Alright since I am studying game design and soon I will become a video game developer I wanted to ask you folks what do you think is the most important factor about a video game? Graphics/Gameplay/Audio/Story?
Depends on the overall style of the game.
If you're gping for something top notch, all of these need to be as good as you can manage.
I think repeatability is a key thing to any games success though.
Don't want to run out of content too quickly.
Gameplay is the most important. Unless you want to run a studio like Telltale. But you definitely need to specialize. What kinds of games do you enjoy the most?
Improving graphics is cool and all, but nobody complained about them not being good enough in cod 4 or Halo 3. I remember people saying Gran Turismo 3 was revolutionary.
If you focus on graphics, the rest of your game will suffer.
The biggest strength a game has over all other media is that it makes the consumer an active participant rather than a passive observer. Any game that doesn't play to this strength might as well be a movie or a book or a soundtrack instead.
I'm also studying game development and I have to say that gameplay is most important however, don't work too hard on gameplay and leave the rest out as you will still end up with a bad game.
In order:
Gameplay (can't play a clunky game)
Graphics (won't play an ugly game)
Audio (a good foley artist will immerse you in the game)
Story (I play games for online purposes so that's why it's last)