1. Introduction

Otome games for women are a hot topic in East Asia today, and there are many game companies dedicated to developing games in this genre to meet the needs of women. Similarly, what causes women to prefer virtual boyfriends has sparked heated debate, along with social criticism of the game. The Otome game is a kind of game developed explicitly for female players. It is a BG development game with female players as the protagonists and males as the playable characters. The second female game is a game composed of characters, plot, picture, soundtrack, and voice actors. The male role is the core element. The heroine played by the player and multiple male characters revolve around a specific worldview and plot. The term “Otome game” comes from the Japanese “Otome Don-gu”. The first Otome game in history, Angelique, was developed and published under the leadership of Keiko Jin Kawa, the wife of the president of Glory Games in Japan. Once sold, it won widespread praise. Since 2017, when Love and Producers was released by the Paper Folding game company, the Otome game market, which had been dormant, has gradually opened up. Tencent NetEase Bytedance and other big companies lead the way, followed by Perfect World, miHoYo, Huaqing Feiyang, and other well-known game companies, all want to “dig gold” in the Otome games. In the fast-paced modern society, the pressure from work and study makes it difficult for some people to balance their love life. At the same time, common emotional disputes, the social status that has not fully realized gender equality, and so on, all further reduce the realistic expectations of women in love. In the Otome game, loyalty and deep feeling are the characteristics of the male protagonist, which is exactly what most women pursue in love in real life. Therefore, a large number of female players are attracted to the game and find spiritual comfort in the virtual world. As the popularity of B-girl games in China and East Asia has grown, so have the questions and discussions. This paper talks about the factors that lead women to prefer virtual boyfriends and what the future holds for the Otome games.

2. Methods

Based on the study topic of the attitude and depth of female players in the Otome games, the method of interview investigation and questionnaire distribution are used to get the primary sources. Online papers and journals about the Otome game’s influence were also searched as well as the causes of the fertility rate decline and the status of women in East Asian societies. In this paper, participation observation, in-depth interviews, text analyses, and questionnaire surveys were selected to observe the Otome game player community. The interview data and survey data were collected through online in-depth interviews and posting questionnaires in the Otome game community on Weibo. The questions in the questionnaire are linked to the current controversy in Chinese society over Otome games, namely a thesis written by a male scholar criticizing a virtual boyfriend. In this paper, 645 valid questionnaires were used to directly investigate the experimental subjects. Most of them were over 18 years old with healthy mental health, good education, and had in-depth experience of the Otome game. Based on the results of the questionnaire survey, this paper analyzed and summarized the process and factors of building a close relationship between Otome players and virtual lovers.

3. Results

3.1. Otome Games’ Attraction Women

The high quality of the male protagonists and the perfect shaping of men attracted female players. Women rely on the male protagonists and learn from their excellent qualities to promote themselves having spiritual support and progress in real life.

With the rapid development and change of Internet technology and the high popularity of electronic devices, mobile games, as a sign of the new era, have become the first choice for modern people to consume fragmented time because of their fun, portability, and easy operation. According to the 2017 Women’s Game Market research report, the growth trend of female mobile game users is increasing year by year, and women have higher loyalty than men, and their willingness to spend is also stronger [1]. Although mobile games developed for women occupied a small share of the Chinese market before 2017, after 2017, the emergence of Love and Producers, a highly representative game for women, has successfully driven the market of mobile games for women in China. The success of Love and Producers is a milestone in the history of Chinese Otome games. It is the first time for Chinese Otome games to reach over 100 million yuan. It also enables game developers to see the potential market of Chinese Otome games. The needs of Chinese women have also been taken seriously. With more and more East Asian women receiving better education and entering the workplace, women’s awareness of rights is gradually awakened and improved, and they begin to have a sense of autonomy in many aspects. From the traditional idea of marrying strange men at the behest of parents to the now widely advocated free love, women are gradually seizing the initiative in the marriage market. The gradual improvement of women’s social status also pushes women from being “gazed at” to being in need of initiative, choice, and discourse rights. At the same time, some special settings in the Otome game, such as allowing women to choose their favorite game object among many male characters, give women the right to choose their love and marriage relationship, which makes the game popular. Based on a broad analysis of 645 social studies, the factors that influence and attract women to prefer virtual boyfriends are “fundamentals” that are generally missing in modern male identities. The conclusion of the experimental investigation is mainly summarized in the following parts: Otome games attract women because of the high quality of the male protagonists and the perfect shaping of men. Women rely on the male protagonists and learn from their excellent qualities to promote themselves having spiritual support and progress in real life.

