Fantastic Intimacy: Cornell East Asia Series

Fantastic Intimacy takes readers inside the vibrant world of Final Fantasy XIV to explore how Japanese gamers build meaningful social lives through fantasy. Based on two years of ethnographic fieldwork both in-game and offline, Mattias van Ommen argues that for a growing number of players in Japan, online games have become vital spaces of emotional belonging, fulfilling roles once associated with schools and workplaces. Within these digital worlds, players forge what van Ommen calls fantastic intimacy: deep social relationships that emerge from shared engagement with the fantasy game-world yet profoundly shape players' lives beyond the game.

Challenging stereotypes of Japanese gamers as isolated or antisocial, Fantastic Intimacy reveals a community that is diverse, expressive, and socially engaged. It shows how fantasy game-worlds enable people to overcome social divisions based on gender, occupation, and education and to experiment with new ways of being together. Blending rich ethnographic storytelling with in-depth cultural analysis, van Ommen offers new insights into the relationship between digital games, fantasy, intimacy, and the enduring human search for belonging.