First of all, I don't perveice Movies in a Cinema as "fluid" (I can see the tricks they use to try to fool the human eye, it's especially visible with rapid camera motion - the Motion Compensation hits its limitations)

Now, for a slow Strategy Game, I can easily accept 30-40 fps (but not for controls, for example... nothing bugs me more than a mousepointer stuttering around at that low rate)

From personal experience :
From 3D shooters in a competitive play (Internet), I demand around 60fps minimum, it starts bugging me big time if it's below that.
In close-quarter "death around every corner" type Games, I'd rather have 100-120fps to reach fully intuitive interaction and control.
Playing that with 40fps instead would mean frequent death and a good deal of frustration.

(I know Quake 3 Arena international tournament cracks have their systems setup to never drop below 150-200fps, because that's what their lightning fast reactions are tuned to after years of training)

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AFAIK, it's not the human eye that is limiting anything, it's the human brain which primary job is to filter unneeded information out of the massive Video Stream and concentrate/repackage/give sense to the Details of Interest.

In fact, the human brain can (given some time) completely modify the Image the eyes are delivering.
There were numerous experiments, one of the more remarkable involved volunteers carrying Glasses that would flip their entire field of view upside down.
After an average of 2 weeks (and a hell lot of sickness / turned stomaches later), all volunteers had gained the ability to see "normal" again.
Their Brain had adapted to the new situation and flipped the Images again.
(naturally, after the exeriment was ceased and glasses taken off, the ordeal repeated - as the volunteers were seeing everything upside down again, just this time without glasses )

Basically, with sufficient training the fps the brain can detect and work with can increase tremendously.

The TV and Movie examples (25-30fps) are possible only with Motion Compensation that blurs it enough so the human brain is able to complete the stuttering animation on its own - that's one of the brain's most powerful functions, testable for everyone on a wide series of Visual Experiments that demonstrate the brains abilities and shortcomings - some of which are quite funny.

If the Fps rate goes down from 40Fps, there must be a very speciel situation I believe. Generally 40 Fps are enough to play OFFLINE Shooter.
This connection to the proffessional Q3 gamers is some kind of nonsense. Some years ago they had been playing with detail settings @min. to be as good as possible (because of slow computers) today some Q3 gamers still play this way because they think they are better this way
I've never seen some Bf1942 players doing this today Q3 and it's players are to special to compare with other games.

Q4 runs perfectly on my sys @ around 45Fps, even online no problems. So where is the freaking problem?
I mean: If your computer is able to display for example 50 Fps @max details it's perfectly ok. But you got problems if your I-Net connection is to slow and your ping is to high. This is what some people don't understand and therefore they put their details down.
And: If you play @ 200Fps, there is basically NO situation where the framerate goes far enough down to give you a disadvantage.

Everybody feels different about Fps rates and everybody configures games like he wants. But, sorry, nonsense to put the details down if you have average 50-60fps, even online.

yeah seems to be true allright

72 fps is indeed a nice framerate with a 100 herz screen , only games with Motion Blur it looks alot better

Thanx for Motion Blur 3dfx