Political Internet games: Engaging an audience

Abstract

This article is concerned with Internet games that critically address political issues. Developers and players of six online games were interviewed about the expressive and engaging power of the games, in particular with respect to the performance of a ‘political self’. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used in order to explore this issue in some detail. Interviews with the six game-developers revealed that building a game contributed to the enhancement of their everyday political engagement. Players were addressed by an online questionnaire which also included playing a political game ( N = 80). The results showed an impact of playing a political game on their knowledge and opinion about the issue addressed in the game.The results also suggested that the construction and expression of a ‘political self’ through the act of playing a political game may have consequences in the real world.