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.

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Originally Posted by Zz Badnusty

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

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

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Originally Posted by Zz Badnusty

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

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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.

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Originally Posted by sheath

Story and Character - Pfft.

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Damn, okay I take back my last rep lol!

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

It was tough to choose, but I went with "Level Design". I also agree with Bloodreign, replay value is a very important gaming element.

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Originally Posted by synbiosfan

Damn, okay I take back my last rep lol!

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

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I was just trolling the topic. I do think that video games tend to have worse stories than children's novels though. Also, some of my favorite RPGs are ones with very little dialog and tons of exploration and leveling. Miracle Warriors, Shining in the Darkness, and now Super and Virtual Hydlide are like this, as is Ys the Vanished Omen. I prefer my protagonist silent just like, well you know, your namesake.

My vote went to Level Design in the end.
However Story and Character in gameplay (I hate cut-scene voice story sections), Controls and Genre and Dimension aren't far behind!

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Most Important Gaming Element

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Fun

I don't believe in fun, I can't measure it or hold it in my hand. For that matter, I don't believe in any of you either. Get out of my head.

Fun/enjoyment/entertainment.

All that other stuff is meaningless otherwise and can actually all be implimented solidly and still result in a game that lacks the most important aspect of all.

Oh boy.... :roll:

...To get fun/enjoyment/entertainment out of a game it depends on the factors we vote for. Of course fun is important. Its the reason we play games. That's what all the factors in the original post try to do. To make a game fun. All factors are important but in this topic we try to find what is the one factor you place over the others, what do you thing should get a priority from developers etc.

When developers make a game they don't create "fun". They create Graphics. Music. They design level layouts, they code stuff like controls, they write the story, the dialog etc. Fun comes after those are implemented. So vote the one thing that the developers should care the most.

Controls, by far. Nothing ruins a perfectly good game like terrible controls. There are so many gorgeous well planned out games out there that suck massive donkey balls because the controls are crap. A game can do everything else perfectly but if the controls are botched there's just no playing it. Ie: Lair for PS3, what an amazing game absolutely ruined to a point of almost unplayability by shitty controls.

Second place I'd say goes to level design. Games with bad level design just end up being boring. They may look nice and even play well, but if the levels are too long, or too unintuitive there's just nothing to keep you playing. Ie: Star Ocean Till The End of time - what a ridiculous exercise in walking down long, empty hallways for hours and hours.

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Originally Posted by Kamahl

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.

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Thanks. 'Element' is the operative word: fun is a result of gaming elements. For the same reason I omitted atmosphere, a result of visuals, sound, and story/character/etc.

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Technica isn't important

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:shock: Where is Kamahl and what have you done with him?!
That statement annuls 3,880 of your previous posts. You fail as an engineer.
I had Technica in mind for fanatics of racing, fighting, and shmups--where framerate strongly affects controls, home conversion quality used to be so big a factor, and arcade like awe was more important to games generally low on content.
I'll vote shortly but it's a tough decision...

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Originally Posted by Thunderblaze16

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

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:ok: You get a secret bonus point.

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Originally Posted by StarMist

Where is Kamahl and what have you done with him?!

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It's important to me as an engineer, not as a gamer :p. Framerate isn't really related to Technica that much if you think about it. A crappy looking game that doesn't push the hardware shouldn't have any problem running at 60 fps.
I forgot the "home conversion quality" aspect but that's also not as relevant as level design. I don't care how good a port of an arcade game is if the game is crap.

Its hard to pick from that list.. I chose innovation. I think the most entertaining games for me (other than ones I get systematic on) are the ones where I can do things that aren't really part of the game or its story. Mostly about environment interactions. I can think of some examples:

Morrowind/Oblivion/Skyrim/FO3/NV: collect objects, move them around, throw them around, (attempt to) build structures or patterns with items (think Pillow houses). Make large piled and blow them up, etc.

