Participatory culture perspective in Love and Deepspace TikTok community
A netnography study
Abstract
Existing studies have examined participatory culture in fanfiction communities and social media fandoms, yet limited attention has been given to how players of 3D otome games collectively reinterpret and reconstruct narratives on TikTok. This netnography study investigates how fans of the Love and Deepspace TikTok community interpret, expand, and reconstruct narrative elements through participatory culture. Using Kozinets’ (2015) netnography method, the research analyzed approximately 150 TikTok and over 2,000 comments collected over 12 month-period. Findings reveal four practices: POV Performances, Lore theories producing timeline diagrams, Visual Storytelling, and Cross-Game Recreation migrating leads into Sword of Justice and Baldur’s Gate 3 through labor described as fighting the sliders. The study contributes to broader discussions on how platform affordances reshape participatory culture in the mobile gaming era, while suggesting future research directions including cross-platform and cross-cultural comparative analyses, as well as ethnographic investigations into fan motivations and experiences.
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References
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Bangun, C. R. (2019). Participatory culture: A study on Bangtan Boys fandom Indonesia. Komunika: Jurnal Dakwah dan Komunikasi, 13(2). https://doi.org/10.24090/komunika.v13i2.2539
Burgess, J., & Green, J. (2018). YouTube: Online video and participatory culture. Polity Press.
Dewi, D., Lasut, K., Manungkalit, S., & Khatulistiwa, M. (2022). Participatory Fandom Harries Indonesia pada penulisan Fanfiction di Wattpad. Jurnal Komunikasi Global, 11(1), 21-42. https://doi.org/10.24815/jkg.v11i1.24038
Dwiarsianti, A. (2022). Sharenting dan privasi anak: Studi Netnografi pada unggahan Instagram dengan tagar# Anakku. Jurnal Komunikasi Global, 11(1), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.24815/jkg.v11i1.24803
Eriyanto, M. S. (2021). Metode netrografi pendekatan kualitatif dalam memahami budaya pengguna media sosial. Remaja Rosdakarya.
Fitria, K., Irawanto, B., & Sushartami, W. (2025). The participatory cultural practices of K-Pop Fanboys on Instagram. International Journal of Media and Communication Research (IJMCR), 6(2), 15-30. https://doi.org/10.25299/ijmcr.v6i2.21504
Fuchs, C. (2014) Digital prosumption labour on social media in the context of the capitalist regime of time. Time & Society, 23(1), 97-123. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961463X13502117
Ganzon, S. C. (2019). Growing the otome game market: Fan labor and otome game communities online. Human Technology, 15(3), 347-366. Retrived from https://ht.csr-pub.eu/index.php/ht/article/view/275
Ganzon, S. C. (2022). Playing at romance otome games, globalization and postfeminist media cultures (Doctoral dissertation, Concordia University). Retrieved from https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/id/eprint/990916/
Hidayanto, S., & Eriyanto. (2019). Participatory Culture: Anekdot dan Meme dalam Fenomena #Crazyrichsurabayan di Media Sosial. Conference On Communication and News Media Studies, 1, 310. Retrieved from https://proceeding.umn.ac.id/index.php/COMNEWS/article/view/1104
Huan, Y. (2022). Female representation in Chinese otome games: Comparative research on three famous games from 2017 to 2021.
Proceedings of the 2021 International Conference on Education, Language and Art (ICELA 2021), 964-970. https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.220131.175
Jenkins, H. (2006). Fans, bloggers, and gamers: Exploring participatory culture. New York University Press. https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814743690.001.0001
Jenkins, H. (2007). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century (Part One). Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy, 2(1), 23-33. https://doi.org/10.18261/ISSN1891-943X-2007-01-03
Jenkins, H. (2012). Textual poachers: Television fans and participatory culture. Routledge.
Kanthawala, S., Cotter, K., Foyle, K., & DeCook, J. (2022). It’s the Methodology For Me: A Systematic Review of Early Approaches to Studying TikTok. 55th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 3105-3121. https://doi.org/10.24251/HICSS.2022.382
Koei. (1994). Angelique [Video Game]. Ruby Party. Super Nintendo.
Kozinets, R.V. (2015). Netnography. In P. H. Ang & R. Mansell (Eds.), The International Encyclopedia of Digital Communication and Society (pp. 1-8). https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118767771.wbiedcs067
Lévy, P. (1997). Collective intelligence: Mankind’s emerging world in cyberspace. Perseus Book.
Li, Y., Guan, M., Hammond, P., & Berrey, L. (2021). Communicating COVID-19 information on TikTok: A content analysis of TikTok videos from official accounts featured in the COVID-19 information hub. Health Education Research, 36(3), 261-271. https://doi.org/10.1093/her/cyab010
Ma, C., Shao, J., & Li, P. (2025). Monetization mechanisms in Gacha games: The behavioral triad of pricing strategies, pity systems, and belief of luck. Eentertainment Computing, 55, 101044. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.entcom.2025.101044
Markham, A., & Buchanan, E. (2012). Ethical decision-making and internet research: Recommendations from the AoIR Ethics Working Committee (Version 2.0). Retrived from http://www.aoir.org/reports/ethics2.pdf
Montag, C., Yang, H., & Elhai, J. D. (2021). On the psychology of TikTok use: A first glimpse from empirical findings. Frontiers in public health, 9, 641673. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.641673
Papergames. (2017). Love and Producer [Video game]. Papergames. Mobile.
Syahriyani, A., Fahri, A., Putratama, M. R., & Amaliyah, M. (2022). Squid game series as social phenomenon on Twitter: A study of participatory culture. International Journal of Media and Information Literacy, 7(2), 578-588. https://doi.org/10.13187/ijmil.2022.2.578
Waruwu, D. F., & Vera, N. (2020). Ujaran Kebencian di Media Sosial (Studi Netnografi di Akun Instagram @prof.tjokhowie). AGUNA: Jurnal Ilmu Komunikasi, 1(1), 55-69. Retrieved from https://ejournal.amikompurwokerto.ac.id/index.php/AGUNA/article/view/1034
Xu, H., Patiño, J. G., & Linaza, J. L. (2023). Reader influence on the creation of transmedia science fiction: A participatory culture perspective. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 10, 279. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01772-1
Published
2026-09-06
How to Cite
DIANDRA, Shafira Azzalea; ADELIA, Silvy.
Participatory culture perspective in Love and Deepspace TikTok community.
Pioneer: Journal of Language and Literature, [S.l.], v. 18, n. 1, p. 128-145, sep. 2026.
ISSN 2655-8718.
Available at: <https://unars.ac.id/ojs/index.php/pioneer/article/view/8197>. Date accessed: 30 sep. 2026.
doi: https://doi.org/10.36841/pioneer.v18i1.8197.
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