LOVE AVATAR

Women are enamoured with their charming virtual lovers in interactive romance novels that are now the hot dating game.

- HAYLEY TAI

One is a charismatic heir to a multibillion-dollar empire. Another is an o irresistible bad boy with a heart of gold, and the other is a dreamy surfer with a mega-watt smile and washboard abs. They’re hot, single, and looking for love. Who would you pick to fall in love with?

If it sounds too good to be true, well, it's probably because it is. These gorgeous alphas and McDreamies exist in the world of Otome, video games with romantic storylines targeted at women.

Created in the ’80s in Japan, with its origins steeped in manga comic books, Otome is seeing a resurgence in the smartphone age decades on, in the form of free-to-download apps with interactive storylines (read: saucier with sound effects), dialogue and graphics – alongside a choice of messenger apps (yep, you receive romantic “text” from lover boy) and visual novels.

Today, female fans can fuel their imagination in escapist fiction with hundreds of Otome apps created by game developers around the world.

It’s no surprise that Asia is the top money-spinner with Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan dominating half of the US$6.5 billion global market share, according to the last Global Games Market Report in 2016. While America and Canada trail behind at 21.7 per cent, Europe and Australia generate 7.8 per cent and 1.7 per cent, respectively.

Now, one may ask what’s the lure of investing in a fake romance? Think of it as an alternative to watching a rom-com, or reading a romance novel. The difference is: You, the protagonist, get to call the shots, steering the plot through selective responses in the nearly every scene in each episode, while the hot alpha male who's a bit of a tease woos you obsessively

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