Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media
- The Open Access Proceedings Series for Conferences
Vol. 45, 19 April 2024
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Otome game is a kind of role-playing game developed for female players. In the past few years, otome games have become very popular in China, with the number of female players rising rapidly. Although there are previous studies exploring the impacts of otome games to players in real lives, relationship between players’ body image and otome games has never been studied before. During the research, we collected 286 valid responses from both female and male participants in China, including those who play and not play otome games, and then compared their different extent of body image anxiety according to the data. The research found that female players are more likely to have negative attitudes towards their body image, and otome game players’ perception of body image seems to be more likely to be influenced by games. The deeper relationship the players have developed with the fictional character, the more likely their attitudes towards their body image seem to be influenced. Most players think gaming has made them more confident about their body and appearance. The avatar image in the game does not affect the body image of the majority of gamers.
otome games, body image, impacts of gaming
1. Monro, F., & Huon, G. (2005). Media‐portrayed idealized images, body shame, and appearance anxiety. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 38(1), 85-90.
2. CGIGC, 2019. 2019 China Gaming Industry Report. [online] Available at: <https://www.cgigc.com.cn/details.html?id=08da81c4-ceb3-4631-89a4- 2b1b4618cfdc&tp=report> [Accessed 17 December 2022]
3. Chen, D. (2023). Female Characters’ Images in Chinese Otome Game and Woman Stereotype.
4. Juul, J. (2010). The game, the player, the world: Looking for a heart of gameness. PLURAIS-Revista Multidisciplinar, 1(2).
5. Juul, J. (2005). Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds.
6. Wichian, S. N., & Sanwong, K. (2010). Effects of Online Games on Undergraduates' Socioeconomic Behaviors. International Journal of Learning, 17(7).
7. Cash, T., Fleming, E., Alindogan, J., Steadman, L., & Whitehead, A. (2002). Beyond Body Image as a Trait: The Development and Validation of the Body Image States Scale. Eating Disorders, 10(2), 103–113. doi:10.1080/10640260290081678
8. Grogan, S. (2008). Body image: Understanding body dissatisfaction in men, women, and 35 children (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
9. Szymanski, M. L., & Cash, T. F. (1995). Body-Image Disturbances and Self-Discrepancy Theory: Expansion of the Body-Image Ideals Questionnaire. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 14(2), 134–146. doi:10.1521/jscp.1995.14.2.134
10. Griffiths, S., Hay, P., Mitchison, D., Mond, J. M., McLean, S. A., Rodgers, B., … Paxton, S. J. (2016). Sex differences in the relationships between body dissatisfaction, quality of life, and psychological distress. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 40(6), 518–522. doi:10.1111/1753-6405.12538
11. Mond, J., Mitchison, D., Latner, J., Hay, P., Owen, C., & Rodgers, B.. (2013). Quality of life impairment associated with body dissatisfaction in a general population sample of women. BMC Public Health, 13(1), 920. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-920
12. De Vries, D. A., Peter, J., Nikken, P., & de Graaf, H. (2014). The Effect of Social Networks
13. Cohen, R., Newton-John, T., & Slater, A. (2017). The relationship between Facebook and Instagram appearance-focused activities and body image concerns in young women. Body Image, 23, 183–187. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2017.10.002
14. Smith, A. R., Hames, J. L., & Joiner Jr, T. E. (2013). Status update: Maladaptive Facebook usage predicts increases in body dissatisfaction and bulimic symptoms. Journal of affective disorders, 149(1-3), 235-240.
15. Tiggemann, M., & Slater, A. (2014). NetTweens: The internet and body image concerns in preteenage girls. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 34(5), 606-620.
16. Matthews, N. L., Lynch, T., & Martins, N. (2016). Real ideal: Investigating how ideal and hyper-ideal video game bodies affect men and women. Computers in Human Behavior, 59, 155-164.
17. Andlauer, L. (2018). Pursuing one's prince: Love's fantasy in otome game contents and fan practice. Mechademia: Second Arc, 11(1), 166-183.
18. Gong, A. D., & 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, 107681.
19. Herzog, R. (1944). Correlations of critical constants with parachors. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry, 36(11), 997-1001.
20. McQuail, D. (1987). Mass communication theory: An introduction. Sage Publications, Inc.
21. Katz, E., Blumler, J. G., & Gurevitch, M. (1973). Uses and gratifications research. The public opinion quarterly, 37(4), 509-523.
22. Li Z. (2019). Subculture and emotional compensation: Analysis on game mechanics of Yi Nxiang. Media Criticism (00),221-228.
23. Baranowski, T., Buday, R., Thompson, D. I., & Baranowski, J. (2008). Playing for real: video games and stories for health-related behavior change. American journal of preventive medicine, 34(1), 74-82.
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Authors who publish this series agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this series.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this series.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See Open Access Instruction).