good gameplay makes the game enjoyable enough for you to want to keep on playing.
good graphics makes the game seem like a better product overall.
storylines compliment the gameplay but are only needed for certain genres.
Gameplay...nuff said. While I wont deny that good graphics provide an initial 'hook', gameplay is so much more important if you want to keep players engrossed.
As for stoylines...sometimes, they can work really well in conjunction with a game. However, if the gameplay is non-existant or just not fun, then it usually makes me want ot turn off in the long run. Case in point - Final Fantasy 8 (and 9). Can we stop drawing from the enemies yet? God...someone get these damn battles moving at a half-decent pace? Everyone's comatosed! .
My verdict is - if you want a good storyline in your 'games' and little else, then go read a book or watch a film. I actually want to play the games as well, and be challenged to a certain degree.
"The reason CnC needs a story is to mask the bad gameplay. Great gameplay does not need a story."
Total Annihilation proved this. The gameplay is awesome, but the story is..."Two sides.....robots...kill.....blah"
TA Kingdoms apparently has worse gameplay, since less people like it. It had an awesome storyline, and I enjoyed the gameplay more than TA's.
Well WarioWare has no gameplay OR decent graphics, but its still one of the greatest games ever. Why? Because you never know whats coming next, and because each game is so short you won't have time to properly play it. If each minigame was a standalone game, chances are it's be pretty tediously boring.
I've gotten up to the point where I'm not sure what gameplay is anymore. If gameplay is the "thing that keeps you going", then storyline = gameplay for me. The only games without storylines that have kept me going for over 4 hours are Conquest of Elysium, Empire Earth, Age of Mythology, Knights & Merchants, and Industry Giant II. For all the other games, it's just to see the ending (or a rare good gameplay-story combo). And I've played literally hundreds of games, freeware or commercial. I wish I could get my hands on TA. Too bad they don't sell it around here.
People who go for gameplay over graphics are like those who say "Oh, looks don't matter, I just go for personality". Just the same bimbos who'd go around saying "I want to end world hunger and save the whales".
WarioWare is a game that defies all form of other games. Yeah, originality. It proves that quantity is indeed better than quality .
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
Commercial games tend to focus on entertainment value. The point is to impress the reviewers, that is all. Storyline and graphics add a lot to entertainment, with gameplay coming third.
Because freeware (our kind, anyway) generally manages a high of about zero media attention, we don't need to blow anyones mind, just give them something good to play so we can advertise by word-of-mouth rather than a clueless game magazine reviewer. Blowing peoples' mind with additional media is indeed often a bad thing, as it adds a lot to file size and little to gameplay (I'll admit storyline can enhance gameplay, especially in atmospheric games, but story != massive media). Look at all the crap young Romero pumped out. Pure gameplay, and the most popular freeware ever, even if much of it sucked.
Uh... isn't entertainment the whole point of playing a game? Who's Romero?
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
I'd quote that in my sig, but I like JD's comment better.
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
The thing that I care most about in a game is originality (original game concepts, not an idea ripped off of another game). This fits most inside the category 'gameplay' I think. Tetris was extremely addictive, original and fun when it was released... but there has been countless tetris ripoffs after the release of the original, which leeches out the gameplay of ALL tetris games. (all games I'm working on are based more on originality (gameplay) than all other game aspects)
Yeah, originality is fun. But would people listen? It's always fan games and more disguised fan games (i.e. those "great" games with the FF battle engine). And then there's those commercialists trying to capitalize on the success of other games by making clones of them with only slightly better graphics. Any surprise that Counter-Strike is still favored above all the CS wannabes?
I guess originality would lead to better gameplay, or even the existence of gameplay. I bet that that a competition based on originality would bring out some really good games for once. *pokes Shab and SC*
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
Well good games have all three . Although... I think decent graphics, AWSOME gameplay, and a strong story are needed. Take StarCraft for instance, it doesn't have that great of graphics but its addictive and it has a cool story (although who plays the campaigns anyway )
no one would play a game with bad graphics or simple geometric shapes ... I mean you can say "This Pixel is a Space Warriror, and that square is an alien and that circle is a ufo" however the gameplay cant be fun,unless you have good enough graphics that they arent annoying and pull you into it (If you can't tell whats going on then whats the point :|)
On the other hand no story is kinda dull.. for some games the only thing that keeps you playing is wanting to know what happens at the end .
Bad Gameplay? Alot of click games barely have any. Just having a semi bugless platform engine doesnt make a fun game :|.... Innovation/Orginality is always a plus too . Who would play an unfun game? It's like watching a bad movie .
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