[General Discussion] Question: What makes a game fun for you?

Well obviously gameplay, But I'll digress:

First and foremost, if the game is fun, it'll have a hook very quickly in the game. This is to lure you into the game. We all know that if we come into a game unbiased and don't find any hook of any sort by the first 2 hours, we'll stop playing because there's no reason to keep playing (unless you have infinite patience, then you might be willing to play a bit longer). So the first thing to do is to keep us, the player, interested.

Second depends on what kind of game it is. In an RPG, the story has to be filling, robust, and deep. The system for battle also has to be unique and cannot just boil down to you mashing the "Fight" command over and over again. I personally see RPGs as thinking games where it requires strategy to play. This goes for standard RPGs and the strategy strand as well. Action games have to require the player to have some sense of dexterity in their inputs. For example, it's not fun if you can just walk up to an enemy and press a single button for the kill. Sneaking around, gunning and doging fire, taking cover, any of these can add to the fun in action games. Racing games are a mixed bag though. I personally don't like Simulation racing games at all (ala GT, Ridge Racer, etc.) I suppose I get bored with them easily because I can't stay that interested since I'm no expert on auto parts and such. Mario Kart, on the other hand, I personally find awesome because it's a game that you and your buddies can get into and just have a blast, whether it's racing for a finish, or ganging up on a single player or whatnot. FPS games need to have some kind of story (Half-Life 2) or overarching theme (FEAR) throughout the game to be fun, as well as a good assortment of weapons (Counter Strike), since I find half the fun of FPS games to be, quite bluntly, shooting stuff. Party games are fun as long as you can get yourself and a group of your buddies into it. Mario Party 1 - 8 are all fun if you can get enough people to play.

But I suppose it boils down to what one likes. A Final Fantasy Fanboy like myself will play all Final Fantasy games despite what others may say about the game itself. Case in Point: Final Fantasy II sucks balls, but I'm still going to make myself play through it. (That's Final Fantasy II in Japan by the way, not Final Fantasy IV in Japan, which is known as Final Fantasy II in America, so don't kill me. ^.^) Of course, I haven't played anything past Final Fantasy X yet since I don't have a PS2, but that's beside the point. Back to the original point. Especially with games that have sequels or a history, if you liked one of them, you'll go into the others in the series with higher expectations. At this point, your love for the series may cloud the logic of the quality of the game. The game itself may suck balls, but if you keep telling yourself that it has to be good, you'll find it to be much more fun than, say, a person who has never played a game in the series before.

Jam it back in, in the dark.