Investing Time for Your In-Game Boyfriends and BFFs

Time as Commodity and the Simulation of Emotional Labor in Mystic Messenger

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2409702
AutoresSarah Christina Ganzon (0000-0001-7026-6056, Concordia University, autor correspondente)
Ano2019
Volume14
Fascículo2
Páginas139-153
Data de publicação2019-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoGames and Culture (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1555-4120 • E-ISSN: 1555-4139
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1555412018793068
OpenAlexW2890849891
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas16
Referências citadas17

Mystic Messenger is a real-time mobile dating simulator and otome game that simulates how people fall in love online. In this essay, I will look at significant parallels between casual games and otome games and point out the ways in which both define women as players and consumers of games. By focusing on Mystic Messenger, I examine the ways in which the game's real-time simulation of emotional labor becomes a way of policing women's desires, a way of reinforcing nurturing roles over women's desires, and a way of literally commodifying the assumedly female player's leisure time. Furthermore, I also examine player practices and discussions of cheating within the player community, tagging these as light forms of resistances and ways in which various individuals in the community assert their identity and their agency over their own time

Agency (philosophy · Casual · Cheating · Escapism · Game studies · Media studies · Parallels · Sociology · Digital Games and Media · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Psychology · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology · Social Psychology