Good Game Design

[~Axis~]

We've all played many games and have come to love or hate them based on the experiences they gave us. Even though every game is different all of them share the goal of giving you, the player, the best experience the developers can based on the genre of game. What I've noticed so far is that the quality of a lot of games have been going down, and it may be that i might be looking at the wrong games or genre for me but regardless... the indie scene has been making incredibly good titles that are worth every penny. This made me think to myself, "what makes a good game... good?" I always thought that it was having a good art style or good controls but it's obviously much deeper than that. Let's share our ideas! What do you think makes a good game? What is it about a game that makes you want to keep playing past midnight and wake up late in the morning? Feel free to theorize and debate...