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

What makes a game fun for me is a lot more complicated than simply reducing them into their atomic parts. I find the graphics vs gameplay debate wholly tiring and childish. I'm not even sure if I can adequately describe why I enjoy some games and not others or why I enjoy some games more so than others.

I don't believe there's a winning formula for developing a great game. You can have top notch graphics and gameplay and story and the rest of it but there's also that indescribable thing (maybe charm) that a game either has or hasn't and you can generally tell the moment you pick up the controller which can ultimately mean the difference between a fun game and a dreadful one.

For instance with Everquest II it had better graphics, better sound, better music, voice overs and generally speaking more everything the original didn't and yet once all those parts came together the overall experience wasn't anywhere as good as the original. Everquest was simply more fun.

Jam it back in, in the dark.