As with everything there are many shades of grey and nuance when it comes to how/when someone can consider 30fps "playable", IMO: Input latency: At 30fps, most games will feel significantly laggier than 60fps or HFR games since the input sampling is usually done as part of the core game loop. Few games separate presentation logic from simulation logic, allowing simulation to run at higher framerate, minimizing this issue. Presentation Latency: Even if input is sampled at higher than 30fps frequency, it will take longer to present the next frame at 30fps compared to 60fps. Especially with double buffering. Motion Resolution: This is where a 30fps game will feel blurrier than a 60fps game without motion blur. 120fps will feel sharper than 60fps. 4k at 60 is shaper than 4k at 30 on most modern displays. That's partly why we did @OriTheGame at 120fps in 4k - it is significantly sharper than the same game at 60fps. Sample-and-hold pattern of most displays since the switch from CRT will mean that you get inherent motion blur of the display the lower the refresh rate. Running these panels at higher framerate will mean much more detail in motion. Animation / Camera Scrolling Smoothness This one is less of a deal-breaker for many as some can tolerate more motion judder than others. But for games with fast camera movement and or side scrolling higher framerate will be noticeably more pleasant to play. To me personally out of all of these the motion resolution and input latency are the biggest deal-breakers. The gameplay experience at 60fps will just feel more responsive, sharper and smoother on most displays and devices for most people.