7. Make It Social
The thing about video games is that there are essentially two types. We classify them along all sorts of other lines like FPS, RTS, MMORPG, and all sorts of other acronyms (no industry loves its acronyms like video gaming- SNES and PS3 anyone?). However in their base element there are games that you are supposed to play by yourself, and games you are supposed to play with others. Admittedly games now will blur these lines by having different 'modes' and such but at their hearts reviewers can still tell which way the game is gearing towards. Mario Kart Wii may have a single player mode, but nobody in their right mind would tell you it is there to attempt to carry the product. The games that you are supposed to play by yourselves are games that attempt things such as immersion and investment to grab the player into their world. A good immersive game can allow players to invest in it and therefore hold players attention. A game that encourages multiplayer, on the other hand, encourages competitiveness and/or social interaction. Such a game has obvious advantages over single player games when it comes to introducing newcomers to games, as it is in a social environment where one's friends are taking part. In other words, multiplayer games are great as they encourage the idea that games can encourage conversation and friendly conversation, rather than do the opposite.