Fun and Competition.

The attittude of the players . Even the worst game can be enjoyed if the players have the true sport man's spirit .

Solving puzzles and riddles, and nothing in the game is made obvious; that's why I always loved Zelda games.

The best games combine luck and skill. You want your chances to improve as you get better at playing the game, but also need enough luck to make the result not easily predictable. Each game should be different (the luck implies a certain amount of randomness). Chess is a game of skill - but even that has some luck involved in it. Does your opponent know this particular openning? Do you both miss something that causes you to have an unpredicted advantage.... There are 400 combinations for the first move by each player. For the first 3 moves by each player - we are in the 100,000s so it can vary enormously, but you can learn the openings and learn from your mistakes. A good player should always beat a poor player, but you can handicap things by giving the good player less time... A game like Monopoly - has even more luck. A young child can beat a master if they are very lucky. In the long run, the better player will win the most games, but the chance that a novice might win - increases the games appeal. A good game should be easy to play - not take hours to learn the rules. If it is educational as well as fun - that makes it even better. Trivial pursuit is a good example of this. For computer games, the best ones evolve as you play them becoming harder. Teachnig you how to master certain moves etc. before letting you move on. Once you can beat the computer, then the best games let you play online against other humans. My favourite game is Risk. It combines a lot of what I have already said. First their is a lot of luck involved, but a lot of skill too. The luck makes it difficult to predict the winner. It is very flexible, you can play by different rules (e.g. deal cards out to deicde who gets which land...) giving it versatility. Soe mof which can be used to enable people to play the game much more quickly... The computer versions I have - are even better thna the board games. One the computer opponents have different levels of skill. There are different scenarios (even different maps). And you can play online. It is the only game I have found better on the ocmputer than as a board game However of course all this is just my opinion..

Planscape Torment.

Gore! Thats why I love the resident evil series as well as the silent hill ones. Also alot of action/fighting, I quite enjoy the Street Fighter games and the Mortal Kombat.

A real challenge. I hate anything thats too easy, 'cos thats just boring.

Life. You can win, you can loose, but it is ALL about the taking part that counts. It can be predictable or not, you never know what is round the cornor and it just keeps going. Life is the second greatest game of all. The first just has to be cluedo

Something that makes you think about what you are doing. Challenging but not so hard that it is unbeatable.

Variety within the game. Like Cranium. It offers charades, pictionary, trivia, and other things all in one game. A game that is repetitive loses the interest of the players fast.

When you're talking about video games it is by far creativity and imagination. Yes, technology might be advanced and the cut-scenes might look cool, but in the end when you realize you are playing the 50th final fantasy you realize that it would be nice to have something new. Advancement in technology does not necessarily mean advancement in creativity because they are just recycling something they've already done. I think that's what makes games good, how creative they are. Something that is fresh and original...like have balloon creatures in a land of sharp things and you have to save them. Weird stuff like that.

Computer type games, right now my favorite is Lord of the Rings Online. It's not generally available yet, since it's still in Beta, but it's going to be a GREAT game. Geek type games, I LOVE Munchkin. Not only is it a very very easy-to-learn table top game, it's absolutely hilarious, and it's dependent largely on personal interactions with the other players. Non-geek type games, I have to go with 5 Crowns for smaller groups or Apples to Apples for larger ones. Apples to Apples can get just as funny as Munchkin, but with words, and a game really any age can play together.

PLaying with other people online, leveling up, being able to change your appearance; such as World of Warcraft

a challenge not easy or too hard

I like games that are challenging and when you beat a level it makes you feal good.

Well being a game deisigner myself, i could go on for hours about what makes a game a good game. In short there isn't a single answer. It can be many things depending on the market u are trying to hit and please. For kids it'd be things like fun colors, simplicity, the chance to be hands on (ie. fixing stuff to other stuff, or pushing a button to make something happen), and the possibility to have multiple winners therefore increasing the chance of winning (lets face it, thats all kids want to do is win!. Storyline is far less important as their attention span is heavily limited. For a more grownup audience it's things that have already been mentioned, variety, challenges, creativity, all of which are far more to difficult to achieve that you might think. The ability to affect whoever is winning no matter what your position in the game is always a good one (in monopoly u can chanrge rent to whoever is dominating, in cluedo u can win simply by guessing at any time, no matter how bad ur doing...) There have in fact been seven 'things that make a game a good game' outlined by Hasbro. Naturally these are top secret. If u can incorporate any of these seven attributes into a game u have achieved something many game designers have failed, and u will have inevitably come up with a good game that will make it to shelf. To conclude, to be able to answer the question is near on impossible. To be broad and generalise is easy but to be specific is tough. When u guys figure out a defining answer let me know...im still searching!

Variety within the game,originality and graphics.

I think if it's fun, makes you think and perhaps even learn something, it's a good game.

personality

well ive been programming, designing, and testing games for about 6 years now and i dont think i could ever come up with exactly what makes a game good, but there are a few major things i look at when getting into a game and those are Graphics Errors or flaws in the design or programming level design including how big the levels are or how detailed they are the whole plot to the game or the storyline the characters personalities and features and overall replay value if a game can pass all of these its first off a miracle and second a GREAT game...