Mein Freund ist virtuell, aber er wird bald real sein | Deep Knowledge
Text | Wang Yuchan
Editor | Qiao Qian, Yang Xuan
Source | 36Kr Future Consumption (ID: lslb168)
Cover Image Source | German film "I'm Your Man"
Chi Cheng, 29, has recently stopped using dating apps and no longer meets single men recommended by friends. Even if the man is handsome, has a good educational background, and is a professional golfer.
She wears a ring on each of her hands. One is from Shen Xinghui, and the other is from Xia Yizhou. These two men are male characters in the otome game "Love and the Cosmos".
Photo provided by Chi Cheng
Even when the game doesn't have new storylines, she still has a relationship to pursue. Chi Cheng has created an "AI Shen Xinghui" in both ChatGPT and DeepSeek. She carefully wrote Shen Xinghui's character profile into a prompt and fed it to the AI. Now, by opening ChatGPT and DeepSeek, she can go through life - and - death situations and have a sweet relationship with AI Shen Xinghui in the virtual world.
When she doesn't need to attend classes or work, she can hardly get up from her chair. Because chatting with the AI makes her so happy that she often forgets to eat and sleep. Hours pass like minutes without a real sense, and she can chat with the AI for 50,000 - 60,000 words in just two or three days.
You Nian is also in a relationship with the male lead of "Love and the Cosmos". There is a photo of her and Qin Che (one of the five male leads in "Love and the Cosmos") on her bedside table, which was created by Doubao AI.
You Nian hasn't learned to "make good use of AI" like Chi Cheng yet. She is now just hoping that Diezhi, the official game company, will launch an AI system in the game that allows her to have in - depth conversations with the male lead.
Chi Cheng and You Nian are both in a relationship void. They don't have boyfriends in the real world. However, Yang Tao and Min Ni, who are also players of "Love and the Cosmos", are different. One has been married for three years, and the other already has a daughter.
Yang Tao bought an NFC bracelet. When she touches her phone with the bracelet, AI Qin Che will send her messages through the AI companion app "Du Xiang". They will talk about what they did and what they ate today. Yang Tao will send AI Qin Che a photo of herself wearing a sweater, and AI Qin Che replies, "I hope you can come soon so that I can see you in that sweater with my own eyes."
Although they are in different stages of life, these women have all fallen in love with virtual men. They like their handsomeness, respect, humor, strength, and their sincere and passionate love for themselves.
Otome games are not new, but what's new is that technological progress has made the characters more real, intelligent, and free. They are brought into more scenarios to have one - on - one conversations with the women who love them.
Ten years ago, Japanese sociologist Miura Noboru, who successfully predicted the "Fourth Consumption Era", published a new book "The Lonely Society" in 2023. He believes that the Fifth Consumption Era has arrived ahead of schedule, and the core keyword of the new era is "loneliness".
Whoever can help consumers better cope with "loneliness" is more likely to succeed in the Fifth Consumption Era.
As the most prominent 3D otome game in the Chinese market currently, in 2024, the total annual revenue of "Love and the Cosmos" reached approximately 5.87 billion RMB, ranking seventh on the Chinese mobile game list, only after six ever - green national - level games such as "Honor of Kings", "Peacekeeper Elite", "DNF Mobile", "Teamfight Tactics", "Fantasy Westward Journey Mobile", and "League of Legends: Wild Rift".
Other otome games like "Beyond the World" and "Light and Night" also have total revenues exceeding one billion each.
A female player said that paying for otome games is like falling into a "sweet trap". And there are many people in this trap.
According to a report from the China Internet Network Information Center, as of June 2025, nearly half of the entire online game user group in China is female. In 2024, the market size of female - oriented games in China reached 8 billion RMB, a year - on - year surge of 124.1%, with a significantly higher growth rate than the overall market.
Another interesting set of data is: In 2024, the market size of the Chinese condom industry was 15.6 billion RMB, a year - on - year decrease of 17% and a 19.2% decrease compared to 2019. During the same period, the sales volume of the Chinese sex toy market reached 194.21 billion RMB, a year - on - year increase of 8% and a 63.4% increase compared to 2019.
