I love a game with good immersion and story telling . Couldn’t care less about graphics . Though, nothing breaks immersion more then getting through some crazy emotional plot event, and next scene the characters or town npcs are business as usual. Open world games are the worst when it comes to that.

Otherwise, games with good progressive, wether stats, optimization, or territory growth.

I’m not big on inventory management or resource management systems in general but I’ll put up with them if the game is otherwise really engaging like RPGs mostly, and I really get into the music and exploration and unlocking new skills and abilities in progress systems. And if there’s no challenge I’ll lose interest pretty quickly.

Playing with friends. I don’t find games a fun solo experience, nor do I line playing with randos, but I like cooperating with folks I know on a challenge.

I like open world games where I can mute the background music. That soundtrack might be great but after a few hours of playing in a loop it gets old, also some games have awesome ambient sounds that go mostly unnoticed because the music drowns them.

To me, storytelling and immersion is everything. Good visuals are of course a bonus, but soundtrack is almost more important than visuals. Gaming, to me, is a means to escape, instead of drugs and alcohol. I put on my closed Sennheiser headphones and just disappear. Skyrim was my salvation for years, until I discovered the two Horizon games.

If I can solve the challenges in your game by being absurdly single-minded, I’m a happy camper.

Let me win by pumping a single stat or stacking a single affix. When I start a new run and decide I want to solve every problem through liberal application of ____, let me do that. Nothing rains on my parade like diminishing returns or forcing different builds to get through different parts of the game.

It depends on the genre.

If it’s a single player narrative-driven game, I want your story to be gripping. I want to be thinking about your game even when I’m not playing. Most recently, Expedition 33 is the gold example of this.

With a multiplayer co-op game, I want to ＯＰＴＩＭＩＺＥ. I want to complete goals as though they are all engineering challenges, and I want collaboration on the same axis from the people I’m playing with. Games like Factorio and Satisfactory fill this niche for me, obviously. But I also really like co-op puzzle games like Portal 2 or We Were Here.

With a multiplayer free-for-all game, I crave chaos. I want to interject enough random chance into a game that it’s basically gambling where you can tip the scales by being a skilled player. Party games and kart racers go here.

486, SVGA CRT, Sound Blaster. Twelve years old, on vacation, playing Wing Commander.

I have two distinct moods:

1. The immersive world. Not necessarily open world, but a story that sucks me in (or at least doesn’t suck) with lots of things to upgrade or collect. I’m always looking for that next best thing that will finally make unstoppable!

2. I ain’t got time for growth. I just want to get in there and start blasting things. This is the type of game where the enemies try to avoid YOU. Don’t tell me about the princess’s sick aunt, just keep bringing me more things to pummel, and bigger things to pummel them with!

And for mobile: something that makes me think, and I can play it short intervals.

Generally for me, its all about the flow-state - generally anything with a strong primary gameplay loop thats not too hard to learn, but impossible to master. Roguelikes specifically tend to scratch this itch, since the genre is all about finding a strong core gameplay loop, and than milking every drop of enjoyment out of it. Things like Slay the Spire, Roboquest, or Crypt of the Necrodancer. Others games I like, that do this really well are arcade indie games like Hotline Miami and Anger Foot, and esports titles like CS2 and DotA2.

That said, my more niche interest in games is in hyper-specialized or experimental hardware. This includes more common stuff like VR, or flight sims with HOTAS, but also less intentional stuff. One of my personal favorites that unfortunately no longer works, was playing CS:GO with a joystick for movement. The analog movement allows for way more percise control in movement, and including allowing you to walk silently faster than is normally possibly. The downside is fact that you couldn’t counterstrafe, although given that I almost exclusively use the Negev, it wasn’t much of a downside.

I like something with enough lore I can learn about and enjoy but not so cinematic I cant listen to secondary media while I play. There are plenty of exceptions but that type of experience is my most consistent. Elder Scrolls, fallout, fable, dragon age, mass effect, saints row, gta, far cry, etcetera. I’ve been really enjoying crimson desert so far.

Feeling of accomplishing something. It’s an escape from real life and you actually can complete something that’s considered complete.

No shifting goalposts or w.e just a complete game. Good story and makes me feel rewarded.

I want something with fun gameplay. I don’t care about story and cutscenes and crap unless I’m playing something like an RPG. There’s nothing more frustrating than getting an action game where I’m just watching a frickin movie.

Cards around the table with a group of friends.

How well multi-player works.

If it is coop, like in Bubble Bobble(1986), that needs occaisional partner assists or straight-up player saves.

Or competitive, like Wipeout 2097(1996), which has excellent catchup mechanics.

Or larger scale competitive, like Quake1 shareware(Qtest) at 16-player.

Each of these showed examples of quality play-testing and balancing, making for enjoyable player interaction.

These days, Cube2:Sauerbraten shows top coop and competitive play in the one game, with insta-CTF interactions largely being good, due to the high quality of sight-line polishing in the base maps.