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"What a makes a good game?"

Possible the ultimate in answerable questions. If the answer was easy, well everyone would make good games. Now I don't want to try and answer all aspects of this question - that must be the function of the discussion forum. However, one thing I believe that makes a good game, something I would like to see far more of, is the ability to add bits on, write your own bits and so on - effectively the ability to transmogrify the game to suit yourself and like minded players. We saw it games like Doom and Duke Nukem where whole cottage industry of scenario writers came into existence to create new material. More recently I find myself going time and time again back to Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator for the same reason. After having played all the supplied levels I find a strangely twisted satisfaction in revisting them but this time in a downloaded Alien Invader from Independence Day, sooping past the 1940 cliffs of Dover and annihilating squadrons of He111s. Now this is something the original writers could not have foreseen but by opening up the coding and allowing this independent writing so much more depth becomes possible. With respect to CFS this means that I am looking forward to purchasing the professionally written add on mission packs of which there are several - and I know in advance that I will enjoy them.

So what makes a good game? Well freely available customisability must be top of the score for me.

What makes a good game? I suppose it depends on the genre. In an RPG you need a good battle system, and puzzles of the right difficulty. It's not really a question that can be answered easily, as it's down to personal opinion, but I think that the physics of the game have got to be spot on, especially when it comes to a sports game. When playing football, and the ball comes back off the post, how has it managed to clear to the half way line? Unless the game was played on the moon. Then it might make sense.

Possible the ultimate in answerable questions. If the answer was easy, well everyone would make good games. Now I don't want to try and answer all aspects of this question - that must be the function of the discussion forum. However, one thing I believe that makes a good game, something I would like to see far more of, is the ability to add bits on, write your own bits and so on - effectively the ability to transmogrify the game to suit yourself and like minded players. We saw it games like Doom and Duke Nukem where whole cottage industry of scenario writers came into existence to create new material. More recently I find myself going time and time again back to Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator for the same reason. After having played all the supplied levels I find a strangely twisted satisfaction in revisting them but this time in a downloaded Alien Invader from Independence Day, sooping past the 1940 cliffs of Dover and annihilating squadrons of He111s. Now this is something the original writers could not have foreseen but by opening up the coding and allowing this independent writing so much more depth becomes possible. With respect to CFS this means that I am looking forward to purchasing the professionally written add on mission packs of which there are several - and I know in advance that I will enjoy them.

So what makes a good game? Well freely available customisability must be top of the score for me.