Order-Bound Companionship: The Practice of Emotional Labor in Professional Game Companionship

2026-07-27

AI Summary

This study examines how game companionship in the platform economy functions as intimate digital labor, negotiating emotional investment and boundaries. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 22 practitioners across multiple Chinese platforms and employing thematic analysis, the research introduces an “order-binding” mechanism and a triadic companion-centered network model. These frameworks reveal the high fluidity of role identities and the institutionalized boundaries of emotional labor within this context. Findings indicate that companions engage in deep empathy during paid sessions yet rapidly disengage once orders conclude, enacting a highly contextualized emotion management strategy. The study offers theoretical insights and design implications for understanding the micro-interactional dynamics of intimate digital labor and its governance within platform ecosystems.

Abstract

Labor in platform gig economy increasingly involves services involving relationship that demand significant emotional investment. Grounded in China's unique socio-cultural and multi-platform context, this study explores professional game companionship, an under-explored digital labor practice. Through interviews with 22 game companionship practitioners, we used a micro-level perspective to relational gig work to analyze how workers navigate intimate boundaries and stakeholder networks. We found that companions adopt an "order-bound" mechanism: performing immersive deep acting during paid sessions, followed by complete emotional disengagement post-order. We also identified a tripartite companion-centric network featuring scenario-based performances with clients, competitive-symbiotic peer relations, and interdependent governance with companionship clubs. Furthermore, significant identity fluidity exists, with individuals frequently transitioning between companion, client, and club operator roles. We provide implications for future labor governance and platform designs for intimate digital work that explicitly account for institutionalized boundaries and gig workers' shifting psychological needs.

Problem

• emotional labor
• professional game companionship
• gig economy
• intimate digital work
• identity fluidity

Innovation

• order-bound emotional labor
• relational gig work
• identity fluidity
• companion-centric network
• digital intimacy