Many people, particularly people who like RPGs, do not play GTA so that's not a good example.
Regardless, adding "soul" into a character's eyes is certainly important, but it's something that has never been a focus of Western art in animation or games. "Realistic" is not needed for adding soul. On the contrary, what is needed is particular artistic sense and style. Specifically, this is something that East Asian artists have included for decades. The most well-known, by far, would be certain specific styles (not all by any means, but some of the most popular) from Japanese entertainment (games, animation/anime, and comics/manga). There is a similar sense in many examples of Korean and Chinese entertainment, too. It's a matter of character aesthetics, and it's something that Western companies and artists refuse to do (or find very difficult due to different training and experience). It doesn't matter if the work is 2D or 3D, either, because examples exist (very popular examples, in fact) from East Asia in both artistic forms.
The problem with Western entertainment, at least in the majority of products, is that there is a lack of appreciation by companies and artists (perhaps both in some instances) of the global popularity of East Asian entertainment. You see it here as well as on various other forms of comment sections (e.g., YouTube videos) with the choices people make for their avatars (i.e., many people around the world choose avatars with and East Asian aesthetic or even directly lifted from East Asian works, or at least fan-created art from such works). One notable exception is Disney. People can complain about many aspects of the company as it exists today, but one thing the company's products in animation and games showcase is a certain character aesthetic that has a far greater appeal to the global consumer market than most Western works that focus on "photorealism" (as though the latter has anything to do with character appeal and "soul" which it obviously does not). The same thing can be said about character mods for BGS games where some of the most popular are aesthetic mods, including mods by East Asian artists. Many of BGS' fans/customers would not be able to support their products if it were not for mods that change the character aesthetics to something that has appeal and "soul" (i.e., East Asian aesthetics for hair, eyes, and body).
The refusal by man companies to offer the player choices is highly problematic from both a consumer and business perspective. This situation has existed for decades so I do not see it changing anytime soon despite the proven business benefits in avoiding "photorealism" in favor of "appealing aesthetic and soul", particularly for entertainment where audience choice is critical such as RPGs.
As I've said elsewhere, Todd Howard's discounting Japanese RPGs (a mistaken label, anyway, as Japan only imported the idea of RPGs from America and did not create such a concept on their own) is one of my only criticisms of him as a major game developer today, particularly when he freely admitted in the same interview that he didn't care for those games (even though he obviously has not tried many products, including many examples where the focus is on character and story rather than action). He is not alone, of course, and this criticism applies to any individual and/or company who refuses to observe the global popularity of such aesthetics. It boggles the mind that any business would ignore the evidence.
» Sat Nov 28, 2015 2:03 am 
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