Based on the will of modern women themselves, women find men who conform to their standards of mate selection in the male characters in the Otome game. So, women can simulate the real love interaction in real life in the game from the first perspective, obtain an intimate romantic experience in love, and satisfy their yearning for a high-quality male. Generally speaking, the Otome game is a love game developed for women, in which the playable male characters are impeccable in terms of appearance level and body shape. Game officials often use beefy male characters to entice women to download games. At the same time, as a game simulating love between men and women, the Otome game provides female players with different virtual boyfriends to meet their love needs. Therefore, from the game design perspective, most male characters who interact with players in love are equipped with perfect human beings and mentality. Of the 645 responses to the question of whether physical appearance influences the attractiveness of the male characters, 62.64% were attracted to male characters because of their outstanding looks.

In addition to extraordinary appearance, excellent love partners are often compatible and complementary to players in personality, which is often one of the important things that female players pay attention to. In the description of female players, the ideal boyfriend often needs to be gentle, strong, mature, domineering, open, and so on. In the Otome game, each male character has a strong sense of responsibility and justice and often has the above two or three characteristics as a highlight. These compositions allow the male characters to have their own characteristics, providing fleshed-out virtual boyfriends for different types of female gamers. At the same time, the identities and careers of these Otome games’ male characters are “perfect”, and many females can’t get in touch with males with these high-quality careers in real life. These types of males may only be seen in novels or on TV. Examples include CEOs, superstars, scientists, detectives, world-renowned designers, top lawyers, painters, military officers, and so on. At the same time, there are such identities as righteous hackers and bounty hunters, which cast a veil of mystery on the male characters, attracting female players to explore.

Moreover, in most cases, the male characters in Otome games have similar identities but different styles, allowing female players to experience a different kind of love. For example, both Bai Qi in Love and Producers and Xia Yan in Tears of Themis are subordinate to the national security organization, but the two in both appearance and personalities are very different, each has a unique memory point. Bai Qi usually shows people in a windbreaker and police uniforms. His cool and handsome face gives many players an aloof and cool image of a soldier. But Xia Yan has a pair of watery big eyes, which is very lovely. Although the two people are both very shy in front of the players, still left a completely different image of the two to the players.

In addition to being outstanding and excellent in appearance, personality and career, there are also the following sections in the questionnaire about which characteristics attract female players to choose a virtual boyfriend in the game. These include “full of justice”, “honest about love”, “respectful and inclusive of female”, “an emotional attachment without risk”, “particularly rich”, “healthy with no bad habits and in good figure”, “gentle”, “always trust and believe in you”, “will encourage you”, “will protect you”, and “will care about you”. Among these options, some features stand out with more than two-thirds of female gamers choosing them. Female players who are attracted by the male characters’ “always trust and believe in you” account for 69.92% of the total respondents. Around 69.77% of the total number of female gamers are attracted to their male characters because of their “respectfulness and inclusiveness of females”. The female players who were attracted by the male characters because he was “an emotional attachment without risk” accounted for 62.02% of the total survey. Female players who were attracted to the male that “will encourage them” made up 62.33% of respondents.

