Discussions Of a Random Sort

Elements Involved
So here is where we will discuss the elements found in the perfect game. It wont be organized probably, but at least this is where the stuff will go.

Mao

 * 1) Wikipedia Link

Cookie Clicker

 * 1) Upgrades/Achievements - The fact that you felt like you were progressing even though nothing was really happening.
 * 2) Heavenly Chips - Gave Cookie Clicker an endgame. Replay Value. A reason to play the same game, but with perks.
 * 3) *Heavenly chips allow you to attain the same status in less time, making your efforts to create even MORE cookies, faster a better option than the ridiculously inflating prices of buildings. (come on, 4.7E15 cookies for your 101 antimatter condenser, really?)

Diablo 2

 * 1) Dungeon Crawling- Raoming through a Dungeon killing things, leveling, looting, and there was a great lore to go along with it.

Evil Genius
Orders Followed By Execution (the minion system)- The sense of your orders being carried out, it left you without total control of things, but allowed for things to keep going even if you weren't actively making it so.

Fianal Fantasy 7

 * 1) Traditional RPG mechanics
 * 2) Fantastic Storyline
 * 3) Ability to max out your stats via item enhancers
 * 4) Materia System
 * 5) *Leveling it up to get master Materia
 * 6) *Allows you to Diversify your group
 * 7) *Master Materia makes you very powerful
 * 8) Lots of extra content
 * 9) *Ruby, Emerald Weapons
 * 10) *Ultimate Weapons
 * 11) *Level 4 Limit Breaks

Heroes of Might and Magic

 * 1) Typical action adventure turn-based RPG
 * 2) Ability to assimilate other towns into your army as you conquer them
 * 3) Fun to explore and collect awesome artifacts!

Battle Arena

 * 1) Rank System - Traditional RPG kill monsters and level up.
 * 2) Anti-Idle The Game - Battle Arena - Item Crafting
 * 3) Vast range of gear to choose from and craft
 * 4) Rare item drops (rings, rare crafting materials)
 * 5) Dungeon Crawler feel

Kingdom Of Loathing

 * 1) Ascensions -Gave a TON of replay value. Being able to play the game again from level one with the same items. You end up doing the same thing over and over, but it wasn't too big of a deal.
 * 2) References - They had fun with the references to EVERYTHING.
 * That tongue in cheek wit :P

League of Legends

 * 1) Skill Vs Luck - Im not too sure if its a paranoia thing or what, but there is a feeling of wonder when you completely destroy someone. When you out-play them to the extent that you feel very powerful and confident.
 * 2) Teamplay - Working together with friends to do well, though for me this is felt more in Duo queue than in a team of fives (unless we're winning). Something about where the blame goes for when things go wrong. And at the same time, watching others do well.
 * 3) Metagame - Constantly evolving accepted gameplay based around who you play with.
 * Great cyclical imbalance: as classes get released/buffed/nerfed, the tactics of who to chose and who is good against who changes and thus you have a constantly evolving state of play.
 * There is never one end-all answer. Except Teemo. Because yeah. It's Teemo.

Magic the Gathering

 * 1) Balance of Mechanics- How there are cards that do things, and other cards that counter the things that those other cards do.
 * 2) Perfect Imbalance - Extra Credits Episode

Maple Story

 * 1) Leveling - Sense of accomplishment. The ammount of effort to yield results. (Time:Reward)/Value
 * 2) Community - Huge community base back in the day.

Pokémon

 * 1) Evolutions - Wanting to evolve things, watching, interacting with, and exacting change.
 * 2) Selection - Wide variety of pokemon that do similar things so you can choose what appeals most to you.
 * 3) Zero to Hero - Boy from a little town in the middle of nowhere becoming the world's greatest pokemon trainer.

Shadow of the Colossus

 * 1) Scale of Epicness - There is just something about killing something (regardless of the moral implications) that is a hundred times your size. Plus the stupid travel times made the encounters that much more special.

Super Smash Bros.

 * 1) Free For All - Making characters that we already had ties to fight each other. Plus the fact that it was a console invited friends into the mix.

Warcraft/StarCraft

 * 1) Traditional RTS gameplay

World of Warcraft

 * 1) Compulsion based
 * 2) *Rewards grinding with levels, equipment, achievements, flavor items
 * 3) *"Just one more level..."
 * 4) Massive world
 * 5) *Each continent is massive in its own right and each expansion usually adds a new land to explore.
 * 6) *Azeroth, Kalimdor, Outlands, Northrend, Maelstrom, Pandara; each continent adds it's own particular feel to the game and really helps to enrich the world.
 * 7) Incredible backstory
 * 8) *Warcraft has some of the richest backstory of any game series spanning many different books and games that really add depth to the entire world as a whole.
 * 9) *That cutscene release for Wrath of the Lich King... Thinking "Guys... We finally get to take him down!"
 * 10) Fun and engaging
 * 11) *Blizzard does well to keep updating the game with new content so it keeps evolving and feeling new. A lot of games hit stagnation, and WoW does at times too, but for the most part, its usually after a patch has been completely beaten and one has to wait for the next patch.
 * 12) Always something to do
 * 13) *From daily quests to daily dungeons to heroics to raids to heroic raids to battleground pvp to arena pvp, there is always something for you to do.
 * 14) *You can always grind on achievements.
 * 15) Just plain fun!

Reasoning
It is clear to me that mechanics and things that you do while in a game are about half of it. To make a truely epic game you need a memorable story to go along with it. For this we too have many examples. Though they should more in line with games than traditional stories since they are rather scattered as a whole. (naturally) Anyways, any good book, anime, manga, whatever story there is. And what makes it epic. Certain ones will be more obvious.

Battle Royale
A class of kids forced to fight to the death.

Ender's Game
An entire universe built around the idea that kids would be the answer to the greatest alien threat the human race has ever encountered.

Harry Potter
Wizards and witches, magic and stuffs.

Manga
So much here, but just some of the memorable ones will be here.

Liar Game
Psychological manga at its best.

One Piece
Pirates and special abilities all on the high seas.

Yureka
This would be a sweet MMO to play.

The Wheel of Time
Awesome series. Magic, wars, and a deep and rich history.