Virtual nexus: Female players’ emotional attachment in a role-playing video game

Abstract

Casual gaming has become an increasingly important part of leisure in the last decade, and role-playing games (RPGs) are one of the most popular genres. RPGs prompt players to develop emotional attachments, so exploring players’ user emotions toward RPGs is of academic significance. This study applied the qualitative method to examine the development of female user emotional attachment in the RPG Onmyoji. The resulting model of developing user emotions between female players and the game and the three stages of the development are structured. The results indicate that female players can form emotional connections with the game, and they generate an emotional ‘virtual nexus’ in the process.