In addition to the high quality and the perfect depiction of the male characters in the Otome games, women also improve themselves due to contact with the male protagonists and are guided by the male protagonists’ positive values. This often leads them to become better people and learn how to love. According to the survey, 75.66% of the female respondents in the 645 questionnaires said they had something in common with the male protagonist of the Otome game. At the same time, 78.29% of female respondents said they had learned something positive from their male protagonists. The Otome games provide a platform for many women to find emotional resonance. In the course of the game, with the progress of the story, the players also get the satisfaction of their self-worth in the process of solving problems and also receive the output of different positive values. In Light and Night, “Yu Da Academy” is mentioned, which is actually a reference to “Yu Zhang Academy” in reality. Xiao Yi one of the male characters reported sexual assault on the principal on female students but was sent to the juvenile detention center twice. After that, he was sent to Yu Da College where he was subjected to electric shocks and used as a subject in human modification experiments. However, there is still a sense of justice in himself that he does not yield to the cruel reality, he does not go along with the dirty duties and insists on fighting with the dark forces to the end. The game is very deep, all kinds of metaphors satirize the real cases of real society, such as the Fang Siqi incident in China, the Su Yuan incident in Korea, the Yang Yongxin incident, and the Yuzhang Academy incident... In reality, most bystanders will choose to protect themselves and avoid being in contact with harmful crimes, and few people stand up to fight. Xiao Yi can fight but only fights evil people, he looks like a gangster but is very kind, and is a strong sense of justice and heroism. His experience has shaped him into a character with flesh and soul, making the character no longer flat but more vivid and three-dimensional, and really letting the player feel the sense of security and positive energy conveyed by the game, which also attracted a lot of female players. This makes players know that games do not only have the single purpose of entertaining the public. Instead, a good game will focus on depicting its connotation, reflecting social inequality, building a utopia where people can temporarily escape from the real world, and giving people the strength and courage to resist external harm.

In the questionnaire survey, through the specific examples of the positive effects of the characteristics of male protagonists in the Otome games on female players, it was found that two of them would bring significant benefits to players, and more than two-thirds of female players chose those influences. Female gamers who cherish life more because of the influence of male protagonists accounted for 75.84% of the total survey. Meanwhile, 76.83% of the respondents said they learned to love and tolerate because they were influenced by the male protagonists.

In the questionnaire, a female player evaluated the Otome game as follows: “First of all, the male character’s design is innovative and contains the qualities that I, as a woman, want men to have, such as respect for women and a sense of justice. At the same time, the male characters in the game influenced my view of love to a certain extent. The small details designed by the male protagonists in the game attracted me very much and made me reflect on the qualities that I hope my partner should have in my heart, which can also provide a reference for my love, and these details also remind me what I need to learn and refer to. After playing the Otome games for more than two years, I began to realize that it has become an emotional attachment for me. I can feel the impact of the Otome game on me and I think it is positive feedback.”

3.2. Reasons for Women’s Preference for Virtual Boyfriends

All aspects of life, work, study, and historical patriarchal society directly or indirectly lead to women’s preference for virtual boyfriends. Moreover, even though things are improving, some women do not choose to have a relationship with a real man because their previous experiences have made them afraid of real men.

Starting from China, Chinese women were deprived of their independent personality and basic rights after the establishment of Confucianism in the Han Dynasty. The dominance of the patriarch in the family is also a common trait in China and even the entire East Asian society. In the three Cardinal Principles of Confucianism, women are required to “obey their father’s orders when unmarried”, and “follow” and “obey” have become the code of conduct for Chinese women. In China’s patrilineal family system centered on consanguinity, married women do not have any “choice” or “say” in family life and production, nor do they have the “right of inheritance” or the “right to own property”. A married woman’s role is to “reproduce” and “take care of her husband and children”. A woman is expected to obey all the orders of her husband, even after her husband’s death. China, as the center of Confucianism, takes “imperial power”, “paternal power” and “husband power” as the center, and takes “loyalty” and “filial piety” as the core values. The only role of women in this society is to bear the reproduction of the family population and become the “reproductive tool” in the real sense [2]. In all aspects of life, work, study, and historical patriarchal society directly or indirectly lead to women’s preference for virtual boyfriends. Moreover, even though things are improving, some women do not choose to have a relationship with a real man because their previous experiences have made them afraid of real men. According to the data of the questionnaire survey, it is found that the social reasons that mainly affect women’s preference for virtual boyfriends are the frequent incidents of male violence against women in society, most men put psychological pressure on women nowadays and long-term patriarchal domination cause men in society do not respect their partner’s career, etc., accounting for 75.38%, 70.59%, and 66.45% of the 645 female players’ answers, respectively.

