What is the Philosophy of Gaming?

Recently, I've been engaging in conversations with a friend over what, exactly, makes a game good or bad. Despite enjoying many of the same games, we've come to find that we value completely different parts of the game for completely different reasons. Aspects of games that I find boring are what draw him in and things I love drive him batty. In short, we both love games for very different reasons. This has led me to question: What makes a game good/fun/interesting? 

In wrestling with that, I've decided to term this entire concept my philosophy of gaming. Under that massive topical umbrella, I plan to explore my own thoughts on games and try to hash out what it is about some games that really works for me and why others push me away, in spite of being hugely popular with others. I, by no means, think I'll be able to come up with some sort of comprehensive system for categorizing games or gamers, but instead want to explore this line of thought and see where it takes me.

Some of the things that have particularly drawn my attention in recent conversations are as follows (in no particular order):

• How much structure should players be given?
• At what point is it better for game mechanics to override logic?
• What makes a game fun and is it possible (or at all worthwhile) to appeal to everyone?
• Is a game about telling a story or does the story just provide window dressing for a game's mechanics?

I'm sure I'll find many more subjects to explore as time goes on. For the moment, however, these points have been the ones that have most stuck with me and, hopefully, I'll be able to explore them in more detail soon.