Investing Time for Your In-Game Boyfriends and BFFs

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

Bibliographic Data

ID2409702
AuthorsSarah Christina Ganzon (0000-0001-7026-6056, Concordia University, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume14
Issue2
Pages139-153
Publication date2019-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGames and Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1555-4120 • E-ISSN: 1555-4139
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1555412018793068
OpenAlexW2890849891
LanguageEN
Citations received17
References cited17

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