Do you choose your game based on their theme or archetype?

You probably do both, but at the end of the day, you're probably more likely to do one of the following:

- Try a game that is out of your archetypical comfort zone because it touches a theme you love

or

- Try a game that is out of your thematic comfort zone because it uses an archetype you love

Which are you? And why?

That's a real tough question. Looking at the 60+ games on my shelf, I'll say none of the above.

The main reason I like games which are neither my type nor my theme are because they had great story.

The main reason I like games which are neither my type nor my theme are because they had great story.

QFT.

I generally prefer games the conform to a theme (scifi) or an archetype (RPG/sim), but I'll happily step outside of that for a great story.

Archetype usually comes first for me. Gameplay is the most important factor for me, and if a game is in a genre I enjoy, it’s much more likely that the game will be fun. Having a theme I like is more of an extra bonus when deciding whether to buy a game, but in the end I can accept pretty much any theme as long as the game is good, whereas there are some genres that I just don’t find very interesting.

I've never started playing a game and gone: "Damn, I really love this game theme but the archtype sucks". I have, however, gone "I really like this archtype, but the game theme sucks".

Atmosphere, story, and overall gameplay is what matters. I couldn't care what genre a game has, as long as it's fun.

I don't think I've ever bought a game in my life solely for the "theme". Skyrim and Blazing Dragons are both high fantasy games (they even both feature Dragons!), but they're really absolutely nothing alike. Most of the TES fans I know, by sheer coincidence, absolutely despise point-and-click adventure games.

Archetypes won't usually make me buy a game either, but they will at least get my attention. A combination of Archetype and presentation (read: good cover art) is all it takes to get me to look at a store page / trailer / game site.

What gets me to actually buy a game is generally either a really interesting trailer or a really interesting set of bullet point features.

Theme is the most important to me, but it's not as simple as the genre examples given in the poll. There is just as much unappealing fantasy and science fiction as there is fsf that looks really cool to me. I avoid horror as a genre, but that's the only case where I avoid a whole genre like that. As far as archetypes go, I've played pretty much all of them at one time or another. There are several I don't usually play (like a racing game or a sports game) that I would play if the theme was particularly interesting (racing animals instead of cars, playing a fantasy sport involving magic). On the other hand I'll usually start my search for a new game by deciding what gameplay archetype I'm in the mood for (like MMO, time management, tactical RPG...) and I'll look within that archetype at the specific gameplay features and theme/story of individual games to see if there's something that makes the game look more or less appealing than average for the gameplay archetype.

Edit: Oh, people above are considering story to be separate from theme? Normally I consider theme to be the abstract high-level part of story. But I can agree with choosing games based on story, if it's an archetype that has story. Or for that matter with being put off by the story even if the archetype is good. (I love Skyrim's gameplay, but the story is really not my cup of tea; I'd love to see the same gameplay with a different story.)

Out of those two, I always look at the archetype first.

Biggest reason is that games are mostly tailored to the mechanics - and thus the archetype - of the game and for specific game it feels most natural to be in the archetype it's made for. As TheComet says, you'll very rarely think "Damn, I really love this game theme but the archtype sucks" because 1) game is specifically made with the mechanics it has 2) you wouldn't play it because there exists at least one game with same theme in different archetype.

But, as others pointed out already, story/character development comes above and most often is the main reason for me stepping outside of preferred archetype (RTS, Action RPG).

I must be the only one who doesn't care about the story. I mean did you all play Mario to really save the princess? It's all about the gameplay. Nothing else matters. Fun and engaging gameplay will trump a bad story I think (like keep trying to save a princess who is in ANOTHER DAMN CASTLE!!!!).

I must be the only one who doesn't care about the story. I mean did you all play Mario to really save the princess? It's all about the gameplay. Nothing else matters.

You're not the only one. When I want a good story, I read a book.