Analysis of the Capitalization on Companionship among Indonesian Young Women through Otome Mobile Game

With the growing popularity of otome mobile games among women like Love and Deepspace (2024) lies in their ability to provide players with a sense of emotional fulfillment, companionship, and the opportunity to live out their idealized romantic fantasies in a safe and controlled virtual environment. But with this cultivated environment and interaction, players are slowly being pushed to build a parasocial relationship with the male love interest. The emotional fulfillment offered by the game creates a lucrative environment that developers can exploit through gacha systems, in-game purchases, and limited-time content. Using a qualitative approach with critical content analysis of the game's features, observing and conducting in-depth interviews with players, and analyzing findings using thematic analysis, this research examines how Love and Deepspace fulfills the desires for companionship and emotional support among Indonesian young women and how it capitalized by the developers through the pushing of a parasocial relationship and in-game purchases.