Social Media, Communities, & Networks Conference 2026: Semester 1 & SP1

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One response to “Endless Timelines of Representation: Where Determined Fans of Participatory Culture Become Creators – Syaheerah Adeela Yusma Ariffin”

1. 

   Nur Aliah Shaharudin

   29/04/2026

   This is a good research on the game Undertale community “Underfell”. I was a part of the public fandom as you mentioned but I did not know about the community fandom Underfell because I was limited to YouTube fandom of Undertale where they create fan creation music. As an example, using a song from Steven Universe “stronger than you” and remixes the lyrics based on the characters of Undertale experience. As for the questions:

   1. In my case study, I’ve discuss about how Cyberpunk 2077 content remains discoverable long after posting the video through YouTube’s algorithm and still gain engagements with old players and new players of the game. As someone who had watched countless of playthrough of Undertale and was a part of the “public fandom” rather than the AU community, you mentioned how the game exposes other players on queer representation and how the community underfell expands on LGBTQ+. Since the game was released in 2015, how do they maintain the visibility/discoverable for new players to find underfell community especially for those who are queer and interested in the LGBTQ+ safe space but does not use Tumblr?

   2. I noticed the creative affordance that the underfell community uses are personalized LGBTQ+ flags as a representation and creating original character interacting with the cast of Undertale. The question i want to ask is, what are the differences and similarities that the public fandom share with the underfell community for its creative affordance and what makes it not the same? The reason as to why I have asked this question is because even in the normal public fandom of Undertale, the fans also have mixed queer theme as found in r/Undertale via reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/Undertale/comments/1s9vqpd/is_he_spareable_now/

   3. My case study mentioned how fan community in Cyberpunk2077 uses the narratives that are available in the original content to create an emotional connection with the fans. How does Underfell community use the original content while maintaining all originality of the game’s narrative and exploring the depth of the game within the community?

   From your presentation I have learnt that Undertale fandom that I had consumed on YouTube is an entirely different format from Underfell community on Tumblr and I find it quite intriguing!

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