Precision

Chapter 3

Depth Definition:

In this case, we are talking about the second. Games can get so deep that it may surprise you. Speed running, for instance. Speed runners try to beat a game as fast as they can. Simple, right? Wrong. Speed runners use glitches, exploits, and frame perfect precision to ROCKET their way through games. Did you know that the fastest human completion of Super Mario Bros. was only 4 and a half minutes? Even better, TAS, or tool - assisted speedrun / superplay. You know how I said, "human" when talking about Mario? That is because TASers can use frame by frame and rewind tactics to slow down the gameplay, making it so they can be much more precise and quick. When you speed it back up, it can be absolutely nuts!
So where am I going with this? Well, I want to say that video games can be boiled down to a science. Example: Two speed runners of Super Metroid go head to head to see who can come out first. And twenty minutes in, they are still only a few frames separated! This means that Super Metroid, a popular game to speedrun, has been greatly studied and a "fastest path - possible" has been created. And what happens at these speedrun events? Well, events like gamesdonequick are for charity, similar to how people will run races or do hikes for causes. So thats cool! But I'm getting off topic.
There is another s, superplay. Some games, like fighting games, (melee) cannot be speedruned because they do not have an ending. So people will do crazy things with their frame by frame tools, coding unbeatable bots and showing just how far this game can go. Sometimes, these can lead to studies that result in things like this:

I don't even understand this! XD
But it is not always speedrunning. Look at games like Minecraft, in which people have made working computers! Seriously. Someone ordered a pizza inside of minecraft on a virtual cell phone and it came!
But lets go a step farther. Not technical deep, game design deep. In which you could look at tons of games for examples. I will be looking at Undertale, but Inside, Journey, The Line, Earthbound, Mother 3, and many more could have taken its place.
Undertale is deep in a way that was never tried so surely in a game that took itself seriously. Some games, like the Stanley Parable, poke fun at narrative and gaming tropes. But Undertale actually incorporates game elements that you think wouldn't matter into the actual game! For instance, Exp, Lvl, Saving, Not playing for awhile, Reseting, or naming your character after someone in the game are something that would usually only matter to the player. Typically they are just tools to help the player interact with the game.
But Undertale uses them to its advantage. Characters like Sans and Flowey will comment on your moves and when you reset, your level, etc. It can catch the player by surprise when they are being mocked by them for reseting after accidentally killing someone. When a game doesn't brake, but transcends the fourth wall, it is notable. Undertale is actively mocking you for thinking that you could truly undo your mistake. Thats pretty crazy!
Or how about one that relates to movies; emotional deep. So many games have plots that can uniquely express themselves through there gameplay that would have been boring if they were just movies. Undertale, of course, but also a game like Earthbound. Earthbound can express itself through it's gameplay, whether it be funny lines and hidden extras that the game rewards you with for exploring hidden places, or how Ness, the main character, can get homesick and start missing attacks. But of course this can be cured by calling your mom. In a movie, that wouldn't have worked so well.
So ultimately, games can be deep. The end.

Drinking game: every time I start a sentence with a FANBOYS (for and nor but or yet so) take a shot. You will be dead by the end.
Bye!