For space games, lets just say Freespace2 has it all, and then some.(Outstanding plot, great gameplay, like Might&Magic VII, you get immersed in it and the game doesn''t let go!)

c''mon. Seriously, if you don''t put restrictions on them... if you make the questions so vague, you either get unrealistic answers to feedback telling you your questions are incoherent.

For the record, the ultimate game would be the complete simulation and immersion in an artificial universe - where you''re free to do anything within the logical boundaries of the world...

Ideally, this could come in two forms - where advanced AI creates dynmically engaging situations which ultimately guides the player towards somesort of heroic destiny or as a citizen in a world populated by many other online users.

The technology for that kinda stuff would be years off... 50-80 years, involving the reinvention of things like VR and providing users with full body tactile feedback - basically stuff of sci-fi right now.

You know what''s a good space game? SPACE QUEST. In reality it does have some ground based work... but it does have the word SPACE in it...

LEISURE SUIT LARRY is on the other hand a good example of a ground based game.

Zaptruder

Without saying a full virtual reality world that is so real that it is hard to tell between it and the real world, I would have to say the most important thing is options.

What do I mean exactly? Take your space game say star control 1 as a example. The gameplay basically consisted of your starbase which could build ships, stars/colonies to mine, fortifie, etc.
Now here is what im talking about a player could move there entire fleet onto a colony to attack it. But what would have happened if the game allowed me to have planted explosives powerful enough to destory the planet then had set them off with the fleet in orbit around it?

I want enviroments that are as dynamic as possible, I want 100% caculated physics and enviromental effects. In a space game I want to be able to do stratigic attacks to rupture a hull and cause the ship to decompress. I want to be able to break tables/glasses,etc in a bar, and I want thoose things to have effects in the game. A classic rpg example would be from any dungeon maze, I want to take chalk and mark the wall where ive been. I want a 100% interactive enviroment. If I throw a ball in the air I want to see it fall like it would in real life, and then bounce or roll or not depending on all the enviromental factors.

Jedi Knight II was a good example of a game I personally liked, but could have been so much better if you could have interacted more with your enviroment.

I think the best game every would be a game like Battle Cruiser Millenium, but massivly multiplayer (I think they''re making one like that, but I'',m not sure.) and if you had a space station or something, you could make more units (like fighters, more ships, defenses, etc.) so it would be space sim/strategy.

I would really love to see a game set in space that allows me to command a small crew using a 3D perspective.
I''d be free to roam around my ship and the crews'' skills and abilities would be of great importance.
My primary goal is to stay alive and protect my crew.

As for the game world, we (the crew and I) would traverse a never ending universe that is generated by some game server somewhere and relayed to my machine over the net.
Periodically a new planet would be discovered/created on the server so that myself, my crew and anyone else playing the game new about it.
Furthermore, if I discover the ability to destroy a planet, THAT would be reflected on the server and no doubt affect a great many people''s game.

Alliances could be formed and wars waged all in a wonderfully 3D world.
3D is advancing so rapidly these days that I just want that perspective all the time. It won''t be long before such a game will exist. At least in prototype.
None of this 2D/screen full of text nonsense I''m talking about walking around a modelled 3D ship that gives me the info that I need to begin exploring an alien world.
The alien world is a data stream in game terms and the game engine on my machine knows exactly how to interpret that and transform it into realtime-on the fly 3D.

Naturally there will be many players with no crew. These are the Han Solo''s of the game world that loiter around dusty spaceports looking for business. Now THAT would be cool.

In real terms:
I finish work and drive home.
Turn on the PC and dive straight into this game.
I''m immediatly inside my spacecraft (or whereever I was last).
The ship''s computer relays to me exactly what has been happening that affects me.
I make decisions and venture forth into space with my trusty crew beside me.
It may take days in real terms to find anything of any interest.
I could even have this game SMS my mobile phone with news.

++ Your ship is being contacted by an unknown protocol ++

I''d be counting the minutes before I could leave work and get home to play the game!!!

I know there are the Everquests of this world and damned fine they are too but I''m talking about something far more intelligent than that. Something that demands a different level of interaction. But ultimately something that is controlled by a lone computer process somewhere - creating the virtual world in which I am prisoner!