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[xeniorn]

Freedom of movement, as in a lack of any invisible walls or completely unfitting obstacles used just to cover a passageway "you're not supposed to go through".

Ability to affect the outcome of events, rather than being able only to "succeed" and "fail".

General "well-made-ness" in terms of immersion, as opposed to an example in STALKER, where you can find a huge amounts of concealed empty containers, which magically become full once you "find out" they exist from other people. The general idea for me is that a player should be just a human-controlled NPC, so information acquired by the player shouldn't be different from information the player heard from someone else who acquired it.

Realism, as in realistic physics, inability to be permanently unaffected by being shot multiple times without a special explanation why that could happen (supernatural regenerating ability, magic, ...).

Respect for magic. Not like in post-Morrowind TES where a goddamn pure-blooded warrior or a skulking thief is able to spew immensely powerful magic (Fireballs. Since when is spewing fire from hands something a person can do with ease without any training!?) or heal himself at a whim.

Difficulty as in ability to fail without irrecoverably failing. In most games failure means you have to load the game, or you'd at least feel stupid for not loading the game, because it's easy enough to succeed in whatever you're doing. Maybe sometimes you just *shoudn't* be able to save that poor fellow from the minotaur that is attacking him.

Related to point #2, ability for small things to affect events happening a considerable time after you do them, entanglement of the parts of the story. So the quest A2 isn't just connected to quests A1, A3 and A4 in the A quest line, but guess what? That bystander you killed while you were doing quest A2, who wasn't even a target? If you hadn't killed him you'd run into him while doing quest D4, where he'd allow you to solve it in a different way, but only if you haven't already done quest B2, where you helped his family to acquire the funds to move to another town. Not that you knew it was his family at the time...

And the last but not the least... Good music in the background, especially one that fits the game well. For me, that's a parameter that can turn a crappy game into an ok game, an ok game into a great game or a great game into one of the most enjoyable games I've played. Like in DF - I find the hypnotizing and Bach-like nature of the background music very fitting and it definitely enriches my gaming experience.

[alexandertnt]

First and foremost: No grind. Just... Just no. I give up after 2 minutes of doing something repetitive. Any game which avoids grind is automatically worth at least trying. After this the points are pretty flexable. If it doesnt/does fit into a category, it doesnt necessarily make it awesome/terrable.

Games with skill-based gameplay. I just dont get any joy in gaining a level in anything. Nor do I enjoy telling my character what to do and having them do the rest. It seems pointless. I would rather feel like im "doing" something in the game, and that my skill is contributing more than my characters "skill". (Cannot bear dice/random gameplay).

Book-Games. A good story is fine, but for me most RPG's (even the classic ones eg Baldur's Gate), it feels like reading a good book for 2 pages, than being forced to do some boring stuff (kill stuff, get stuff, dull combat etc) to earn the right to read another 2 pages. I always thought some of these RPG's would just be better as books. Also, I want to use my imagination a bit, so if I come accross some dead guys, and weapons in a crypt, for example, its more fun to "think up" what happened rather than have your character announce exactly what happened.

Game mechanics that are less transparent: Some games hide your actual health (im forced to admit... COD) which is much nicer than being to measure the exact "healthyness" of my character. DF gives a body-part system which does much the same, only gives me a general idea. I would rather get a "feel" for these things (skills as well etc) instead of having an exact readout of the integer representing this, and some other integers representing probability etc. Basically anything I can't simply apply statistics to (statistics is boring). This gives the game a "natural" feel, while avoiding being hellbent on realism and without having to necessarily go for some super-complex mechanic. (I would like to know my character is "injured" rather than 42% health remaining, or that I am "good" at picking locks rather than "lock picking at 25/45 (700 xp to go!)").

Unrealism. If I was interested in realism I would just play RL, but I dont because its boring (too grindy). I play games for every reason that makes them not like real life. Realism? Overrated.

little "hidden things". Odd guns, unusual "logs", easter eggs. These thigns are always such a joy to find for some reason. Someone also metioned "junk files", which is also awesome as I usually end up browsing through the game directory.

Tweakability. The more moddable, the better (but it doesnt have to be fully moddable, but its a plus).

I like to change my character mid game. I dont care is spontaneously changing race makes no sence. I always started, say, Oblivion and about 2 hours in wanted to alter my character.

Reasonable length. Games that entertain from the get-go. I dont want to (nor have time to) game for some ridiculous amount of time until the "true game" starts. Portal was great here. *Stares at basically all MMO's in existance*

Curiousity. Something that makes me *want* to play to see what happened/what can happen. Or something that lets me experement. Minecraft's red stone for example, or Powder Toy.

Lastly, "bizarre" things (partially related to above). Even entire games. Especially entire games. Anything that makes me go . Special mention to the PS1 game "LSD", as it had me running around going WTF?!?! the whole time. I turned around a corner, and a giant toy-bear started chasing me. The hell??? Awesome. Portal and Portal 2's script also fit into this (although not to that extreme), with the quality voice acting made it a riot to play through.

I will probably post with more if I think about it, as there are always plenty of "shinies" in games which are fun.

[Matz05]

For me, its customization, or, more generally, the ability to do things that weren't determined at design time. If you give me a room full of gunpowder barrels and diamonds to guard, and give me a spare flintlock pistol and some rope, I should be able to rig a very expensive kind of Claymore mine at the door the demons are going to enter.

