<![CDATA[Open-world online games such as Genshin Impact offer players freedom to explore virtual environments, interact with digital surroundings, and communicate with individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds. Thus, online gaming serves not only as entertainment but also as a digital space for social interaction, emotional experiences, moral negotiation, and identity development. This study aims to explore how Genshin Impact players understand their relationships with virtual characters, particularly regarding emotional attachment, moral values, and identity exploration and formation. A qualitative phenomenological approach was employed to examine players’ subjective experiences through in-depth interviews with five active Genshin Impact players. Data were analyzed interpretively by relating participants’ lived experiences to phenomenological perspectives on gaming, emotional attachment theories, Erikson’s identity versus role confusion framework, Bandura’s moral disengagement concept, and perspectives on gamer communities and virtual communication. The findings reveal that emotional attachment to virtual characters enables players to express idealized aspects of themselves, explore personal aspirations, and regulate emotions while distinguishing virtual experiences from reality. Players also negotiate moral values through automatic, reflective, and habitual moral disengagement processes, interpreting in-game actions according to the game’s normative and situational context. Furthermore, gaming communities strengthen social identity, interpersonal relationships, and belonging. Overall, online gaming can function as a digital space for self-reflection, social interaction, moral negotiation, and identity formation in contemporary life.]]>
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