I guess the title says it all, but I was wondering for you, what is it about video games that makes you enjoy them so much and want to keep playing?
Storylines, Puzzles, Graphics and if the game feels realistic like the gameplay then you know its good.
A good game has to have a storyline that absorbs you and keeps you hooked. And then it has to have it's own special features, such as the portal gun in portal. Or it has to be open world like GTA or sandbox like Minecraft. Multiplayer is also very good.
lol I think minecraft is just a get away from our personal lives where we can be as silly as we want till get have to go back to this thing called "life" xP
Pacing is also important... Not too fast that you move through the objectives but not too slow that it becomes a grind
Having no friends to hang out with in real life. I look for the ability to play with other people online, offline I find a bit dull and boring. I want a game in which I can use my few abilities.
Interestingly, the first 5 posts said 'story', and yet Minecraft hardly has any storyline. Puzzles, well Minecraft is limited in this department too, though I guess there is a puzzle of trying to find the most optimal way of doing something, or trying to get out of interesting situations (like enemy swarms or lost in caves). And graphics, I've never been in a game that feels realistic in the sense that I forget it's a game. I may take the game seriously, but I always know it's a game. I really can't wait for a game that would be like the Matrix, but I'm sure we're a long way off. Such little has gone into sensory aside from visual and audio, touch is a huge part of things, and imagine being able to feel pain in a game world. Once you have pain then you get real realism. Bottom line for me is that most of the time I know movies are fake, people just act unrealistic in them, effects are too extreme, results too unlikely, etc... And video games I have never found to be real. Finally, three posts in we get a mention of achievement, which I feel is critical! This is how the vast majority of games hook you, with level ups, experience, new goodies, new gadgets, new abilities, promotions, advancements, cash, etc... Part of what makes Minecraft so addictive I think is the simultaneous achievements all at once. For example, you are mining. You gain cobblestone which you can use to build things, you progress towards a full inventory, you move forward in making a larger tunnel, you move towards discovering/mining ores, you progress towards using up your pickaxe, and now you even get XP for ores too. So while you are doing one action, you actually accomplish 6 things! Compare it to a highly addictive game like Farmville where hoeing crops gains you only money, XP, and crop regrowth. Minecraft is comparably twice as addictive. I think this sort of multi-achievement is key to making the most addictive games. Variety of gameplay is also important, because if you were mining in a straight line constantly and knew there was no other future for you, you'd get bored pretty fast. The comment about pacing was interesting, because Minecraft is fairly unique in that you can set your own objectives and therefore choose how quickly you achieve them. And community, of course! I wonder how a game could influence the type of community it creates, though.
For me, I stuck to Minecraft so I could survive a night without: -Getting killed -Dying of Hunger But I like games that challenge me, and keep me interested. I got bored of Minecraft 6 months ago, but then I joined an outpost. I never have played a game for more than a year. Minecraft kept me here for 501 days. most games have a storyline of maybe a day or two. Minecraft is forever. Most games don't come with many updates. Most games are final when published, nothing new is added. Minecraft is at 1.7.4 now, and it took them 3 years to get here. After being released, most game updates are just bug fixes and minor performance updates. I like games that slowly change with time.
Something that at the end of the day you can show off is always nice too. So a mixture of goals and social activity.
I love being immersed into a game, plus amazing characters, where you really feel what they're feeling and that they are actually real, I don't think a game can be good with bad characters, they need to have personality *Cough* The Last Of Us *Cough*
I don't think you can necessarily say that Minecraft does not have a story. It is not a scripted story that we experience like many games we play, but everyone here could tell us at least one Minecraft story. In fact our whole experience playing the game could be considered a story. Opportunities to make goals and get rewards, the ability for in-game growth as I learn more about the game, varied play as I become bored with different parts of it, and socialization are all things that attract me.