Basically, I like games where there isn't a preexisting numericaly superior strategy, rather where belivable (not REALISTIC, BELIEVABLE. There is a difference) systems of physics, magic, technology, or whatever let me find my own solutions to problems.
Basically, emergent behaviour FTW.

[Sirus]

Things I appreciate (very subjective list):

An engaging story. I don't find cliches as horrible or boring as some people do. If the events in a game make me want to stay awake another hour to find out what happens next, it gets a gold star. Winners: Portal, Half-Life, Mass Effect, Fortune Summoners, Katawa Shoujo.

Solid voice acting. Some games don't need any more than text, but good emoting can really immerse me in a title and help me connect to the characters. Winners: Portal, Mass Effect, Modern Warfare.

Complex strategy. Something better than "spam heavy tank" or "use overpowered hero". If I'm forced to think creatively and several steps ahead, both in attack and defense, it's good. Winners: Fire Emblem, Supreme Commander, Hitman.

A creative/unique setting. Something that makes me want to play just because of the oddity and possible self-referential humor. Winners: Jamestown, Recettear, Phoenix Wright.

Memorable/catchy music. Humming along to a song that I haven't heard in quite some time is a good thing. Winners: Many, but Mario is one of the most iconic and Iji has some epic boss tunes.

Finally, a real sandbox. A lot of people say that GTA and similar games are sandboxes, despite the fact that there are frequently invisible walls, static geometry, and all these games later the primary mechanic is still stealing cars and shooting people. Winners: Minecraft, Terraria, Aurora, and of course, Dwarf Fortress.

[Sowelu]

Animations that are, if unavoidable (or stupid to avoid), fun to watch.

See:  Worms Armageddon, Fallout 1/2's death animation (SMG at close range against metal armor), and the Suikoden series battles (if three of your guys are each targeting different enemies, they ALL jump in at once; it's wonderfully chaotic, even if the mechanics are identical to a Dragon Warrior style "I swing, you swing, he swings".)

[Enzo]

Most of the really good ones have already been said, so I'll just cherry-pick a little.

First of all, atmosphere, which is a really abstract criteria that I can't really explain, but I'm saying it anyway. Creating an engaging setting and narrative - when it all comes together just right, you get an immersive game that's more than the sum of it's parts. The Bioshocks, the Portals, The Metal Gears, etc. Even the old Squaresoft and Zelda games tapped into this without fancy graphics or gameplay. I really wish I could explain it better, but I guess it's a somewhat ethereal and entirely subjective concept.

First and foremost: No grind. Just... Just no. I give up after 2 minutes of doing something repetitive. Any game which avoids grind is automatically worth at least trying. After this the points are pretty flexable. If it doesnt/does fit into a category, it doesnt necessarily make it awesome/terrable.

This is why I basically can't play MMO's, and many-an-RPG lays half-finished on my shelf. I'd call it "no padding" rather than "no grind", though, because it's certainly not RPG specific. If what I'm doing hasn't gotten old yet I'm OK with a little bit of meaningless grind. But if I've been doing the same thing for hours with little to no variation, whether or not it's to gain exp (or whatever) it's shameless padding. I'd much prefer a game that's awesome for 5 hours than a game that's pretty good for 40.

For me, its customization, or, more generally, the ability to do things that weren't determined at design time.

This. I'm especially sad that so few games really make use of the physics they have at their disposal. So much potential. Even if it's not truly emergent gameplay, I like having options, and detailed character creation with a real effect on gameplay is a huge boon. I've been playing E.Y.E. : Divine Cybermancy the last couple of days and it's a great example. In a lot of ways it's not a great game. But although the mission objectives are pretty cut-and-dried there's often several routes or ways to accomplish them, and you can run-and-gun, snipe, stealth-and-stab, hack enemies brains, deploy turrets, summon distractions or additional firepower...all sorts of stuff depending on your character build and how you choose to approach a problem. It's what makes the game fun.

[Kadzar]

A good crafting system. Especially in MMOs, I hate it when you either have to have the materials already, or buy them from an auction, just to make something crappy. Sometimes it's nice to be able to buy a few ingredients from NPCs, because player auction prices are insane, droprates are abysmal, and sometimes you just want to sit around and craft.

Crafting skills that go up as you level. Because it's not fun grinding out useless lowbie gear just to get to the point where you can make something you can use.

[Gunner-Chan]

For the most part, if it's something more than a shooter or something to just hop in and do random crap I like to have total control of the main characters appearance and just what they are. Since if I'm gonna be stuck with a character for the entire duration of a longer deeper game than something that's explicitly something more than a shooter or more focused game I don't want to have to stare at boring action hero male #2425 the whole time.

Though outside of CRPGs I really don't care as much. But if it is one I'd rather NOT be forced to stick with a male main character. I hate crossplaying characters, and Ill admit that always was a problem when I'd GM games. I also like the option to have a all female team if possible when I'm allowed to make my own characters for a party of adventurers or whatever, since again, why do I wanna stare at a bunch of boring guys? (I hope wasteland 2 lets you do this. That looks like it's gonna be good.)

Other than that I just like things I can get lost in. If that's immersion, collectibles, score challenges or other similar things like that I can just keep going on Ill enjoy it a lot more.