recursion

Slate's Clive Thompson writes about the "uncanny valley" that game designers face when they try to create realistic looking human characters. It's virtually impossible, because no matter how "real" the characters look, our brains are hardwired to find the deficiencies...the eyes don't look right, the skin doesn't move, the lips and mouth movements are off.

I agree that a more stylized representation is the best way out of this. Humans in games just look stupid. I think the anime/manga style is a good example of high-detail but representational characters.