What draws you towards playing a game? What keeps you away?

 

For me its the story elements more than anything else. More and more, I look forward to a certain games that will offer an interesting story and characters, and the ability to affect the outcome of said story, regardless of what genre it is.

 

RPGs of course fill this craving nicely, but I've enjoyed games like Half-life, God of War, Starcraft, Prince of Persia Sands of Time and the MGS series, which offer interesting stories and characters.

 

Sometimes the sheer joy of gameplay will override everything else. Ninja Gaiden didn't have the strongest story, but the awesome gameplay more than kept me addicted. Likewise the Jedi Knight Series kept me addicted for awhile through the thrill of lightsaber combat and force powers. Force Pushing stormtroopers off cliffs never grows old.

 

I found that I can't really keep playing games without that motivation to see what happens next. This is why I can't master any fighting, racing or sports games. This might seem silly, but I played through everyone of Tekken 5's story battles just to see how each character's story ended. Then I never played it again unless some friends were over.

 

Things that keep me away from certain games are, (besides the obvious horrible bugs and bad gameplay)

 

Random Battles

Games that require you to grind - Most MMOs I guess. I want games to be fun not work.

 

Thats about it.

 

Penny for your thoughts?

To have fun while doing it.

Chicks.

Furries.

To pounce on unsuspecting critters and stick swords in them or shoot them dead.

 

*pounces on kirottu and shoves Squall's gunblade down his throat and pulls the trigger*

 

So, you think threating my life is somehow a joke and funny? I

How is shoving a gunblade down your throat and pulling the trigger a threat to your life?

 

You're Kirottu!

One of the reasons why I hate MMORPGs is the whole grinding thing. I like solidly written single player games, preferably CRPGs.

Fun.

I still play simple games like Soldat. I think the allure is in the satisfaction of shooting the guns, the number of guns, the flying and physics, the gore, and the occasional teamwork, like when two snipers sit on one hill and pin down the other team while the rest of the team captures the flag. It also doesn't require all of your life. You can just sit down for 5 minutes and feel like you got a solid gaming session in.

It changes depending on my mood. Sometimes I want to play a heavily story-driven CRPG, sometimes I want to play sand-box games and sometimes I just want to play simple, casual games.

escape. which is enhanced when my suspension of disbelief is upheld.

 

taks

The easy answer is fun.

 

This can be from being immersed in a gameworld/interactive story, to sweating bullets in situations against nearly impossible odds that I wouldn't really want to be in in RL, to being a wannabe armchair general going through historical operations, to pulling off insane antics that no one medium would allow, to going through awesome coop experiences with buddies, or to beat the crap out of said buddies, to playing Mr-Mod-Designer-For-A-Day via a game toolset, or murdering Deekin over and over again.

 

If it's funless, it's pointless. I could care less how many levels or items I've gained along the way.

Jiggly Tech. Nah kidding... Fun, and to see what technical advances are achieved.

Escape from reality.

 

Also a form of stress release when you can go through the towns and kill everyone in sight.

Escape from reality.

 

Also a form of stress release when you can go through the towns and kill everyone in sight.

 

Playing a psychotic murderer can be rather relaxing.

Alcohol.

Fun. The story is a big thing about me playing (usually in certain games if I get annoyed enough with it I just look up spoilers and then go to the next game. This is usually RPGS).

It's still cheaper than a date.

My ideal game would be an interactive novel kind of thing. I like narrative. But I play games for fun, and can enjoy games that have no narrative.

I'm with Taks and Raven. It is a nice and harmless escape from reality. I have a very high pressure job and it's nice to do something that takes it off your mind altogether.

My main motivation is to just have fun and as an escape from reality. Alcohol is often involved however.

I'm with Taks and Raven. It is a nice and harmless escape from reality. I have a very high pressure job and it's nice to do something that takes it off your mind altogether.

That it does. In that reality you can become the hero that saves everyone or the insane god that destroys all.

I look mainly for storylines and/or addictive gameplay.

I like a lot of things about lots of games, but I'm a real sucker for atmosphere.