interest before finishing no matter how good it is.

Even though I voted innovation, I like the way the thread is going.

Control - The more apt to the game style the better, and the less like some popular genre the better.
Visuals - Not the first thing I look for, but great art direction definitely helps.
Sound - Very important to me, if the music and sound annoys me or fails to draw me in due to being generic the game just isn't as good as it could be.
Story and Character - Pfft.
Level Design - Level design and control must be perfectly synced. If the control exposes flaws in any level or the other way around the game isn't finished.
Genre and Dimension - If control, level design, sound and innovation are present this doesn't matter. Otherwise Action in 2D is my favorite.
Technica - Seeing hardware pushed harder is a plus but not a must by any means.
Difficulty - If level design and control are balanced the game can be as difficult as it wants to be and still be engrossing.
Innovation - Not quirkiness, I don't care about katamari, but the game must push the genre or blend genres or invent a genre or it is just some other game in a new package. If I don't have to learn new controls in the first level the game is a cheap knockoff of some other game, period.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sheath

Story and Character - Pfft.

---

Damn, okay I take back my last rep lol!

As an rpg fan I couldn't disagree with you more!