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

So I was browsing another forum, and reading a thread made by someone who was talking about how they used to raid in WoW (World of Warcraft), and other people either arguing for or against this method of gameplay.

In WoW, raid means to run through a dungeon (known largely as an "instance", because it's a private dungeon for you and your group/raid. If someone else goes in the instance, they get a seperate dungeon, which is the exact same thing as yours, but they get their own dungeon, just like you, and you two will never run into each other in there) several times repeatedly with 5-40 other players (although 25 is the limit they put on newer dungeons), in an attempt to get one of the bosses in the dungeon to drop a piece of equipment for your character which would make you really powerful. However, you may not always get something that you can use, or if there is an item you can use, but there are other players who could also use it, you may lose the roll to win the item.

Now imagine having to do this for 4 hours a day, 4-6 days a week, and if you don't take part, then you're looked down upon or seen as someone taking advantage of the hard work of those other players (really, read some stuff about WoW and you'd be surprised at the attitudes some players will exhibit).

Anyway, the point of this topic is, what makes a game fun for you? While my question is largely focused on the MMO (massive, multiplayer online) games, this could easily be applied to single player games as well.

For example, do you play the game because you like the graphics? Or the controls (such as a racing or fighting game)? Or do you play the game because you enjoy the storyline in it, or the characters? Perhaps it's the multiplayer aspect of it, and it's a game you can enjoy with friends and family?

I'm just curious because it seems like many games seem to increasingly focus mostly on the graphics, and place less emphasis on other areas of gameplay, such as the story, or the controls. Looking at the Nintendo Wii, they're obviously not going to win any awards for graphics if going head to head with the 360 or the PS3. But yet they're selling out of systems and games like crazy, because people find the games to be very fun, due to the nature of the Wiimote and the fact that many of the Wii games are fun to play with other people. So Nintendo must've did something right.

Personally, I have nothing at all against great graphics. I just feel that the story in the game (and the characters) should be worth telling, so that I want to play it, to see what happens to my character as I progress through it, and to explore the world that the developers worked hard on creating. I'll let weak gameplay slide if the story is good, but if the story feels weak, it won't motivate me to finish through it to see what happens at the end (this happened to me with Final Fantasy 8 and Chrono Cross. While I love the music in both games, and they had pretty cool graphics for their time, I kept getting lost in the storyline, couldn't figure out what was going on for the most part, and gave up after a while. I never got around to coming back to finish them either).

For a more recent example, in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, I liked the beginning story, where you have to find the king's lost son, who can save the world from the demons who are opening portals to your world. And I loved the vast amount of side-quests available. I think I got so involved in side quests that I forgot to save the world for about two months lol. Some stuff I didn't like in the game was that it seems like they hired exactly 3 voice actors to do the voices for the many, many inhabitants of the world. It's probably nitpicking, but when I hear a male breton sound exactly the same as a male orc, who sounds exactly like a male lizard (I forget their name in the game), then it kind of ruins the immersion into the world (same thing with the women. I loved the one where all the poor beggar women sounded like a young 20-something woman, but when I asked them about the Gray Fox, if they didn't like me enough, they suddenly reverted to sounding like a 60-year old woman who was losing her voice. It's one of those you have to see it to believe it types, but it's really funny when you see it happen lol).

The open-endedness of the game was kind of a drawback too, by the time I did want to get back to saving the world, I had gotten so many quests that I forgot which one was the one for the main plot, and spent about an hour trying to figure out where to go, and more importantly, what to do in order to get back on track of it. The demons could've conquered the world in the time I spent lollygagging around the Arena, just running around the world to explore its many caves and dungeons, and trying to steal stuff and sell it to the black market just because I was tired of never having enough money lol.

And for those of you who do play WoW, do you tend to prefer to take your time leveling, or just get to the max level right away and start PvP (fighting other players), or raiding non-stop? Or are you sick of both options and wish for something different (such as playing alts)? For the record, I love WoW's level 1-69 experience, but the PvP and the raiding in my opinion is poorly done, and could've led to much more (I was looking forward to taking part in the instance "Battle of Mount Hyjal", which was the last stage in Warcraft 3, but looking at all the stuff I have to do before I can even take part in that battle just turned me off).

Sorry for making a long post, but I wanted to give you examples so you'll have an idea of what I'm trying to ask. Obviously I dont' expect an essay for your reply, but try to make it something more than "I like Sonic because it's fun". If you say that, why is it fun to you?

Jam it back in, in the dark.