What makes a "good" game?

The fun factor is obviously the most important element in the game. If you don't enjoy what you're doing, it's not a game.. it's a chore. But what is fun to some is entirely nonsense to others.

The phrase "what's so fun about 22 people chasing after one ball?" is often heard by uninterested passers-by who happen to see a football match. Same thing goes for people who see computer/video games as just moving sprites, text and numbers. It is the meaning that the gamers apply to the game. I myself used to questioned about this popular computer game back in my secondary school days: Championship Manager. To me it was really about moving numbers and texts. But many of my peers were actively engaged in it and talking non-stop about it before and after class. To them, those moving numbers and texts have meaning to them, those numbers and texts satisfy their emotional need to be "a good virtual manager" in football.

That's where I started appreciating my RPGs. To my peers, they are just exchange of numbers when my hit points go up and down. But to me, it is life and death of my character.

A good game thus has been designed to give you this simulated environement to satisfy your need.