One of the most mentioned is male violence against women. According to the estimation published by WHO show that around 30% of women globally have experienced physical or intimate partner sexual violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime. And globally, nearly 27% of women aged 15 to 49 who are in a relationship report that they have experienced some form of physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner [3]. In East Asia alone, the “victim guilt theory” is most prevalent and provides an excuse for gender-based violence in patriarchal systems. When a woman is subjected to gender-based violence, it is common to see comments such as “Don’t go out alone, don’t wear revealing clothes, don’t go to remote places.” But as the violence in Tangshan, China, demonstrated a few months ago, women are constantly threatened by gender-based violence, even if they perfectly avoid all these “dangers.” Our education should make men reflect, not just teach women what to wear, or what they should do. And this is not just one example. Women were “groped” by male teachers in school, made dirty jokes by bosses and colleagues, touched and rubbed by men on public transport and in public places, photographed under their skirts, etc. All these show that in addition to the bloody violence, this “micro-violence” and harassment based on gender differences also hurt women all the time. These are not simple “accost” and “conversation”, but real violence and harassment.

As for the recent heated debate about whether or not sanitary pads should be sold on high-speed trains, many men think that selling sanitary pads is an insult to them and that women can control whether or not they get their periods. The lack of sex education leads to the fact that most people only express the physiological structure and physiological knowledge in pornographic videos and novels, without really looking at the problem from a scientific perspective. Equality between men and women is our ultimate goal and ideal state. However, at the present stage, it hesitates the existence of inequality. In some moments, the choice will be deliberately tilted, and more consideration will be given to the currently disadvantaged groups, but this will make the powerful groups feel very dissatisfied.

But these should not be grounds for suppressing women, nor are they excuses for ignorance. In contrast to real men, in the Otome game Light and the Night, Charlie Sue asks if the female player needs a daily or a night sanitary pad when you’re menstruating, and also pays attention to the comforts, asking whether to use pads or tampons. And reassure the player that this is not something to be ashamed of, but a normal physiological phenomenon. In addition, she also expressed that she would donate sanitary pads for poor children, and led many female players to donate sanitary pads in the name of Charlie Sue in reality, playing an active guide in a real sense. There is no doubt that the Otome games and the appearance of virtual boyfriends greatly provide psychological comfort to women. A part of a society that is facing a lot of violence can have a safe haven. But the pressure from the meeting also leads women to prefer virtual boyfriends who are different from real men.

3.3. The Otome Game Faces Obstacles

While the Otome games are getting a lot of attention in East Asian countries, another phenomenon has also emerged -- when the women in the games take the initiative in the romantic process, and the men are the ones who are “stared at”, many men feel uncomfortable, which has led to a lot of criticism of the Otome games. For some men, it is always difficult for them to appreciate the male image of being stared at and attacked in the second female game, nor can they simply experience the pleasure of love from such a game of displacement of substitution feeling. The Otome game target generally has a lot of, they all love the player, and female players in which have the absolute choice. In this process, males become the objects to be “picked and selected”, which makes real men feel uncomfortable. They think that this kind of virtual boyfriend is depriving them of their right to choose a partner, which leads to immeasurable negative emotions about this kind of simulated love game, and denigrates this kind of game and even the whole female group. This section will focus on an analysis on a paper published in Chinese core journals of a refutation of AI virtual boyfriends, the Otome games, and female groups - “A young female player’s view of mate choice on AI Virtual Boyfriend: Aberrations, causes, and correction. Chinese Youth Studies.”

In this paper, the author mentioned: “with 11 AI virtual boyfriends of young female players on semi-structured interviews”. As a paper published in core journals, if the experiment group is only containing 11 people, then the sample quantity is too little, and not universal, so it can’t represent the whole female players’ group, and even women’s crowd to further extend. As the author mentioned in the abstract, all the 11 interviewees in the article require men to “have both face and money, and obey women”, and they think that “money is the most important thing, and want to get a lot without work”, and even without any hope for their own development, which they have very low requirements for themselves. One of the 11 respondents saw other women posting “Hermes bags, La Prairie skin care products, Christina Louboutin lipsticks, and Chanel couture clothes” on social media, and found that women can achieve a socialite’s rich life by marrying into a rich family -- seemingly “for free”. The respondents also learned from social media posts that “it is an absolute advantage for a man to be handsome” and from watching “love videos posted by bloggers, where men do all the money and housework, while women are only responsible for spending money and eating and enjoying the service from their male partners.” They learned that only men who “obey” them will love and spoil them. There is also the “reasonable” concept of “men are always better and stronger than women” mentioned in a large part of the article. The reason is that respondents saw on the internet that “many men can’t accept women who are stronger than themselves in education, income, and ability”, and came to the extreme view that women don’t need to work hard. From a realistic point of view, the right and wrong view, mate choice view, and marriage view described in the paper that women want to “get something for doing nothing, with money are always on top of their list, and they want men who are obedient and handsome and rich at the same time” are all concepts existing in real life. However, these values mentioned in the paper had existed before the emergence of AI virtual boyfriend, and even before the Internet was highly popularized, which the values are apparently not new Internet products, the author of the essay can’t simply blame the virtual boyfriends [4]. As reflected in the survey, only 26.98% of the 645 respondents chose “the virtual boyfriend is rich” as their attraction. Compared with other attractions listed in the questionnaire, this proportion is very small, and less than a third of the proportion, which is the least number of attractions selected in the data collected.