Dues Ex/Soldier of Fortune: interactive cut-scenes. These games used the actual game engine for cut-scenes during the game. And not just engine, but the cut-scenes took place in the game itself. This allowed for humourous ways to have your own custom cut scenes. For example, if you carried something into the cut-scene hook in Deus Ex, you would drop the item and it would be seen during the scripted dialog. Case in point, bring a plant in with you when you talk to the guy in the office. Denton will drop the plant on the desk. In SOF, you could actually kill people in the cut-scenes... and technically possible to kill Saddam Hussein, although you need to be extremely accurate and have a 2 second or less window of doing it before his cut-scene happens.

Red Faction series: The GeoMod engine and later iterations were great because you could just go around destroying buildings and the landscape.

Things like that.

I suppose it's too amorphous, but another angle is "style" -- which would initially seem like a subset of visual/sound aesthetics, but it's not just that. A game has a kind of philosophy embedded in it, and I'm willing to overlook a lot of flaws if I like the game's sensibility.

Bad controls can sink a game, and I was tempted to put it at the top. But I'd rather deal with second-rate controls than feel like the game is wasting my time, and pointless difficulty increases are the #1 source of that. And "bad" (i.e. unintuitive or overcomplicated) controls whose quirks can be mastered aren't really that bothersome; what's deadly is when the controls respond unpredictably, erratically, or inappropriately. Sword of Sodan has better play control than Kolibri because even though the former game's controls are totally unintuitive, they can be figured out & mastered and your character will eventually do exactly what you tell him/her to do -- but no matter what you do in Kolibri, your hummingbird will always dart forward before coming to rest, and that just about wrecks the game.

After much world altering deliberation I've decided on sound. Level design is a very near second, and the great majority of my favourite games I prize for their level design, but sound is what keeps me playing after the level design has grown old. A great song is always present in my fondest memories of games. It's also what elevates middling games to pleasure.
The need to turn down the volume in a game is a killjoy; turning it off is totally disengaging. Even though I normally turn down sfx 50% (when possible in game--otherwise I distort the soundstage through my stereo), and down by 80% when the music's especially good, to not hear them at all would affect my play. Thus a real problem when they're bad. Obviously double that when it's the music that's bad. Jet Grind Radio and Crazy Taxi are two very good games I'll never revisit due to their awful soundtracks, and in CT's case sfx.

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Originally Posted by sheath

I don't believe in fun, I can't measure it or hold it in my hand. For that matter, I don't believe in any of you either. Get out of my head.

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Truth be told I'd be a little saddened that you don't believe in me except that if you did believe in me that apparently would mean you'd be holding me in your hand and measuring me.

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Originally Posted by StarMist

Truth be told I'd be a little saddened that you don't believe in me except that if you did believe in me that apparently would mean you'd be holding me in your hand and measuring me.

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Ick, I redact my mock-modern skeptic comment.

Also, I agree on Sound. I cannot play a game without the sound effects, and if the music doesn't appeal to me it definitely detracts from the game. Shadow Squadron is my favorite 32X game by far, but the music just doesn't do it for me. I think I just expected a different style more similar to other Free Flight Space Shooters.

It depends really, if any of these are really bad it could kill the game. If a few of these are fantastic and the rest are mediocre it might still be a good game. I guess what's most important depends on what type of game it is and what it's trying to accomplish.

I guess for me personally Gameplay, level design, visuals, sound and difficulty are near the top with story, innovation, genre and technica being less important.

Difficulty

Like safely navigating a vagina with a chainsaw.

Controls was the closest thing to gameplay, so I went with that.

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Originally Posted by Thunderblaze16

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

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Well then, it must not be fun!

To me level design is king with controls not far behind. I can forgive anything else sucking if these two are good, but if either of them are bad, then it doesn't matter how good everything else is.

I read a lot of good arguments here but I still go with genre. Would you really prefer a game with great control in a genre that you don't like instead of a game with average controls in a genre you do like? For example, I'd rather play Justice League Task Force than Tetris. Tetris is better in nearly every category than Justice League Task Force but I don't care for the genre. I'd much rather be beating up Superman with Batman than stacking some blocks in columns even though the controls are not as good or that the game is not innovative.

None they're all equally as important.

Female nudity is superior to everything previously mentioned in this thread, unless somebody else has mentioned female nudity (as if I've been bothered to trawl through three pages of posts) in which case it is equally important.