When I think about all the top 10 games lists, most of them are focused either on the cultural impact or on the story/sold units.

But does that really define gaming? When I think of gaming as a separate art form, it is defined mostly by emerging gameplay and the depth of functions used to provide your experience.

So, that would make the list look something like:
Factorio
X4: Foundations
.
.

So, what games can you think of, that provide a true deep gaming experience? And is there a good word, that would describe this kind of games? Because I really think, that I am mising the vocabulary to even talk about this topic.

@LukeAlmighty most are based on the cultural impact, yeah. I think that's fair, since a game with a large cultural impact is also probably a pretty damn good game. But it would be interesting to see a list of games that practically invented or defined entire genres. I suspect there would be some overlap there. Half Life would be on both lists for sure, for instance.

@beardalaxy
Huh?
There were many FPS games before half life...
I might be really missing your point there, since it seems like a prime example of the negative to me.

@LukeAlmighty half life is what I would call genre defining, it marks the end of the more level based "boomer shooters" and has more narrative/exploration elements. You can't really pick the very beginning of the genre because those are often pretty rudimentary and lack polish. Like, I would pick super metroid over metroid 1. But we could probably debate all of this for hours lol and that's why every list is going to be subjective or aggregate at the end of the day.