What one gimmick instantly makes you want to play a game? It can be setting, game play mechanic, or feature.

For me, it's slow-mo. I love games like Fear, Max Payne, etc. If a game has slow-mo, I want to play it.

Personally I love transformation gimmicks where you can turn in to an enemy and use their skills. It's a somewhat common mechanic in platformers and RPGs too (my favorite genres).

My favorite gimmick is good solid gameplay.

Am I doing it right?

My favorite gimmick is level up. The more levels I can get for my char, the better a game is. Especially when it has a good variety of skills.

I'm not sure if I have one O.o. My tastes change quite quickly, and what appeals is not always clear.
There really is nothing solid I can put my finger on I'm afraid. In the long past, I could have said anything Star Wars related, but that has passed. *shrug*.

I laughed.

I'm a sucker for gear - lots of gear. Layers of armor, gadjets. I used to hate it when an RPG would have like fixed weapons for each character and maybe one trinket slot.

I've also kinda been digging the recent trend of incorporating card based components. I haven't played as many as I'd like, but I do own a few - I'm talking about stuff like Deep Sky Derelicts, Hand of Fate, Guild of Dungeoneering.

It's a fun little wrinkle - I like the "meta" overlayed above the game.

Me too.

Another is any form of displacement abilities such as teleportation that is actually useful against bosses. I remember before some patch arrived I was able to use such an ability on a boss in Divinity Original Sin. What was terrific is that I could not instantly kill the boss, but it made the fight more interesting to say the least.

Another is manipulation abilities. In Mark of the Ninja you can cause guards to enter "terror" state, they will be more prone to reactively attack the player the next time they see - they can hit their own allies this way. I enjoyed this aspect of the game far more than I expected.

But then your favourite genre would probably be idle clickers where you can level up to the millionths of levels and have loads of researches/skills :D.

There's an old(er) game called Messiah that is basically entirely this. Always wanted to play it, never got around to it. You're a fat little naked angel that can possess anyone and you use this to fight / solve puzzles.

I think it's even from Shiny which was a dev studio I was a fan of "back in the day."

Secret collectibles, no doubt. Probably the only reason I haven’t gotten tired of Lego games already. I like it when a technically linear game rewards you for going out of your way and exploring nooks and crannies.

Not sure if can be considered a gimmick, but cockpit views. If a driving game or any other piloting-sim has a cockpit view I immediately have an urge to play the game.

Is "Pause & Play" a gimmick?

Apparently you're not the only one. ;)

Let's get old school, and yes, I think this is a gimmick. :P

PacMan's final level.

Hmm... usually it's not one thing, but many things together. But if I had to name one that picks my interest immediately, it would be "choices matter". (And I mean games where they really do matter, and the outcomes really do change)

I really love feeling the weight of choices on me (in games. irl I hate it lol). For me, it's not about the game having "replay value". "Oh I check this choice, then on my next playthrough I check that." I don't play my games like this. For me it's really about the thrill of making a choice that sooner or later will have serious, (semi-)unforseen consequences on my characters and the story. Especially if the characters are likeable (or hateable if they are bad guys), and I want the best (or worst) for them.

Too bad, many games with "choices matter" are just shallow choices with shallow consequences, but as long as a few actually good ones exist I'm happy and I don't give up on finding more :)