Some people call RON a very "deep" game, as in strategic depth. But I think they're just confusing depth with complexity. RON is a very complex game. There are a lot of things you have to manage. But if you want to win against good players, you pretty much have to manage them the same way every time. So it's complex, but strategically very limiting; the game structure itself limits what is strategically viable. On top of that, the increasing complexity reduces the array of available strategies. What could be a good strategy under ideal conditions might be impossible to execute tactically at normal speed in competitive play conditions, and thus is discarded as a viable alternative.

This is why most recorded games look the same. There are a lot of differences in micro technique, but there are few differences in chosen strategy.

Chess, on the other hand, is a very simple game, but one that has very deep strategy.
posted by Tim at 4:17 PM