Question: What makes a good video game?
Answer: The game is fun to play.
Now this may sound like the obvious answer, and you may believe it to be the one that many people would choose, but let me explain myself.
However, when the game is finally released. It is around the same time as two other games costing less money to make, so these two games have a lesser production value in terms of cost.
The first of the two as bugs, and the controls are not as tight as the higher production game. The second, has visuals that looks about five years old, and the sound is just adequate, nothing special.
At the end of the year a poll is issued, and gamers rate the two games with the lesser production cost, higher than the one with the larger budget. With one of the games with the lesser production cost, winning game of the year.
Now we know that the higher production game is superior in many ways to the other two games. So what could have happened, for gamers not to choose the big budget game as their game of the year?
Well, this could boil down to a number of things. Let's take the first of the two games. It has bugs, but none of them were game breaking, so people still enjoyed playing it.
We see this sometimes with even gamers making videos of their favourite bugs and posting them online, for all to enjoy. So although these are negative things, they sometimes add fun to a game.The second game has five year old looking visuals, with sound and audio at the lower end of the scale, but the gameplay is addictive. Since gamers can overlook these things, for the addictive gameplay. The game as now become a success.
Now it doesn't matter the amount of negative things that are said about these two games, in comparison to the one with the higher budget. Since gamers are enjoying these games and that is what matters to them.
This is an important aspect, and one developers should always consider when working on a title. People find many things fun about a game, and great visuals and story are not always top of the list.
Keeping up to date with the gaming community and what fans want, is important for video gaming companies, since if no one likes a game, because it is not fun, then it doesn't matter how good it looks on paper. It may still be out liked and out sold by a game, that may have looked less appealing on paper in their eyes.
A good video game should be fun to play, and we see this all the time with games such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Grand Theft Auto V. Since these games have been around for years and are still being played today, simply because players enjoy them.
A game may have great visuals, and great voice acting, but if the gameplay is slow and boring. People will soon look for something that is more fun and interesting to participate in. For example; a game that is more fun to play.
So it is quite simple. A good video game, is a fun video game.