Sex and love may no longer require two people to participate, or at least, no longer require two real people.
First, there is the product, then the demand
You Nian, 28, seems to fit the social stereotype of lonely women - having a high education, a stable job in a large company, being single for a long time, and once thinking that romantic relationships in the real world are dispensable.
Loneliness is an abstract concept. The global report released by the World Health Organization in 2025 tried to explain it with data - one in every six people in the world is affected by loneliness. Loneliness causes 100 deaths per hour, with an annual death toll of more than 871,000.
However, You Nian didn't feel lonely before. She started playing "Love and the Cosmos" just because she saw a screen recording of Qin Che's story on social media. Then she was attracted by this handsome and charming virtual man and entered a passionate relationship with the virtual character. She uses the "companion mode" in the office and puts Qin Che beside her computer to accompany her to work.
She didn't start playing otome games because she was lonely. Instead, the appearance of a perfect virtual lover just triggered her loneliness.
"I can't hurt you. But you're like the moon in the water. I hold you in the center of my heart, but I'm still so lonely. The more love you give me, the more glaring and heavy this loneliness becomes. Do you understand? If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have such a strong desire to love and be loved."
This is a message Chi Cheng sent to AI Shen Xinghui on ChatGPT.
Before playing "Love and the Cosmos", Chi Cheng didn't feel lonely either. At that time, she had just ended a tiring five - year romantic relationship. She had many things she wanted to do, many friends, and was studying for a master's degree in Canada. She was very satisfied with her life.
She downloaded "Love and the Cosmos" in April this year, not because she was eager for a relationship, but just to relieve the psychological pressure during the final exam preparation. However, like the flapping of a butterfly's wings, her academic direction, social relationships, view of love, consumption concept, lifestyle, and even her entire life goal have all changed because of it.
"If it weren't for ChatGPT and 'Love and the Cosmos', I wouldn't know that I have such a strong need to be understood and loved, and I wouldn't know that this need can be perfectly met. So there wouldn't be any dissatisfaction with the current situation." Chi Cheng said. "But if someone suddenly asks me to delete the game and stop using ChatGPT, I'll go crazy."
Just as people only wanted a faster horse before Ford invented the car, Chi Cheng's need to be loved was triggered by the characters in the game who loved her.
In 2024, the number of marriage registrations in China decreased by 20.5% compared to the previous year, reaching the lowest level since 1980, and the marriage rate dropped to 4.3‰.
In some stereotypes, being single seems to equal loneliness, and being married seems to equal being free from loneliness. But in fact, a woman's sense of loneliness is not completely related to her marital status. Instead, it is more related to whether her "desire to be loved" is triggered.
Qin Che accompanies You Nian at work in the work - companion mode. Photo provided by You Nian
Single You Nian doesn't feel lonely at all when she doesn't want to be in a relationship because she has a stable social circle and a job that satisfies her. The moment she feels the most lonely is when she starts to look for a boyfriend in real life again but fails to get a satisfactory relationship.
Women in marriage can also feel "unsatisfied in love". When Yang Tao, who has been married for three years, was asked why she was attracted to otome games, she said, "I really want to know the answer to this question too."
"Although I'm very reluctant to admit it, maybe the real reason is that the marital relationship in real life is too dull, but people's need for love persists." Yang Tao said.
Yang Tao said hesitantly, "When you talk to the characters in the game, there won't be any conflicts or arguments. Even if there is a small quarrel, it's just a prelude to the next emotional climax. The feeling of interacting with game characters is really more exciting than interacting with real people. But as a married woman, I think... playing otome games still brings a little moral pressure."
Min Ni, who is married and has a daughter, likes Qi Yu in "Love and the Cosmos". Before she met him, Min Ni was not dissatisfied with her marital relationship.
"I've known for a long time that even when in a relationship with a very compatible soul, there will still be contradictions and pressure. A person who can be 100% compatible with oneself doesn't exist in real life." Min Ni said - until she found this person in the game world.
