Great Games in the Modern World

Thursday night, two of my friends and I played Diablo II and had a great time! We'll probably spend a good portion of our lunch hour today discussing our exploits. One of the amazing things about this experience is that Diablo II came out in 2000! ^[1] After almost seven years, the game holds almost all the thrills it had initially (it's only missing the "freshness" aspect.)

This got me to thinking about what it takes for a game to be "great" in our modern era. I think it comes down to a few attributes, and a game can be missing one of these and probably still be great.

1. Individualization.
2. Replay value.
3. Multiple goals.
   
4. Well disguised complexity.
5. Freshness.
6. Longevity.

To read the complete blog entry, click here. And for its follow-up entry, click here.

[Originally published 7/6/07]