What is the Most Important Part of a Game to You?

[burningdoom]

Graphics? Story? Controls? Level-design? Genre of game? Developer? Music? Something else?

Which part do you consider the best part of the game?

[marvelvscapcom2]

1.Controls   
2.Level Design 
3.Story
4. Music
5. Graphics
6. Developer

Controls are the most important to me, because controls can literally ruin a perfect game. Like Rule of Rose among others. A game can have everything else but if the controls are broken then the game is unplayable.

Level Design is important because if the level design sucks then it is almost like having the controls broken. It becomes unplayable and the level layout can just become stressful. It will ruin a game if the level design isn't good. like superman 64 for example. the level design is a joke lol.

Story- Story is why we play the game pretty much. and it is what we remember. FFX, and all the great rpgs are dependent on their amazing stories. The only reason I don't have story higher on the list is because some games are amazing with little to no plot.

Music-  Music is very important, how many people hum a mega man or Mario theme from time to time? music gets stuck in our heads and its always needed to have even more fun. I love music in games.

Graphics- visuals are cool, not as important as everyone makes them out to be though imo. But still awesome to look at.

Developer- Pretty much not a factor for me.  I don't go by the name too much. I have a few developers that I love more then others but I don't buy games because of it. I go by all the others on the list.

Awesome question btw 

[telly]

Hmm, for me it would probably be

1. Overall themes
2. Story
3. Music/ Soundtrack
4. Controls
5. Graphics

[indenton]

1. Controls
2. Level Design
3. Presentation (That's visual and audio elements, not just hi-res graphics)
4. Reasonable price point

96. The game being an arbitrary length, because my outlook on quality is completely overwritten because it didn't attempt to consume by life force

[stealthrush]

Graphics? Story? Controls? Level-design? Genre of game? Developer? Music? Something else?

Which part do you consider the best part of the game?

1. Gameplay
2. Longevity/Replay-value
3. Presentation
4. Developer
5. Price

Really don't care about story, graphics or controls much. Besides my favorite gene are arcade-oriented for the most part.

[indenton]

Really don't care about story, graphics or controls much. Besides my favorite gene are arcade-oriented for the most part.

You don't really care about controls? Fascinating

[maximo310]

1. Controls
2. Gameplay
3. Level design
4. Music
5. Story

I'd say that controls should defenitely be the no1/ no.2 focus, no matter if its an arcade or console game.If the controls are bad, then I think it personally makes it much more difficult to enjoy the game.

[pacpix]

Gameplay and controls are the most important to me.  I love a good story and great graphics, but if the game itself is not good then I don't get much enjoyment out of the experience.

[necrosexual]

gameplay
world physics
art design
story/characters
level design
controls
all the rest

music doesn't bother me until it's REALLY god awful, like, so bad it hurts. but even then i'll turn the sound off and just play my own tunes
i can adapt to almost any control scheme until, again, it's REALLY god awful, or if it clashes with gameplay (and physics). the physics of the world > controls. ie, if combat is clunky, the game can have the best controls ever, but i can't deal with slow and clunky feeling gameplay. murr~~

ahhh
but things like art design choices can really put me off.
so idk.

as for developer, that determines my chances of purchase, esp preorders. otherwise, a bad developer can make a golden egg and a great developer can make shitty products (konami made a lot of the ljn-licensed trash back during the NES days, for example, and nintendo's animal crossing team made that fucking terrible amiibo festival game, for an example of 'usually makes gold, made a steaming pile of shit')

[kashell]

The most important part of the game are the gameplay and controls. If the game isn't fun, then there's no sense in continuing even if it has a great story. If the game is hard to play due to a shitty camera or nonsensical control schemes that can't be changed or ridiculous features then, once again, I see no point in continuing.

Character development and story are next. Since I mainly play RPGs, I like to get to know the characters and how they feel about their circumstances.

Graphics, music, length, and the rest are last.

[turf]

Is. It. Fun?

That's is.

[retrogemcollector]

Controls
Graphics
Story

[indenton]

Is. It. Fun?

That's is.

I understand what you mean by how clear and simple this should be in theory.  Mario Kart is fun, Super Smash Bros. is fun.  But there are whole franchises that people adore, entire genres that aren't necessarily aiming to be fun first-hand. 

I don't think anybody was praising P.T because it was "fun", people love Resident Evil and Silent Hill (Basically the entire Horror genre) because it presents a huge challenge, people get a huge thrill from objective fear and fuelling the adrenaline.  I enjoy Professor Layton because it challenges the mind, it's also one of the only games I can enjoy with my Mom.  It requires a lot more critical thinking than any other game I've played.  Fire Emblem is also a strong example of the same kind of enjoyment. 

Enjoyment, just giving you positive vibes would be an all-encompassing statement instead of just fun.  Maybe the writing is masterful, you can appreciate that and get enjoyment out of that, it isn't just "fun".  If you only really enjoy certain genre of games, in that case fun may always be the prominent aim of the game for you.

[burningdoom]

The most important part of the game are the gameplay and controls. If the game isn't fun, then there's no sense in continuing even if it has a great story. If the game is hard to play due to a shitty camera or nonsensical control schemes that can't be changed or ridiculous features then, once again, I see no point in continuing.

This is about where I'm at with it.

[amwolfmusic]

1)Story
2)Music
3)Graphics-Particularly ART STYLE
4)Controls
5)World Design

A story is the major part of the game to me, I didn't like FFX for the story, don't get me wrong, it's an okay game, but the story was just bad. Freedom Wars doesn't have a good story, but it motivates you to keep playing, Golden Sun-Dark Dawn, now that is a truly good story, It may be long but the story keeps you in the game.

Music, I play the Cello, and I can tell you, there are times were you play a song that you just absolutely hate because of how uneventful it is. If the music is interesting (Not counting Rhythm games) and eventful, and if the music MATCHES what is going on, like an epic boss battle with heavy music and interest as you only hear it once. I'm just a Music buff, okay, I know.

Graphics- If the art style is interesting like Okami or Assassins Creed Black Flag. If it matches the style of music as well, such as a dark place with eerie music, games like Final Fantasy Chronicles perfects this to me. Freedom Wars as well.

Controls- I'm not fully pissed when they get this wrong, all I do is adapt, but Other M is awkward, that is just bad controls. Freedom Wars has a beautiful control system. It's free moving in a sense.

World Design- Games like Freedom Wars don't need a good world design because of the type of game they are, but a game like Final Fantasy Chronicels or Bravely Default NEED that world design, but I'm not big on this.

EXTRA! Puzzles- I like puzzles, Metroid and Golden Sun Dark Dawn, are full of puzzles, and I just love puzzles! XD