Within the landscape of Japanese media production, and video game production in particular, there is a niche comprising video games centered around establishing, developing, and fulfilling imagined intimate relationships with anime-manga characters. Such niche, although very significant in production volume and lifespan, is left unexplored or underexplored. When it is not, it is subsumed within the scope of wider anime-manga media. This obscures the nature of such video games, alternatively identified with descriptors including but not limited to ‘visual novel’, ‘dating simulator’ and ‘adult computer game’. As games centered around developing intimacy with characters, they present specific ensembles of narrative content, aesthetics and software mechanics. These ensembles are aimed at eliciting in users what are, by all intents and purposes, parasocial phenomena towards the game’s characters. In other words, these software products encourage players to develop affective and bodily responses towards characters. They are set in a way that is coherent with shared, circulating scripts for sexual and intimate interaction to guide player imaginative action. This study defines games such as the above as ‘character intimacy games’, video game software where traversal is contingent on players knowingly establishing, developing, and fulfilling intimate bonds with fictional characters. To do so, however, player must recognize themselves as playing that type of game, and to be looking to develop that kind of response towards the game’s characters. Character Intimacy Games are contingent upon player developing affective and bodily responses, and thus presume that players are, at the very least, non-hostile towards their development. This study approaches Japanese character intimacy games as its corpus, and operates at the intersection of studies of communication, AMO studies and games studies. The study articulates a research approach based on the double need of approaching single works of significance amidst a general scarcity of scholarly background on the subject. It juxtaposes data-driven approaches derived from fan-curated databases – The Visual Novel Database and Erogescape -Erogē Hyōron Kūkan – with a purpose-created ludo-hermeneutic process. By deploying an observation of character intimacy games through fan-curated data and building ludo-hermeneutics on the resulting ontology, this study argues that character intimacy games are video games where traversal is contingent on players knowingly establishing, developing, and fulfilling intimate bonds with fictional characters and recognizing themselves as doing so. To produce such conditions, the assemblage of software mechanics and narrative content in such games facilitates intimacy between player and characters. This is, ultimately, conductive to the emergence of parasocial phenomena. Parasocial phenomena, in turn, are deployed as an integral assumption regarding player activity within the game’s wider assemblage of narrative content and software mechanics.

Despite the complexity of the video game, interest is growing by leaps and bounds due to its increasing relevance in entertainment history, but understanding of the medium is still up in the air. The aim of this study is therefore to investigate the knowledge and skill acquisition of people with little or no gaming experience (non-gamers) about the digital 3D puzzle game Portal within the framework of the Hermeneutic Spiral. Using qualitative interviews, supported by gameplay recordings and think-aloud protocols, eight non-gamers aged 21-69 reveal seven categories that determine the complexity of video game understanding and skill acquisition. Results show that skill acquisition is highly individual and depends on previous gaming experiences in terms of game literacy, the language understanding of games. As they form the basis, general expectations determine the next gaming experience which adds to the catalogue of video game understanding and influence the process of skill acquisition. / Trotz der Komplexität des Videospiels wächst das Interesse aufgrund seiner zunehmenden Relevanz in der Unterhaltungsgeschichte sprunghaft an, das Verständnis für das Medium ist jedoch noch nicht gefestigt. Ziel dieser Studie ist es daher, im Rahmen der Hermeneutischen Spirale das Wissen und den Kompetenzerwerb von Menschen mit wenig oder keiner Spielerfahrung (Nicht-Spieler) über das digitale 3D-Puzzlespiel Portal zu untersuchen. Mittels qualitativer Interviews, unterstützt durch Gameplay-Aufnahmen und Think-Aloud-Protokolle, decken acht Nicht-Spieler im Alter von 21-69 Jahren sieben Kategorien auf, die die Komplexität des Videospielverständnisses und des Kompetenzerwerbs bestimmen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass der Kompetenzerwerb sehr individuell ist und von früheren Spielerfahrungen im Sinne von Game Literacy, dem Sprachverständnis von Spielen, abhängt. Die allgemeine Erwartungshaltung bildet die Grundlage für das nächste Spielerlebnis, das den Katalog des Videospielverständnisses ergänzt und den Prozess des Kompetenzerwerbs beeinflusst.