Chances are, someone has told you how bad a game is, or you saw a review saying how bad it is. Usually, there are truly things that suck about it. That got me thinking:what makes a game bad? Usually it's bad controls, boring or unbalanced gameplay, and bad games usually have bad graphics to top it off. Are these the only things though?
One thing people talk about that they say makes a game bad is a lame or incoherent story. Things that make the story suck for me personally are confusing plots, it isn't told well, or the people involved in the story are all jerks or just plain annoying. Another thing is if it's really, really short. There are some good short games, but if it's too short usually the plot ends up crammed in.
The graphics are a big part(I recently blogged about their importance). They usually don't make people say the game is bad, but it will make some games take a hit. For example, imagine a game with awesome gameplay, but the graphics are hard to look at. It would detract my enjoyment, simply because I don't even want to look at it longer than short periods of time.
Pacing could be another issue. Games could have slow starts an turn you away, or are too fast that you can't tell what's going on. If the game isn't paced right it could detract from the experience. RPG's need to learn that.
Overall, there are many things that could make a game good or bad. I'm sure their are more things than what I mentioned, and I'm sure as games evolve even more things will surface.