Your preaching to the choir mentioning Boardgames to me, I'd rather play a "good" boardgame with friends then some fancy online multiplayer video game any day.
Ok so I hope you weren't planning on talking about childhood games like Trouble and Battleship because I don't even rate them.
Having said that I'm talking about those slightly more intricate boardgames that you want find on a toystore shelf.
What makes a good boardgame for me would be setting, strategic mechanics, a finite duration and a limited element of chance.
To elaborate, a game should tell a good story, be it a simulation of a war, a dungeon adventure, or even a schoolyard fight (yes played one like that).
A game should have some sort of strategic decision making mechanic, when your choices affect the outcome. How to use your resources for example.
A game needs a finite duration, certain games I've played can be prolonged forever by canny players, that's bad, finite lives, or a turn track or limit is needed.
A game should have some element of chance so that even the most cunning plan can go wrong, however it should not be to overbearing.
I have too many favourite board games, I'm currently fond of
Small World which is a game in which you try to conquer the land and earn the most money with armies of strange fantasy races, however the abilities of the races are randomized so you have to use your abilities to maximum effect and spend your troops wisely to earn the most gold.
Another great game
Pandemic, where four players work together to save earth from a deadly pandemic. each has a different specialty to use. A deck of cards determines the spread of the deadly virus, and time is limited as any moment you could draw a deadly pandemic card sealing earths doom. Either everybody wins or everyone losses.
An example of a bad game would be Monopoly in all it's forms. The game is entirely chance driven, the dice roll is the be all and end all of the game, and I don't know if the game has fans but I get little satisfaction when someone has to pay me money because they just happened to end up on the square with my deluxe hotel, bleh! I've never seen that game finished it always just devolves into arguments.
A while back I put up a thread suggesting a boardgames day in town at the board games cafe in Market City, so if you would like to have a go at some fun game then let me know, I only got two responses last time. I'd like about 4 players that's a good size for Smallworld, Pandemic, Chaos in the Old World maybe even A Game of Thrones.
I really want to play Battlestar Galactica one day, but can never seem to find enough people to play.
I hear good things about Arkham Horror, though I have heard it takes ages to play. Would still like a go.