How far this trend goes may depend on how accessible and efficient internet gaming becomes and how soon internet connections get off the telephone lines and onto cable modems. Even with those advances, however, I think the majority of gaming hours logged will continue to be in solitaire play. People out there right now are figuring out how to incorporate new technologies into new game genres that the rest of us cannot conceive but that we will want to play as soon as we see them. Making a game fun to play is the most difficult part of development. Games that fail do so because they are not sufficiently fun.
Games are a great success usually because they are a lot of fun.
Graphics, sounds, and music enhance the experience but are all secondary to gameplay in importance. The key to fun is providing the player with a continual stream of interesting decisions that lead to a satisfying conclusion. When decisions are not interesting or lag, fun falters. Developing fun gameplay is primarily a function of testing and revising. One of the great things about designing games is that you get to immerse yourself in a topic for a while and then move on to something new.