In today’s Chinese social discussions, adding the word “female” in front of many identities and positions can signify a bad development trend. The term “female driver” was first used to deride women as bad drivers, but there are plenty of women who could qualify as race car drivers. “Female esports players” are discriminated against on the field, and the MOBA game King of Glory has even banned female players from participating in competitions or joining any clubs, in order to prevent female players from falling in love with male players and affecting male players’ competition performances. But what they fail to see is that even if there are no women, the men will find partners, both external and internal, which will eventually affect the game. Even if it is not because of love, there may be many other external or internal factors affecting the performance of male players. It is immoral to blame all things on women so that they cannot participate in the competition. In society, the “female doctor” is often a symbol of older single women. In the dating market, even though female doctors are having a high degree and high income, they are discriminated against for various reasons. In contrast, the “male doctor” is indeed a highly sought-after object. The fact that a woman marries a wealthy family and achieves a class leap also tends to get more discussion and attention than the fact that a man marries a wealthy woman and achieves financial freedom, which in turn is understood widely in common sense in East Asian Countries. These include some men’s “envy” and some women’s “why don’t I make enough money to give this cute man a wealthy life” good-natured jokes. This male-female opposition discussion and discrimination against women is unknown, but it has been ingrained in the minds of everyone in East Asia.

To sum up, I do not believe that the deformed view of female mate selection mentioned in this paper is influenced and created by AI virtual boyfriends. On the contrary, such thoughts are most likely the result of the patriarchal society in East Asia and the suppression of women by Confucianism for thousands of years, as well as the natural influence of the social environment. However, the 11 samples in the aforementioned paper are too small. The source of the sample is not mentioned, nor is the depth of the author’s knowledge of AI virtual boyfriend or the Otome games. If only eleven figures shape the paper’s radical views and define an entire group, it is too narrow and not authoritative.

There has also been a debate about whether lower fertility rates are linked to women’s preference for virtual relationships. In the survey, 85.77% of 645 female gamers said the decline in fertility was unrelated to the development of virtual relationships. In the answer, quite a few players mentioned that the causal relationship is wrong. The reason why women prefer virtual love is because of the drawbacks of real love. If it weren’t for the fact that real-life relationships are not female-friendly, who would choose virtual ones? The decrease in fertility rate has something to do with the low status and disrespect of women in real life, the high cost of childbearing, and no return. As a result, women are more likely to want unburdening, dominant relationships, and therefore more likely to prefer virtual relationships. Studies of unmarried women have shown that in East and Southeast Asian countries, parents used to expect their daughters of marriageable age to marry as early as possible. However, as more and more women become economically active and earn money, parents’ attitudes toward marriage for their daughters have changed. In contrast to “older” single women in the West, Asian “older” single women don’t necessarily want to be single forever, but are in a constant state of wanting to find an ideal marriage partner. Other people around them, such as their parents and family members, also make efforts, and these efforts sometimes cause these women to feel some kind of pressure [5].

From the perspective of economics, the fertility rate is inversely proportional to the level of economic development. More and more women are getting better education and entering the workforce. Women are becoming more aware of their rights and are using more contraception to gain more control over their fertility. The more educated women are, the more autonomous they are when it comes to reproduction. For a modern woman, just being a mother has no appeal. People should think more about that before becoming a mother, women should become themselves first. It’s not that women don’t want to be mothers, it’s just that in a society where this goal is in conflict with other goals, it’s hard for a woman to balance career advancement, marital space, and relationships, and be a mother at the same time. The gradual disintegration of traditional values has given women more reproductive autonomy and more educational opportunities, which has encouraged them to go out into the workforce and be themselves.

