The Gamification of Politics: Can Online Political Games Increase Civic and Political Engagement?

Gamification, or “the use of game design elements in non-game contexts” (Deterding et al., 2011), is a concept well-mapped in consumer behavior studies but hitherto unexplored in a political context. Extant research on video gaming finds that although the frequency of play has no effect on civic and political engagement, the characteristic of game play (e.g., playing games that simulate government processes or deal with social and moral issues) is strongly related to political engagement in both the US (Kahne, Middaugh & Evans 2009) and Singapore (Kahne, Lee & Feezel 2012). This suggests that certain game design elements may positively increase political interest and participation across disparate national contexts. In recent elections as well as newsrooms, online games – either produced as apps or shared on social media platforms – have been developed to increase engagement and spur voter mobilization. In the US for instance, the Clinton campaign launched the “Hillary 2016” app, enticing users to complete daily quizzes or design a campaign headquarters in exchange for badges and prizes. In the UK, the NGO Games for the Many developed the online game “Corbyn Run”, reaching over 2 million people on social media. In France, “Fiscal Combat” was built by citizens and born out of a chat-room in protest of Jean-Luc Melanchon’s economic policies. The proposed paper, through qualitative interviews with game developers spanning societal actors and national contexts, seeks to answer the following questions: Why are online political games developed? Who is the target audience? What types of data are collected and how is it appropriated? Which game design features are incorporated into online political games and why? How is the effectiveness of political games measured? How can institutions utilize online political games to promote political interest and participation?