Analysis of the Capitalization on Companionship among Indonesian Young Women through Otome Mobile Game
Abstract
With the growing popularity of otome mobile games among women like Love and Deepspace (2024) lies in their ability to provide players with a sense of emotional fulfillment, companionship, and the opportunity to live out their idealized romantic fantasies in a safe and controlled virtual environment. But with this cultivated environment and interaction, players are slowly being pushed to build a parasocial relationship with the male love interest. The emotional fulfillment offered by the game creates a lucrative environment that developers can exploit through gacha systems, in-game purchases, and limited-time content. Using a qualitative approach with critical content analysis of the game's features, observing and conducting in-depth interviews with players, and analyzing findings using thematic analysis, this research examines how Love and Deepspace fulfills the desires for companionship and emotional support among Indonesian young women and how it capitalized by the developers through the pushing of a parasocial relationship and in-game purchases.
References
Backus, F. R., & Mahalik, J. R. (2011). The masculinity of Mr. Right: Feminist identity and heterosexual women’s ideal romantic partners. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 35(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684310392357
Carmona, J. (2021). Escaping the escapism: A grounded theory of the addiction and recovery process in online video gaming. The Qualitative Report, 26(7), 0_1-2188. http://dx.doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2021.4643
Chen, C., & Fang, Z. (2023). Gacha game analysis and design. Proceedings of the ACM on Measurement and Analysis of Computing Systems, 7(1), 1–45.
Chen, Y., & Chen, Y. (2025). Positive empowerment or freedom trap? Female companions’ voice attractiveness capitalization, gender roles, and gamer identity. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 12(1), 1-15. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-04673-7
Davidson, D. G. D. (2020). Game Review: ‘Burn Your Fat With Me!’ Deusexmagicalgirl. https://www.deusexmagicalgirl.com/2020/08/13/game-review-burn-your-fat-with-me/
Eastwick, P. W., Finkel, E. J., & Eagly, A. H. (2011). When and why do ideal partner preferences affect the process of initiating and maintaining romantic relationships? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(5). https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024062
Frater, L. (2014, January 17). Interview: Love and Deepspace developer, Infold, discusses its visually stunning, upcoming otome game. Pocketgamer. https://www.pocketgamer.com/love-and-deepspace/developer-interview/https://www.pocketgamer.com/love-and-deepspace/developer-interview/
Giuliana, G. T. (2019). I kissed an NPC, and I like it: Love and sexuality in digital games. Digital Age in Semiotics & Communication, 2. https://doi.org/10.33919/dasc.19.2.3
Godulla, A. (2022). Mass communication and para-social interaction: Observations on intimacy at a distance. In Schlüsselwerke: Theorien (in) der Kommunikationswissenschaft. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-37354-2_2
Gong, A. Di, & Huang, Y. T. (2023). Finding love in online games: Social interaction, parasocial phenomenon, and in-game purchase intention of female game players. Computers in Human Behavior, 143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2023.107681
Griffin, E., Ledbetter, A., & Sparks, G. (2015). A First Look at Communication Theory Tenth Edition. In McGraw-Hill Education.
Hakusai, K. (2025, March 8). ［インタビュー］「恋と深空」にはなぜ生理予測機能が実装されたのか？ 知識の正確さと個人差の尊重にこだわり抜いた，制作陣の想いに迫る. 4gamer.Net. https://www.4gamer.net/games/535/G053594/20250305038/
Hamid, F. N., & Suzianti, A. (2020). Driving factors analysis of mobile game in-app purchase intention in Indonesia. Proceedings of the 3rd Asia Pacific Conference on Research in Industrial and Systems Engineering, 7–12.
Kanerva, T. (2016, November 2). Cultures Combined: Japanese Gachas Are Sweeping F2P Mobile Games In The West. Gamerefinery. https://www.gamerefinery.com/japanese-Gachas-sweeping-f2p-games-west/
Lestari, M., Aimma, S. L., Cahyadi, S. F., Putri, K. A. L. L., & Mustofa, M. M. (2024). Bagaimana Fenomena ‘Marriage is Scary’dalam Pandangan Perempuan Generasi Z? JURNAL BIMBINGAN DAN KONSELING AR-RAHMAN, 10(2), 278–291.
Liao, G. Y., Pham, T. T. L., Huang, H. Y., Cheng, T. C. E., & Teng, C. I. (2022). Real-world demotivation as a predictor of continued video game playing: A study on escapism, anxiety and lack of intrinsic motivation. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 53, 101147. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.elerap.2022.101147
Marques, L. M., Uchida, P. M., Aguiar, F. O., Kadri, G., Santos, R. I., & Barbosa, S. P. (2023). Escaping through virtual gaming—what is the association with emotional, social, and mental health? A systematic review. Frontiers in psychiatry, 14, 1257685. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1257685
Nouvanty, V., Suryanto, T. L. M., & Faroqi, A. (2023). Evaluation of Uses and Gratifications on Online Otome Games. Teknika, 12(2). https://doi.org/10.34148/teknika.v12i2.613
Sellier, H. (2021). Mobile Otome Games: Desire and Suspense as Economic Strategy. Shs.Hal.Science. https://shs.hal.science/halshs-04613757v1
Situmorang, A. (2007). Staying single in a married world. Asian Population Studies, 3(3). https://doi.org/10.1080/17441730701746433
Sofia, L., Rifayanti, R., Amalia, P. R., & Gultom, L. M. K. (2023). Mindfulness Therapy to Lower the Tendency to Fear of Missing Out (FoMo). Jurnal Aisyah : Jurnal Ilmu Kesehatan, 8(2). https://doi.org/10.30604/jika.v8i2.2018
TechNode. (2025, January 14). Posted inNews Feed Chinese female-targeted game developer Papergames earned $0.95 billion revenue in 2024. Technode. https://technode.com/2025/01/14/chinese-female-targeted-game-developer-papergames-earned-0-95-billion-revenue-in-2024/
Xiong, M. (2019, January 2). A Complaint Resolution Platform Rises to Address Dissatisfied Customers on Weibo. Jing Daily Culture. https://jingdailyculture.com/complaint-resolution-weibo/
Zhang, Z. (2024). The Rise of Otome Games in China: Exploring the Social and Psychological Traits of Otome Game Players. Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media, 59, 173–179. http://dx.doi.org/10.54254/2753-7048/59/20241720
Copyright (c) 2025 Journal La Sociale
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
