What do you love about gaming?

[Wools]

Atmosphere. It can absorb and transport me to a belivable world.

Whether it's becomming so utterly absorbed by Wipeout's trance, feeling so consumed by the belivable world in Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion or being caught up with the desolate and destroyed city in Resident Evil 2 I can not help but to play and experiance them.

When a game has such an incredable atmosphere and is firing on all cylinders, it can easily topple the finest movies ever made.

[MikeRox]

I like the sheer adrenaline games like Burnout can provide when you are driving right on the edge. Also love the music and how engrossing some games can be. But mainly for me, I like my games to be either exciting, or relaxing (I find games such as Crackdown with laid back custom music playing incredibly relaxing and absorbing).

I'm fascinated by these virtual near living breathing cities that a lot of games are now able to provide too. It's the small touches I like, be it just a plane in the sky, or maybe birds flapping around. Little touches, that just make things seem more believable.

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

Someone else does this! Unbelievable. It really is inordinately enjoyable.

Trufax. Can't beat scraping the old finger cheese from your controller!

[J0e Musashi]

I love JPN DS, and everything about it. Games, add-ons etc. I like the thrill of hunting down games for it. I was almost finished with gaming as I'd grown so bored of it over the years, but the DS has taken me back to the SFC days, which was my golden time.

[Baseley09]

The graphics and music.

and seeing parallax in PC Engine games.

[Sigourney Beaver]

Today I completed Medal of Honour Vanguard on Wii. I started it yesterday, did a couple of hours and finished it off today in a five hour session.

At times I forgot about the controllers and I was operating them virtually without error. I was completely in the zone. The feeling that's impossible to describe to a non gamer.

That's what I love about gaming.

[MarioMark]

The graphics and music.
.

Music plays a big part for me, I put Mario 64 on yesterday and while walking round the castle I was listening to the music it plays, gives me SO MUCH nostalgia, which wouldn't be there as much without the music.

I just wish more games would stop it with the licensed stuff

[Baseley09]

Music plays a big part for me, I put Mario 64 on yesterday and while walking round the castle I was listening to the music it plays, gives me SO MUCH nostalgia, which wouldn't be there as much without the music.

I just wish more games would stop it with the licensed stuff

Total true, an original score really helps, there are still games where licensed music has worked (XL/2097), but then these days quality titles like Burnout (and most EA big hitters) get clogged with lameness.

[CMcK]

Interactivity is what gaming is all about for me. Passive entertainment like DVD's, TV and listening to music are all good fun but nothing beats taking part in something.
Games give you that opportunity and of course the chance to do stuff you just cannot do in real life.
It's funny how many people frown upon 30 something gamers but the truth is they are the ones being enslaved to passivity by the pap on TV.

[MyDogSkip]

The best thing for me about games is how i can turn to my housemate/girlfriend/tramp sleeping outside my house and just say "Fancy a game". Then hours later, after the abuse and shouting has subsided, or you have completed the game together, you have that moment of "DUDE! Do you remember that headshot?!" or "the way i overtook you on that bend was incredible" etc. You sometimes dont get that from watching a movie together, because someone else is doing the action.

THAT to me is what gaming is all about, the stories afterward.

[Ostrog]

THAT to me is what gaming is all about, the stories afterward.

Oh yes. I love those conversations with other folks about whatever games we've played. The boss at work loves his fps games, so we often have a chinwag about the daily deathmatch or that great feeling you get when you're constantly winning through the game and pissing off the other players. He even listens to me waffling on about retro shmups or odd Japanese games and such.

What I love about gaming is that you can go practically anywhere, do anything or become anyone; almost anything from an insect to a god. I can build worlds or destroy them, command vast armies or take 'em on single handed, battle titanic bosses or become a huge monster myself.
Oh, and I love the music too - especially shmup music.

[MatWoods]

I like the detritus that builds up in the grooves of joypads. It's very satisfying to scrape it out with a toothpick and to cultivate some unholy string of dead black skin.

That'll be 'hand jam', as I lovingly refer to it.

I love the smell of a new console...

[Swallow]

GC controller is best for that, one long, slow scrape round is teh WIN.