A confrontation between female gaze and male gaze: Exploring Chinese female players’ play experience in Mr. Love: Queen’s Choice

The otome game originated in Japan and has developed into a mature game industry in Japan. In Chinese game market, it is still niche. Mr. Love: Queen’s Choice opens the Chinese game market of otome games and attracts a lot of public attention, which makes female players become important consumers of Chinese game market. Since otome games are designed specifically for women, and women are the main targeting audiences, the feminist perspective is very important for studying otome games. As the reverse definition of male gaze, female gaze is the theoretical framework of this research. In addition, the gender stereotype is also an important theory discussed in this study. This research takes Mr. Love as a case and explores the gaming experience of female players from a feminist perspective. The main purpose of the research is to understand how female players participate in the game and perceive their gaming experience, as well as what role socio-cultural conditions play in their gaming experience. In order to answer these questions, the researcher recruited 12 female gamers of Mr. Love, and conducted in-depth interviews on their gaming experience. Since the otome game is a research topic that has not been fully discussed, in the data analysis process, the researcher used the constructivist grounded theory to analyze the interview transcripts. The main findings of this research are the diverse ways for female players to participate in the game, the perceptions of game experience obtained by constantly comparing the game world and the real world, as well as the significance and limitations of otome games. In the discussion, the research discussed the influence of patriarchal culture on female players’ gaming experience, and how female players resist the products of patriarchal culture and form female gaze. Finally, it is concluded that the gaming experience in Mr. Love reflects the existence of female gaze and the confrontation between male gaze and female gaze.