Poll: The perfect game is...
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I'd say a tie between plot and length. A good plot is great but if the game is short and has no replay value, then I am going to be fairly unimpressed.
I wish that gameplay was here, because gameplay is like a steak and story is like salt. If i can get both, that's awesome, but if I can only get one it's obvious which one I'll pick.
Wow! and again wow! the least important factor, the plot and the characters, seems to be the top priority for the majority of players. We are still talking about a video game right? Not a film, or a novel.
My vote goes for length/addictiveness. If you don't get glued with a game, then surely it is not a good sign. A good game captivates you and makes you want to play it all the time.
My vote goes for length/addictiveness. If you don't get glued with a game, then surely it is not a good sign. A good game captivates you and makes you want to play it all the time.
The "perfect game", doesn't and will never exist. Not for everyone.
However, the "ideal" game, quite honestly, must contain a bit of all those categories. To a certain degree.
A good story with interesting characters is meaningless if your setting, sense of atmosphere (immersiveness), and ambiance are bland and uninteresting. Likewise, all of the longevity, quality narrative, and ambiance in the world become worthless if your controls are slow, unintuitive, and clunky.
An ideal game will have a good balance of quality narrative, good characters, unique or interesting mechanics, believable or fully-realized setting, decent (but not over-drawn) longevity, and solid controls.
One aspect can be weaker than the others, but only if the others are better for it. Though, one aspect failing on all accounts negates just about any positive points of the others.
So, to answer your question, a "perfect game" will have all of those things.
However, the "ideal" game, quite honestly, must contain a bit of all those categories. To a certain degree.
A good story with interesting characters is meaningless if your setting, sense of atmosphere (immersiveness), and ambiance are bland and uninteresting. Likewise, all of the longevity, quality narrative, and ambiance in the world become worthless if your controls are slow, unintuitive, and clunky.
An ideal game will have a good balance of quality narrative, good characters, unique or interesting mechanics, believable or fully-realized setting, decent (but not over-drawn) longevity, and solid controls.
One aspect can be weaker than the others, but only if the others are better for it. Though, one aspect failing on all accounts negates just about any positive points of the others.
So, to answer your question, a "perfect game" will have all of those things.
In my opinion, the main MGS series all fit those criteria and so for me, those are the perfect games.
A balance of all those.
I think I'll go with originality, if I must select one. My favorite games are Mirror's Edge (which has good ambiance and originality), Dwarf Fortress (which has good addictiveness and originality and utterly fails everything else) and Myst Online (which has good ambiance and originality).
I think I'll go with originality, if I must select one. My favorite games are Mirror's Edge (which has good ambiance and originality), Dwarf Fortress (which has good addictiveness and originality and utterly fails everything else) and Myst Online (which has good ambiance and originality).
For me, it's how fun the game is. Anything else is an added bonus. It can be the most original, lengthy, visually stellar game created, yet, if it misses out on sheer entertainment value it sort of fails as game, in my opinion. Of course entertainment is subjective, but still, you kinda know if a game misses out on entertainment value even if it doesn't apply to you.
Currently my favorite game is Binding of Isaac. I've spent a total of 50+ hours in it. It has hardly any storyline and character development is completely absent. It's not the most original game. What it does have is top notch gameplay and enough replay value to keep coming back for more.
Though I voted for the plot/character development option, I think it's a tie between comfortable gameplay, which is what I think you meant by comfortable game controls, and plot. The first one is fun, but it can get boring if there's no real aim or purpose in the game, too much of the latter just gives you a movie with quick time events. I think several games that did pretty well at that include Mass Effect (even with their recent transgressions, it's still my favorite series), Halo, and Planetside, because they can adjust the balance of the two as necessary. Mass Effect probably doesn't have as much dialogue as Final Fantasy, but it still manages to keep you completely engrossed, while still remaining pretty entertaining. Halo, despite the hate poured on it, has an extremely high quality mythos, and tries to keep it plausible, or at least easier to stomach for physicists and astronomers, for its fans and is basically one of the last remnants of the lone demigod of a space marine. Planetside kept in mind that people were there for the fighting, and settled on keeping out most in-game story, basically handing over to the players to write the epics, while giving them the hows and whys of them killing each other.
When it comes to playing a game, originality is a big thing for me. There are a lot of games out that that are very similar to each other and when it comes to an original game, those are my favorites. Needless to say though, some of these characteristics mentioned in the poll are also essential for the game to be a perfect game. With originality comes for me plot/character development. A game needs a person or people or a group and especially a story line for players to actually want to follow and be a part of. This also goes for comfortable game controls. If the controls of the game are not easy and not allowing for the player to switch around the controls to his or her own liking, then the game play as a whole will suffer too.
I just want to clarify that this poll was designed to show what should be EMPHASIZED the most in a game. Fun/game-play, duh, that's a given and everyone knows that already. What needs to be found out is what individual PIECES of game-play make the game fun. I do see what you mean when you say you want to relax and have fun playing a game; but, what makes the game fun to play is what needs to be found out.xPixelatedx said:
The perfect game is one that you can play over and over and never get tired of it. Some love shooter games such as Call of Duty which I have watched my brother in law play for hours. I always like sports games that let you develop the team, make trades, build a minor league system or draft players. Also car racing games have always been enjoyable for me and now with developing cars i makes these specific games more fantastic! My wife loves the Batman Arkyam game which she plays on my Mac. She loves the graphics, and game plot and I am certain the Batman movies helped a bit. I guess "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" when it comes to different games. For me the game shouldn't be too easy to learn and should offer challenges, graphics need to be strong and it needs to feel a little real inside the fantasy of the game...and of course game play is important.
The perfect game is impossible because it would have to be better that any other game ever made and would have to appeal to everyone. By human standards, such a game (or anything really) is impossible because there will always be at least one person who will disagree/be against it.
Plot and character development is the only choice for me.
I'd pull my teeth in between sections of a really well written story.
But I wouldn't play a poorly written game no matter how good the gameplay is.
Of course there are outliers like Rock Band or Tetris with no story to speak of but they're the exception.
I'd pull my teeth in between sections of a really well written story.
But I wouldn't play a poorly written game no matter how good the gameplay is.
Of course there are outliers like Rock Band or Tetris with no story to speak of but they're the exception.