For me, I have two basic category of games that I play. The games that I feel are overall fun, and make for good time wasters, then there's the games where I take it a little more seriously.
The competitive type games are the ones that stick to the basics, the ones that don't oversaturate your game with bells and whistles. A firm believer in Less Is More when it comes to competitive play. Games like Quake, where you run around, pick up your weapons, and shoot things. For Quake, I play for the rush, and the fun comes along to. For other games, like, say, Minecraft, I play to relax a little, take time to enjoy something at my own pace.
That's my take on things, anyways.