Transforming Digital Romance: How Women Otome Game Players Re-Interpret and Re-Construct Their Gaming Experiences Through Retrospective Imaginative Involvement

How players develop intimate experiences through gameplay has been extensively studied in HCI and game research. Yet, while existing work largely focuses on intimacy within gameplay, how players may also intentionally extend game-mediated intimacy beyond the game itself is much less understood. Through an interview study (N=25), we aim to advance this research agenda by leveraging the lens of Retrospective Imaginative Involvement (RII), a framework defined as imaginative revisiting and extension of media experiences after exposure, to examine how Asian women players of otome games (single-player digital games that offer fictional romantic relationships with male characters) re-interpret and re-construct their gaming experiences outside the game, and how these post-game practices reshape their digital romantic experiences. This work provides initial empirical insights for expanding existing understandings of game-mediated intimate experiences by highlighting players’ engagement and disengagement spectrum that contributes to nuanced motivations in RIIs as a new form of play, how otome game-mediated intimacy toward virtual characters can also extend offline meanings, and post-game engagement as a unique space for understanding women players’ vulnerabilities. We then propose three high-level design principles to inform future game design that sustains immersive, emotionally fulfilling experiences beyond the gameplay, while mitigating risks we identified.