He's Just a Pixel Guy: How U.S. Players Experience Otome Games

Otome games—romantic simulation games centered on relationships between a female player and male non-player characters (NPCs)—have grown into a global phenomenon, yet research on why players find them entertaining remains largely rooted in the Asian cultural context. This study replicates prior work on Chinese players with 131 U.S. otome players, testing whether perceived reciprocity, romantic closeness, hedonic enjoyment, and eudaimonic appreciation are positively associated. H2 and H3 were supported: romantic closeness was positively associated with both hedonic enjoyment (β = .47) and eudaimonic appreciation (β = .71), suggesting that emotional connection with NPCs is a culturally stable correlate of entertainment outcomes. H1, however, was not supported: perceived reciprocity showed no appreciable association with romantic closeness (β = .07, p ∼ .512). We attribute this failure to two factors. First, cultural stigma surrounding otome gaming in the U.S. context may have suppressed the strength of players’ self-reported relational experiences, pulling scores toward neutral. Second, our sample shows that many U.S. players approached the game through the avatar, treating the on-screen protagonist as a distinct character whose romance they observed rather than experienced. These findings suggest that perceived reciprocity is not a universal antecedent of romantic closeness, while romantic closeness itself remains a culturally stable driver of entertainment outcomes.