What Makes a Game Good?

I can't answer this for everyone else, so I'll answer as best as I can for myself and see where you folks stand.

What I like to see in a game is choice. The more choices about things the better. The problem is if the system is complex and over-burdening then it's very easy to say screw it and go pick up something else. However if the game is laid out in an accessible way while still offering plenty of choice to those who want to dig deeper then I usually find myself enjoying my time. That doesn't mean I don't like straight forward shoot em up games from time to time, but I much prefer to have as much impact on the story as possible. I'll rate a few things here on a scale of 1-10 with how much I care about the given feature.

Graphics: 6/10

I like for games to be stylized. That doesn't mean the graphics have to be photo realistic, but I don't like for them to have that fuzzy sort of feel to them. I prefer graphics to have a clean, easy to look at feel. It doesn't matter if the game is cartoonish, photo realistic or somewhere in between as long as there are some appealing sides to it. If it's the equivalent of a black background with dark red text, then I'll likely pass.

Sound: 9/10

I value this very highly. Whether it be the music or the in game sounds from units, spells, NPCs, walking etc it has to sound well done. If the sounds aren't believable then the game isn't believable. Well done music is a huge plus to me. A game like Left 4 Dead for example does great things with music. The tempo and songs change when events occur in game, much like a movie. I eventually turned off music when playing L4D because it kinda bothered me, but the idea itself was brilliant imo. I think an overlooked feature is the opportunity to load your own music in to play as a soundtrack for you over the in game music. Even going so far as allowing you to select triggers for certain specific songs or sounds to occur. Giving the players control over something like this might be a win or it might be a fail, but I'd like to see it tried with a large scale game.

Replayability: 9/10

Very important. I like to get my moneys worth when I buy a game. If it's only going to last me 5-10 hours then I usually have a hard time parting with that $50 (plus whatever subscription fees if applicable). There are times when a 5-10 hour experience with a game is worth having (whether it's in 1 sitting or over the span of a week or two), but only if the story is well done. MMOs are appealing to me partly because they allow you to play 1 game (maybe 1 or 2 on the side) for a year and be happy about it, assuming the game does well. Generally games have to have enough content to keep me busy, but at the same time I prefer quality content over a quantity of it. Tons of content is pointless if there's no fun or reason in participating in said content. It's a balancing act many games have succeeded at and many have failed at.

Story: 7/10

It's nice to have a good story to go with a game whether you pay attention to it or not. In some games I burn through content without reading any quests while in others I take my time and check everything out. An example of a game with an interesting take on telling a story is LotRO. I'm partly biased because I'm a big fan of Lord of the Rings, but they also did a very good job with PvE in general. Turbine made you feel like you were a part of the story. There were key locations and plenty of RP hangouts. I myself didn't RP, but I did enjoy watching people RP in the Prancing Pony in Bree (I played on Landroval, the unofficial RP server). Anyways if a game doesn't have a solid story to explain what's happening then usually you lose focus of what exactly it is you're doing in game. If PvP is the main aspect of the game then I expect that there is a solid reason for us to be fighting each other in the first place and I expect that the story will be driven by our fighting.

Community: 10/10

This only really applies in multiplayer games. Community is the single most important thing to me when I play a multiplayer game. If you meet interesting people then the game will be interesting. If you meet dull, boring people (such as myself) then the game can get boring very quick. Finding a tight community and finding people who are similar to you in terms of play style and maturity is great. Playing alongside a bunch of people who only care about trash talking and ruining your game experience isn't all that much fun. The best players don't need to talk trash. The best people try to help others become better and to have more fun. If you find people who have a combination of those 2 things, then you've hit the jackpot. I feel there are plenty of people who are good players and/or good people, but they often have selfish tendencies. This isn't entirely their fault as many games foster this type of behavior. That's something I watch for in games. Is the goal of this game team or individually oriented. If it's based around grouping and teamwork then the community is often good. I also tend to pick RP servers as the communities there are usually more my style (whether RPing is widespread or not).

There are a few other features that I could grade, but overall I think these are the most important to me. I do want to stress that this is a question that can only really be answered individually and I'm not saying that I'm right and everyone else is wrong. A good game to you may not be a good game to me. There are also a lot of side questions like, why are these features important? Are good games defined by past experiences? Are we generally unwilling to try games that are outside our comfort zone? Perhaps, but that discussion is one that will wait until another day.

What's your take on this subject?