How important are thematics and illustrations?

Ron,
First, good luck on your studies.

Second, to answer your question, I think that both theme and illustration are important. Especially for mass appeal. There are few games that are extremely popular with little to do with theme or illustration (these are the classics like chess, checkers, go, etc.) but they are also hundreds of years old.

In terms of appeal, I believe contemporary board games will struggle in mass market appeal without clean professional illustrations and without an engaging theme. For example, everyone has played Monopoly, but people will shell out more money to buy a Twilight version of Monopoly.

Mechanics and playability are probably the most important. If the rules are overly complicated, illogical, unplayable, etc. the game will NOT be that widely appealing, but theme and illustrations are a close second/third in my opinion.

addressing your questions specifically:

-A theme is often just a very loose frame for gameplay. But just as often, the gameplay is generated first and the theme is applied after, using the gameplay's key actions and weight as the frame... and some games have no theme (abstracts, like "Go" or "Quarto"). Some games have more thorough integration and some are just slapped on. The level of importance of the theme on the experience depends on the player- some want full color components and detailed miniatures, with a backstory in the rulebook. some are fine with no theme and a crayon sketched board, as long as the gameplay backs it up. The gap is very wide, though you can make some generalizations depending on depth in the hobby and geographic location.

-As before, the success of the gameplay can sometimes be VERY dependent upon the theme/illustrations, and sometimes theme/illustrations aren't needed at all. it depends on the player. however, including a well integrated theme casts the broader net, as those who don't care about theme won't count it against it for having a good one, whereas the inverse is not true. marketing wise, inclusion of solid theme is a good idea for that reason, and also for the reason the other poster mentioned- in a retail store, an attractive box pulls in infinitely more customers (especially in America). The box gets it in the shopping cart, the gameplay is what keeps it out of the garage sale/ebay a few months down the road. On the internet is somewhat different, as you'll have WAY more hobby-centric users purchasing games there... but the same "attractive theme casts a broader net" still applies.

a well applied theme can also assist gameplay, if you're applying intuitive reasoning for actions based on theme (giving players a consistent mnemonic via the theme/graphic design makes learning and retaining rules much easier).

theme is not NECESSARY, but if it's well done it helps both sales (a LOT) and gameplay (some).

. . . you lucky Ohioan bastard. 60+ people . . .

>.<

According to my own knowledge and experience, what I could say about theme is that vaires a lot. Some of the games are trying to simulate some certain and spesific subject, some are build around interesting game mechanics and most of games are somewhere between these two extremes.

My experience and what I think is that games we see in department stores and big automarkets are representing lighter (mechanic), non-thematic (or not-so-thematic) and quick-to-play (often less than 1½ hours) games, which are also richly illustrated and often published by big companies. More specific by theme or simultaning (is that a word?) games are often sold in smaller gameshops.

So I see it the way there are some different kind of customergroups, harshly categoried in non-players, semi-players and "true" players. Non-players mostly buy games from big markets and department stores and selection-decision is strongly effected by advertisments, price, appearance of box and box' backside-text. Example, a father buying a game as christmas present to his child.
Semi-players have wider knowledge about games and their mechanics, and they are usually looking a little bit tougher nuts to crack. They search information about games and read previews about games before purchasing. This group is maybe not so big than non-players, but they buy new games more often. They buy their games both from big and small stores. From big ones they are looking for little bit cheaper and enjoyable game with nice layout, for medium to large groups. From smaller shops they are searching some little bit more expensive and exotic piece, for small to medium groups to play. Reasons affecting theis selection-decisions are good previews, interesting game-mechanic or theme and enjoyability, but also quality of components and layout of box AND game itself.
"True" players are more trickier than two groups before, because group consists very different kind of people. While some are kind of hardcore players, who play games daily and are in continuos search for new games, are the others interested in only one theme, second world war for example. They buy games not so often and the ones they buy are mostly simulation games. For hardcore players the game is always sum of many aspects and they might be very critical toward games. They also consider a gaming experience as a wholeness and there also theme and illustration are equal parts of it. Then, as opposite, people interested only in some theme are not usually so picky about the looks and layout of the game. What makes them one group in my categoriation is their hunting for games, how they check every shop and internetsite in their search for new masterpieces. They are masters of finding gaming information and they've got very broad knowledge about games. They usually buy their games from specialized shops and stores, and also from internet shops and directly from publishers.

And how wonderful I slipped off topic. Well, about the theme and illustration only..
I would put it this way: Smpler games need better illustration to make game interesting and attractive, than a more complicated game, until some point. After that point more complicated game will need to be more thematic become interesting.

Personally to me the most enjoyable game would be one with quite strong theme, nice illustration, 3-8 players, lots of interaction and which lasts for couple of hours.

So this is my opinion, based on my experience, mainly gathered in my homecity of Jyväskylä, Central Finland. There are about 100,000 inhabitants in city and 30,000 around it in rural areas. City is semi-international/-cultural, with over 35,000 students, ages between 16-30. Most of foreigners are exchange students. We also have one shop specialised almoast only for games and gaming. This is just a background info, so you won't consider this as an absolut truth. :)

Hope this helped you, good luck for your studies and best regards

Kalle