Finding love in online games: Social interaction, parasocial phenomenon, and in-game purchase intention of female game players

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.