"The Deepest Games are DUMB" - applying that knowledge to POE2 (and POE1)

I recently had watched a video from 'The Electric Underground' going into "game depth" and what creates it, and from there, we can figure out how this knowledge could be applied to Path of Exile 2 (and PoE1 for comparison).

In this case, "smart games" refer to games with a heavy amount of automation and "playing themselves", while "dumb games" are the opposite of that; lot of manual work and mental work on the player's part.

There is of course a fair amount of nuance to the topic of game depth, such as:
- Where should there be depth?
- How deep should each instance of depth go?
- How gradual should each instance of depth be?
And so on.

The video itself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOAU3SdJ68A

A "Cryptpad Diagram" file serving as cliffs-notes on the video.
(PoE players should feel at home with diagrams/graphs)
https://cryptpad.fr/diagram/#/2/diagram/view/Sao2kjWzsdKopYD-IQsS6DskJr+nJU85WPfHvDPwK0Q/

REALLY simplified summary of the 3 ways to create game depth:

1. Checkmates
The simplest form is getting a "game over" and having to start from the beginning.
Some people know enough about a game to see a "game over" coming before it actually happens, so they quit/restart.
There's also more abstract/granular "checkmates" - e.g. game score; speed-running. At that point I wouldn't call them "checkmates" since they're not literal fail states, as much as thresholds to catch up with, or bars that players raise higher and higher for themselves.

2. "Oppressive states" with no obvious solution
Or at least, the "steps" to overcome such a state are context-sensitive, based on various factors.
The Shuriken Spam from Ninja Gaiden 2 (2008) on Xbox 360 is cited as one example of this.

3. Imperfect tools that will ultimately result in failure
This one I'll admit is tough to summarize.
All I can do is bring up key phrases/paraphrases like "failure is what creates skill expression" and "as soon as a perfect state/strategy in a game is reached... particularly one that the game cannot keep up with or account for in some way, that game is effectively dead".

But yeah, I'm bringing this in as a new perspective to see things from.

As a few quick examples off the top of my head:
- PoE1's respec system has that "bricked build at the start" checkmate that players came up with, although once you build up plenty of Regret Orbs in a League, that checkmate is pretty much gone.
- Meanwhile PoE2's usage of Gold to respec (and Respec costs going up as your Level gets higher) lets you back out of mistakes at the start, but as you get deeper into your build, it takes more effort to go back on build decisions.
- And PoE1 Settler league having both Gold and Regret Orbs for respeccing removes the checkmate both at the start and the end.

- Hardcore is very much an example of a "checkmate" implemented in the game. With regards to Trade vs SSF, some players could consider migrating a character from SSF to Trade as a figurative "checkmate".
- I definitely think that some PoE players like using DPS as a "checkmate", though some argue that "time to death (of enemies)" is a more practical "checkmate" to work with. Would anyone outright start over with a new character when they feel like their DPS or "time to death of enemies" is too low? Maybe.

All this reminds me of MatthewMatosis' "External Motivation" video and its conclusion of "ultimately, video games happen in the player's mind. Therefore, if you can control your mind, you can control you experience with any video game you play".