Fluidity,Diversity,and Replenishment:on The Parasocial Relationship Between Female-Oriented Dress-Up Mobile Game Players And The Avatar

Mobile games occupy the mainstream of the domestic game market and penetrate into the daily life of the public along the gap between the virtual and the real,becoming an important part of the entertainment industry and constructing an emotional bond between players and game characters.This paper takes the female-oriented dress-up game Shining Nikki as a platform for investigation,combines short-term game avatar identification with long-term parasocial relationship theory,and conducts an exploratory study on the dynamic development process of the complete parasocial relationship between game players and game avatars in the virtual game world,the characteristics of the content model,and the influence of such paraocial relationship on the cognition,emotion and behavior of players,and finally builds a parasocial relationship model between the game players and the game avatar,and expands the research dimension and understanding framework of the parasocial relationship theory in the field of female-oriented dress-up mobile games.This paper adopts a qualitative research approach,choosing a research method of participant observation and semi-structured in-depth interviews to probe for the information needed for the study.The study found that in the female-oriented dress-up mobile game field,there is a general emotional connection between game players and game avatars.Firstly,around the game narrative and emotional interaction,players and game avatars construct a dynamic process of prologue,maintenance,end and possible re-entry paths in the development of the parasocial relationship,which fluctuates repeatedly and is closely related to the game mechanics,game ontology,players’ individual reality factors and players’ cognitive development of the game.Secondly,the players view the game avatars from the perspective of self through the anthropomorphic appellation,and form multiple relationship modes with the game avatars according to their different identities,including the friend relationship mode of daily interaction,the imaginary lover relationship mode,the family relationship mode of close companionship,and the fusion relationship mode of you and me.After incorporating the affective-instrumental vector,the content of each mode presents the kind of change from the self to the instrumental person from close to distant,and shows the characteristics of the parasocial relationship between the game players and the game avatar that is unique to the dress-up mobile game players.Finally,the parasocial relationship between game players and game avatars can be seen as a complement to real interpersonal relationships.Outside the magic circle of the game,this parasocial relationship brings various influences to players from cognition to emotion to behavior,making them produce diverse personal experiences.