Exploring the Meaning of Playing Otome Games for Taiwanese Gamers in a Gendered Context
Date Issued
2015
Date
2015
Author(s)
Chen, Wan-Hsin
Abstract
Recently, Japanese ACG(Anime, Comic and Game )products aimed at women consumers have gained significant popularity in Taiwan. Otome game is also one of them. Otome game（乙女ヴみу）, also called “Women’s Games”, refers to a specific game category aimed at women consumers. This study intends to offer an in-depth analysis of Otome gamers in Taiwan, discussing the meaning of playing Otome game in a gendered context. The whole study could be divided into three major parts: the gender politics of Otome games, the interpretation of gamers and the interrelation of gamers’ real-world experience and their gaming experience. In this sudy, I choose four Otome games to conduct text analysis. On the other side, I also interviewed 16 Otome gamers to realize their gaming experience. The study finds that the gender politics of game texts are variant. Otome games sometimes portrays relatively progressive gender relationship and challenge gender stereotype. However, conservative gender ideology could also be found in this genre at times. Gamers’ preference or criticism of story and characters in Otome games implies their gender ideological position, which is mostly shaped by the social context they situated in. Besides, gamers’ life experience, advice offered by their significant others, and cultural capital also significantly influence their interpretation and expectation of Otome game text. The study also finds that although gamers could recognize the gender politic problem in game text, finding “politically correct” content is not their major motivation for playing Otome games. As for gamers, playing Otome game is kind of “Database Comsumption” described by Azuma Hiroki (2001), in which gamers consume the affective elements they desire. At the same time, Otome games also fulfill female gamers’ demand for emotion work, which they fail to ask from men in real life.
Subjects
Otome games
media consumption
interpretative strategy
database consumption
emotion labour
Type
thesis
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