However, at the same time, the traditional patriarchal society is still stubbornly preserved, making women have to make a difficult choice between self-achievement and fertility [6]. Female fertility declined more because of the awakening of female consciousness, women at this age now than parents to expand their education scope and degree, women have their own careers after there must be a separate consideration, and marriage for women think now benefit is not particularly evident, married women to balance work and consider fertility problems, It may also face discrimination and unfair treatment of pregnant women in the workplace, and it may also face the kidnapping of the traditional idea that women should take care of their husbands and children. Besides men I think some women have “broken”, regardless of whether the media is deliberately provoking gender differentiation, opposing arguments between men and women are also more than in the past, the other is some women suffer so many vicious incidents, in the safety of the most basic and fundamental rights are not guaranteed, really will cause men to women to dislike and panic, I think these problems are the main reasons, real-life men should look for their own problems and not put the problem on the Otome game and virtual boyfriends.

4. Discussion and Future Studies

In some female groups in East Asian societies, heterosexual, homosexual, and even interspecies romance literature is prevalent today because they believe that the form of love is not the most important, which is why women tend to be more accepting of human sexual orientation in the more constrained East Asian societies. Women are known to be more emotional, and love, as an emotion, must be endowed with a “sincere” character. Most East Asian women’s artistic interpretation and creation are just like the modern “male virtues” derived from the “female virtues” that have imprisoned women for many years. The “male virtues” first appeared as a way for women to express their demands for equality. Under the pressure of a patriarchal society for a long time, women cannot easily change the status quo with their own strength. And the successful women we see are often in the minority. That’s why Chinese women are so admiring when they see the winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in chemistry, Carolyn R. Bertozzi. “There is no sign of sexism on her,” “there is no sign of male gaze on her body,” “Her confidence and ease are not the result of makeup or dress up,” and “she has a free stretch about her,” are some of the admiring comments always heard on the Internet about her these days. Many women are encouraged by this. They don’t necessarily need an AI virtual boyfriend; they don’t necessarily need an Otome game to hope that someone will let them “reap the rewards for doing nothing.” Women can be inspired by a better person, whether that person is of the same sex, opposite sex, or even a virtual boyfriend. The most beautiful appearance of women is not how much material satisfaction they get, but when they are chasing these role models, and also when they are constantly struggling to realize the value of life.

When the pressure of reality is too great, women will temporarily put their mental fantasies into the virtual world, the Otome game is a successful product. Women often feel that they have no ability to love someone. They always want someone who can treat them well. However, while denying themselves, they also feel that they are not qualified to love in reality. Women will “sober up” and spend money on virtual boyfriends, just as men spend money on women in real-life relationships. This way of “active giving” satisfies women’s desire for collection and possession and is also a rebellious behavior of women against the patriarchal society. This way also enables some women to have more autonomy and initiative in their romantic relationships, instead of being driven passively. It also satisfies some women’s pursuit of equality in romantic relationships. Because in the Otome games, the power is usually held by the female players themselves. Instead of only obeying the arrangements of parents and boyfriends, they can have their own lives. Similarly, Galgames (The name for the male’s Otome game) for men had been around in Japan for a long time before the first games for women. Under the same social conditions, men will also plunge themselves into the virtual world for a short time under the pressure of reality, and this is not only experienced by women.

However, more games on the market are planned for men, and the female characters in them are often physically and dressed beyond the average of real women, and many female characters are often explicit in their lines and often appear in the appearance of assisting men. Excuse me whether the Galgame and AI girlfriend is also to induce men to have a distorted mate choice, aesthetic deformities, and unrealistic reverie? In addition to criticizing female and AI boyfriends, the author of the essay mentioned should also concern and care about the phenomenon of “money first, hope to get a lot of wealth without labor”, “appearance and stature are above all else”, and “treating love very frivolously” among the male group. The appearance of a virtual boyfriend or virtual girlfriend is ultimately to serve human emotions. The fast pace of real life and the pressure from society and work also make people afraid of social interaction. The utopia established by the virtual world allows people not to have to communicate with real people. The program’s editing and the plot setting for the games are all produced to serve people’s emotions. The extreme behaviors of some women do not represent the whole large group of women, and the extreme behaviors of some men cannot be used as the basis for defining the whole group of men as well. Only by spreading out the problems and starting from the basic problems can we solve the problems of all people, not simply suppressing a weak gender.

