You know I have to say it but I feel that saying something is soulless is lazy criticism. It is one thing to say you do not like the work but it is another to go out of your way to say something is soulless. The truth is we do not know the person and we can’t say for certain what exactly goes on inside their head and I feel that the word is being thrown too casually these days.

7961128 Actually I think it's a good word to use when describing something that feels like the creator didn't put their heart and soul into their work. They knew that the trend is x,y and z, so they put the bare minimum into their creation with those elements. It wasn't something they had a burning passion for, nor was it necessarily something they were excited for, it simply had the bare minimum to get the attention of the audience.

And I'd say there are more then plenty of shows/movies these days that are soulless, that follow what they perceive to be the trend that the "modern audience" is following and put in minimal effort to score those points, instead of: writing a good story, giving characters proper character development and even exploring worldbuilding.

It is because of this why in the gaming world (among other things) that AAA games are flopping and Indie games are soaring. Because the AAA games know that they'll get paid just to submit a lazy game to game pass and maybe update it later, while the Indie game devs know that if they flop thry will probably never be able to make a new game again as their reputation will be tarnished forever.

So actually I do think that the world soulless is applicable at times.

7961130
That just means the game is not popular it does not make it soulless. When it comes to art most think that it is a great idea it might not end up well in the receiving end. I think it is ok to say that you did not like it. I think it might be unfair to the people who work there because we are all individuals who think differently and we all have different ideas on what is good or bad. They probably thought it was a good idea but it probably didn’t work out. As I said it is ok to say you don’t like something. To me saying that something is soulless is code word for I do not like something but I do not want to give my reason why.

7961132 I think you are imposing something onto my words. Just because something isn't popular, that doesn't mean it isn't great. Nor did I say that a game has to be popular to be great (same thing for movies, books, shows, etc...).

What I said is that a soulless project is something where the creators didn't put their soul into it and put only the bare minimum into it (if even that).

7961136
And how do you know for certain that they did not? Would you say that each and every one of those creators think that way? There are just so many people who worked on the project. How can you be so certain? One I might think is a great idea might not be the case for another and just like everyone else one might really love their job while another may despise it. As I mentioned before everyone who works their is an individual who has their own thought processes. If you ever heard of Spy x Family the creator himself said that he hated the project and did not put that much effort only because he was trying to get over a writer’s block so by that logic Spy x Family would be soulless. Not to mention for every person that works at a company the logic of the creators not really caring because they know that they would get paid can apply to any project even the ones we like.