You can say that gameplay is when the player enjoys to stay in your game.
Appetizer to catch the interest in starting the game and trying it are the first things.
Challenges and choices have to follow.
Consistency and surprises are important to keep the interest in the long term.
Hi Pappenheimer,, thank you for your add
Actually, what you said is also related to the "Challenges and choices",,
Again, If the player enjoys to stay in your game,,
it is the types of "Challenges and choices" you provide that attracted him!
May be fighting system,, may be exploration in a nice environment,, May be solving puzzles ,,
All that are called Challenges!!
This will be clear when we put the types of "Challenges",,
the player will not be technical to say that,, he will only say that the game has great ideas!
Let us take an example,,
take any game you played,, and try to remember why did it catch your interest to start the game?! and to beat it?
Story + Graphic has an impact too,,
we can not denied that,, but we here concentrating on the Gameplay itself
But, isn't gameplay the way the controls work? How the controls make the player feel what he is doing while he plays the game?
No at All,,
we called this the Game Interface System!
Hardware Interface System!
Games are "interactive" softwares, and the controls are the way to interact with your game!
Wii, Xbox360, PS3, PC have different controls, but they can run the same game with the same Gameplay!
Your question about the role of the controls is very smart question!!
Controls is your key for "interactivity" ,, if designed well,, you will feel that you have full control over the game!
and able to proceed smoothly within the game and its challenges!