Whats the most important aspect of any game

Well i have heard this discussion many many times in the past 2 dozen years. so i will not bother to consider all the possibilities like graphics and sound and atmosphere etc etc.

Instead i will put forward what i personaly regard as the most important feature of any game.

Playablility....
Argh i hear ya all shout. That undefined word that everyone bandies around like it was candy for the ears.

My version of playability is fairly simple... If the basic gameplay feels like fun, the rest of the game built on top has a good chance of being fun too. But in this day and age most people are building envirenments and designing levels, without even having a basic control prototype setup to play with. My example would be how would ya design marble madness levels if you had no dea how it felt. they are so integral to a level, that if you misjudged the area setup for fast turns, the level is ruined.

So i say, make ya control prototype (i do), and have some fun with it. You should know when it's ready to become a game when you want to show to everyone around you. "Come try this game out".. Not "come look at this game"

My thoughts, my opinion. But Gameplay rules games for me, i don't care how good it looks. Or what the license its. (well, not till after the playability seems alright).