Story, Gameplay, or Graphics?

[Winged One]

What what matters most in a game? Story, gameplay, graphics, or a mixture of two or all?

[marrow]

it takes all to make a great game, but my preferences are:
1 gameplay
2 story
3 graphics (& sound)

[redgrassbridge]

I play games for the story, music and graphics. Almost never for gameplay. And I usually cheat, so as to see the story, music and graphics within three years of purchasing the game. (I'm not very good at computer games)

[jambo]

Gameplay > Story > Graphics tied with Sound. Good sound with 5.1 support can really make a game great! :D

[marrow]

help, jambo & i agree, next he'll be wanting my body.
(runs away to get weapons)

[jambo]

Ever since I got my 5.1 speaker set and got everything working it has been awesome. It is so good in TOCA 3/V8 Supercars 3 to hear the cars behind you and pulling along side. And HL2 is superb with 5.1!

...next he'll be wanting my body.
What do you mean next, sexy? ;):wub:

[DarkFlood]

it takes all to make a great game, but my preferences are:
1 gameplay
2 story
3 graphics (& sound)

Duh. B)

[hoboman725]

Gameplay is by far the most important aspect of a game. I have a deep affection for Nintendo 64 games. Even though the graphics are terrible next to current day standards, frankly Conker's Bad Fur Day was better than say, Goldeneye Rogue Agent. The gameplay is what makes a game fun, that's why games such as Super Mario 64 are forever heralded as great, while great looking games such as Doom 3 seem to be forgotten

[Kester]

Graphics play a huge part in my preference for a game, but you can't mistake bad graphics and old graphics. Bad graphics always have been and always will be bad, where as old graphics were good or great for their time and therefore still appear decent.

Without good graphics I cannot play a game.

However I doubt I could really order these 3 choices, they all have to be a great standard to keep me interested.

[Flarty]

this man speaks the truth

[brokenfridgehinge]

For me it depends on the type of game , I can't just order those 3 criteria in a generic level.

[matto]

Story and Gameplay are very important, but I simply wont buy a game if it doesn't have reasonable graphics (exeption - old classics which I used to be fond of eg. Zelda and Crash Bandicoot)
. It was very hard to choose :P but for me:

1 Gameplay
2 Graphics
3 Story

However, I beleive a very good game needs all three to be successsful.

[Delphic]

Whilst Story is important in making a great game. It's sadly lacking in many games which are still none-the-less good aka fun games.

Imo, it's just a weighting of all three, if the graphics and soundscape of a game is truely amazing and the gameplay not jarringly annoying I might play through even if the story/gameplay is mediocre. Where as if the story is amazing, for example FFVII <3, I'll play it no matter how dated the graphics look... However if gameplay is dire, I can't play the game, no matter how good anything else is.

One thing that really gets on my nerves are games where you can't jump, it's just every single time I can't walk off a cliff if I want to, or jump over a tree trunk I'm suddenly reminded that I'm sitting own my own in a room playing a video game, which quite frankly I don't want to be.

So yeah, gameplay must be reasonable, but beyond that as long as there is something to keep me interested I'll play the game... ofc great games have all three.
(I really enjoyed Dark Messiah as an example of great gameplay (as warroir at least, found it hard to make a mage character playable), great story (anything with subacci [sp?] is obviously amazing) and great graphics (although HDR is a little overused)!)
(And imo Oblivion is an example where dispite endless stories (although the fact none are tailored to you makes them all much weaker) and very pretty graphics, annoyingly repeatative and unimaginative (not to mention annoyingly difficult for certain classes and incredibly overpowered for others) gameplay means I can't get anywhere near completing the game.)

[Panther]

All three in my book. Though bad graphics are tolerable with the gameplay is good and so is the story.

[wolfer]

Gameplay probably matters the most for me, if I don't like the gameplay of a certain game, I don't like playing it. Story and graphics are probably tied, bothsomething I don't care much about, but both ae needed to make good game.

[Ares]

Ultimately, I think you need all three to work in conjunction to make a truly great game, but, graphics and gameplay are the most important.

Better graphics (meaning both looks and detail) = More depth possible = More true-to-life simulations of the world possible = Better gameplay

Note, the above does not always execute perfectly, but I've found it generally to be true. I'd also have to agree with Kester, there's a difference between bad, good, and old graphics.

Story is a great element in a game, but it really isn't needed.

My final decision on how well a game was made is based mostly on graphics/gameplay, but I'll readily play a game that makes up for what it lacks in one area by excelling in another. I.E., America's Army might not have the graphics that Counter-Strike: Source does, but in my opinion, the gameplay is much better.

[Kester]

Following on from that, AA doesn't have the graphics of CSS, but they're not bad graphics, just old graphics.

[nathster]

This is what I like in order Highest to lowest

Story - As simple as "Oh my god a big bertha type of woman has been captured you must rescue her!" or complex as "You jumped from one reality to the next one to introduce your self to him.." Story makes a pretty much solid impact on the game and gives it a cinematic feeling.

Gameplay (Sound)- Face it, Your not goin to play a game your not going to enjoy, I remember the Half-life 2 Water Hazard level, where you got a gun on the boat, You get out, own a chopper and the music comes on, Exploisions everywhere and screamin helicopter leaving. With me Shouting "F*CK YEAH!!". Things like that make games memorable.

Graphics - Even though I do hate games that don't look right proportion wise, (E.G Next-Gen Bulky Characters, Previous-Gen Skinny Anorexic Characters) I think graphics are not that much to sweat about, even though seeing realistic enviroments and things that make you think "wow i'm in this city with cool lighting and the citizens aren't anwsering the question on where to find the coffee!!"

[geekofalltrades]

Nathster, your description of gameplay wins. That's definitely one of my favorite parts of HL2.

As for mine, the order is Story, Gameplay, Graphics. I'm an incredibly detail-oriented person, so I love a storyline that's full of twists, turns, and little nonessential details. It's one of the reasons that I'm so drawn to Half-Life and all of its mods, expansions, etc. As a medium for comparison, the only other FPS that I own is Red Faction, and I absolutely hate it because the story is just too cliche and too full of holes.