5. Conclusion

With the popularity of virtual love games and Otome games in East Asian countries, in addition to the above-mentioned controversial issues about women themselves, the larger direction of sexuality has also been mentioned as some female players are deeply involved in games. The issue of “dimensional sexual” is not new. Hihiko Kondo, a 35-year-old Japanese man, fell in love with Hatsune Miku in 2018 because he was heartbroken by a girl in real life. Although he did not have the support of his parents, he married Hatsune Miku in front of 39 friends. And with the technical support of the gate box, Kondo successfully cohabits with Hatsune Miku. The couple is very happy, and Kondo uses social media to share photos of their lives and trips. In the end, due to technical and copyright reasons, the two couldn’t interact with the technology through projection, and other people’s opinions on the relationship were mixed. But Kondo said he has no regrets and cherishes this wonderful time. A Japanese woman, Ekori Ando, has also announced her marriage to Moonmoria from One Piece. Although not supported by technology, Ando’s communication with Moonmoria is structured by the interaction of consciousness. Ando draws inside and says since childhood love object has been two-dimensional, he has liked moonlight Moria for many years, and the feeling between them is true love, Moonlight Moria will not be tired of her, Ando draws inside to feel very happy [7].

In addition to the typical example from Japan, 65.89% of 645 Chinese female Otome gamers believed that “two-dimensional sexual” might be a new sexual orientation in the future. Among them, a high proportion of reasons are that they have no love impulse for real people, and think that even though they are separated from their loved one by a dimension, the relationship is still as close as lovers. Similarly, the female gamers who hold the same opinion also expressed their hope that the “two-dimensional sexual” should receive more attention and in-depth research from the academic community. They also believe that with the development of society and science, more diverse human sexual orientations will be discovered. Of course, 34.11% of people are skeptical about the “two-dimensional sexual” as a new sexual orientation. These female players believe that they rely on virtual boyfriends because of the special tendencies or requirements of human beings and have a clear understanding of the gap between reality and the virtual. Although East Asia generally has a low acceptance of diverse sexual orientations, as long as there are no extreme adverse effects, human beings as individuals can and should be entitled to pursue their happiness.

On the other hand, physicist James Scargill at the University of California, Davis, examined the idea of “life in 2+1 dimensions”. Scargill suggests that “a scalar gravitational field could indeed exist in two dimensions, allowing for gravity and cosmology in a 2D universe [8].” Meanwhile, miHoYo, as the developer of the game Tears of Themis, signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Ruijin Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine on March 4, 2021, to jointly establish the “miHoYo Joint Laboratory of Ruijin Hospital Encephalopathy Center”. The two sides cooperate on research topics such as “development and clinical application of brain-computer interface technology” [9]. Meanwhile, as a leader in the industry, miHoYo CEO Hoyu Tsai said in his speech that “by 2030, we hope to create a virtual world in which a billion people around the world will want to live”. This beautiful vision has also made a lot of game players besides Otome game players have a great desire for the future development trend of games [10].

In addition to the discussion on the future possible sexual orientations, the future model and content development of the Otome game was also mentioned in the questionnaire. Some female players believe that in the future Otome game settings can be added other gender-playable objects in addition to men, to meet the needs of female players with multiple sexual orientations. In addition, in the shaping of player characters in the game, it is also hoped that players can customize their character images and faces so that players can have a further “immersive” love experience. Although the vast majority of players are satisfied, some players have already expressed dissatisfaction with the image of the main character that they can control in the game. They think that such a “white, thin and young” image is seriously inconsistent with them and causes discomfort. They hope that they can customize their image. In addition to gender, there are also quite a few players who believe that the second female game can have playable objects in age, race, and even species in the future, to satisfy some people’s sexual fetish. As a carrier of the human spirit or a temporary escape from reality in the future, the main service of games is to meet the various needs of human beings. Of course, we hope that the Otome games can develop better in the future and make brand-new breakthroughs in content and mode.