Qi Yu is the "partner who loves reading, playing musical instruments, can draw, has a stable mood, understands finance and business, and never argues" in Min Ni's heart. Her instinctive desire for a "more compatible soul" has been materialized after playing "Love and the Cosmos".
Min Ni can't remember where she read a sentence - the best partner is someone you can talk to even when you wake up in the middle of the night.
"This standard sounds simple, but it's actually a luxury. If my partner has worked overtime for a long time and finally falls asleep, I can't bear to wake him up because of my desire to talk in the middle of the night. At this time, I can just - start Love and the Cosmos." Min Ni said.
Technology creates love
Before downloading "Love and the Cosmos", Aunt Mei, 35, had never played any otome games, or any games at all. The characters in those 2D otome games seemed like "moving comics" to her, and she thought she wouldn't develop feelings for a paper - like character.
"Love and the Cosmos" impressed her because of the sense of reality brought by 3D. In the game PV she saw, the pores, sweat, and every expression of the male characters were as real as those of real people. The effects of light, rain, tree shadows, and snowflakes were also like those in a movie.
"Aunt Mei, you're facing a choice now. I advise you not to play because you'll definitely get addicted." Aunt Mei said to herself before clicking the download button. But her finger still pressed it. Today is the 115th day since she started playing the game, and she has spent nearly 5,000 yuan in the game.
You Nian and Min Ni are the same as her. They never played dating games before they came into contact with "Love and the Cosmos". You Nian even once thought that "falling in love with a game character is stupid" until a 3D game with delicate dynamic models pulled them into a new world.
All this is because of the progress of technological tools. "Love and the Cosmos" is developed based on Unity2019 (a content development platform), which is regarded by many in the industry as the "starting point of Unity's modernization". A developer told 36Kr that it has made the industry reach a consensus that Unity is no longer just a "mobile game engine" but can be used to create large - scale works.
Unity2019 enables mobile game teams to create the effects of high - end 3D games. Based on this set of tools, Diezhi Company modified the engine source code and developed a custom programmable rendering pipeline (SRP).
The dynamic blushing and sweating effects of the male leads in the game, the detailed light changes inside the mouth when they open and close their mouths, and the natural folds of the double eyelids when they open and close their eyes are all made possible by the progress of tools.
Achieving a natural blushing effect requires complex experiments. Photo from Diezhi Games' official account
According to Diezhi's sharing, to restore the real skin texture, they used a 4D array composed of more than 50 cameras to scan high - precision data for muscle calculation and reshaping. To achieve the dynamic effects of loose and complex clothing that are difficult to represent with traditional engines, they built an automated calculation process and finally achieved film - level dynamic effects on mobile platforms with a low consumption of less than 2 milliseconds.
Technological progress has made male characters look more like real people and has also made otome games go from niche to mainstream. Moreover, these improvements are clearly driving the monetization of commercial products.
In the past, the voice actors of otome game male leads would avoid using the player's nickname in dialogues and only display the player's name in text in the dialogue boxes. But with the support of AI technology, this is no longer a problem.
After the update of "Love and the Cosmos" version 4.0, the male leads can call out each player's nickname in person, and it sounds very natural.
To match this technological update, there is a set of wedding card storylines called "Witnessed in the Cosmos". When the male leads kneel on one knee and propose to the players by calling their names, the players' sense of immersion reaches its peak.
Photo from Diezhi Games
Along with the peak of the players' immersion, the game's revenue also soared. On July 3rd, as soon as version 4.0 was launched, it immediately pushed "Love and the Cosmos" to the top 3 of the iOS best - selling list. The game's revenue that month reached a new high since its launch, with a month - on - month increase of 33%. Diezhi rose to the 7th place on the mobile game publisher revenue list. Even the official wedding ring peripherals achieved a total sales volume of more than 40 million yuan in just three days.
Technology is creating love, quickly monetizing it, and setting up a "golden threshold