This study attempted to explore Chinese female players' emotional and psychological needs when playing otome games by taking the parasocial phenomenon as an entry point. This study conducted structural equation modeling to examine the association between female players’ social anxiety, real-life social interactions, online social interactions, parasocial interactions with game characters, continued playing intention, and in-game purchase intention when playing mobile otome games.

Fig. 5. Estimates of structural model. Note: solid line: significant path (p < 0.05); dotted line: insignificant path. χ² = 3042.129, d. f. = 1497, χ²/d.f. = 2.032, p < 0.001, RMSEA = 0.041, GFI = 0.847, AGFI = 0.831, NFI = 0.890, RFI = 0.883, IFI = 0.941, TLI = 0.937, CFI = 0.941.

Technology Overview
PSI between female players and characters from otome game converts to romantic PSI. Females with high online social interaction seek romantic PSI in otome games. The PSI and romantic PSI enhance female players' continued playing intention. Romantic PSI and continued playing intention enhance in-game purchase intention.

Applications & Benefits
This study has made several theoretical contributions. Although the concept of parasocial phenomenon has been studied for more than 60 years and mobile games have been explored continuously, this study found that there were few studies that had applied the psychological concept of parasocial phenomenon to mobile games, especially for romantic PSI, otome games, and female players. We used the parasocial phenomenon as an entry point to understand the psychological factors of Chinese female players’ engagement in otome games and to explain their continued playing intention and in-game purchase intention when other studies have not paid enough attention to otome games.

Abstract：
In recent years, the number of players of otome games, which target the niche market of young females, has been rapidly increasing in Asia. Although previous studies have attempted to explain continued playing intention and in-game purchase intention in terms of social influence among players, the parasocial phenomenon has never been used to understand female players' emotional psychology and interactive behaviors. In this study, we obtained the responses of 615 female otome game players from China and analyzed the data using structural equation modeling. The results show that social anxiety and real-life interaction had positive effects on parasocial interaction (PSI), real-life interaction had a negative effect on romantic PSI, and online social interaction had a positive effect on romantic PSI. In addition, PSI and romantic PSI positively affected continued playing intention, and romantic PSI positively affected in-game purchase intention. The present study also found a strong association between PSI and romantic PSI, meaning that, as the interaction and intimacy between female players and male characters in otome games increases, the PSI between players and game characters may convert to romantic PSI.

Finding love in online games: Social interaction, parasocial phenomenon, and in-game purchase intention of female game players
Author：Gong An-Di, Huang Yi-Ting
Year：2023
Source publication：Computers in Human Behavior Volume 143, June 2023
Subfield Highest percentage：99%  Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) # 3 / 552

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563223000328