Question: What makes you go back to a game?

So I woke up at 6am today and was thinking, what makes me come back to a game after I played it?

Now I'm not talking about just 'tossed on top' replay value, like: 'Oh there is a hard mode you can have access to after you complete X game.' Not that I'm against that, some people like it and actually love being able to beat the same game on the most hardcore difficult crazy mode, thinking of it like an 'achievement'. I'm counting out also the 'additional content' or 'patches' that developer can add to a game, this is great as well but it's not what I had in mind.

Here's some things that makes me want to go and play a game I previously finished (and that is only me, feel free to have opinions or debate).

Things outside the alpha path fed by the community.
As an example I'll take 'Dear Esther' because it's still fresh in my mind.
After playing, for the kick of it, I went to the forums and I saw a thread 'Secrets 'may contain spoilers' thread. I started to read at the posts and looked at screenshots other players took. How they saw a 'reaper' in different locations within the game or saw pictures and reflection or who Esther is. I think I had spotted a picture of Esther and a special mug on a table giving reference to alcohol but that's it. So now that I see all the things I have 'missed' in the game, I want to go back and see for myself or even discover locations or objects other player did not.

Using the community to keep the game 'alive' is something pretty cool if well done.

Having the option to take different paths.
I was talking about Swtor with some friends.
And well, I chose the light side and most of them chose the dark side. We were debating on those 'Mass Effect style dialogues', of how you can answer things and be a jerk or play nice and answer the goodie good answers.

For some people it's to play the light side, being good, helping people and maxing their character this way. But when they are done with it, they make a second character but this time play on the dark side and be an evil character trashing everything and everyone on the way to satisfy their inner villain. So, they play the game twice, so take a different path and see different angles of the game.

Now I can totally hear you think: 'Oh yeah.... but for most games that offer different 'choices', different 'paths' at the end it doesn't even matter. Yes, I know that and I know the production cost of doing so is high, but I still think it's something very interesting to explore.


I think I'll stop there for now, need my morning coffee.
What makes you go back to a game you previously played?