Gaming for your vote
Despite a focus on new media channels this Australian election, game platforms remain relatively untouched by politicians. But not for much longer.
Greens Senator Nick McKim wants to end would-be right-wing Prime Minister candidate Peter Dutton… in Fortnite.
The veteran Tasmanian senator — whose career has spanned over two decades in federal politics — is perhaps the only politician who has taken to a gaming platform to pitch himself and his party to voters ahead of the May 3 poll.
"It's a way to actually have conversations rather than relying on one-way
broadcasts through traditional media," McKim told Infinite Lives. "People should be able to have genuine engagement with their elected representatives and this is one way to do that. Hopefully it makes politics a bit more relevant for some people."
Crucially, McKim didn't start playing Epic's cartoon-like arena shooter to campaign. He says he was already on the game and used it as a means to connect with his family who were scattered across the country.
Australia is in the middle of an election and for the first time ever, the baby boomer generation (currently aged between 61 and 79) are outnumbered at the poll. This has changed the game both in terms the policies being pitched by the major parties and how they engage with voters. In a bid to court the younger vote, influencers have made their way onto the campaign trail this time around, gaining access previously reserved for Australia's elite political reporters.
But despite the shift in focus and strategy, gaming as a platform has been left untouched by the major political parties who tend to form government (Labor and The Coalition).
Despite both borrowing so much from the playbooks of the Harris and Trump campaigns, namely engaging with the influencer sphere, both have neglected using games as a platform for campaigning. Infinite Lives attempted to clarify this with the politicians from both parties responsible for the Communications Portfolio ahead of publication but did not receive a reply.
A short history of gaming and election campaigning
Using games to campaign isn't new but has been mainly contained to the US. In its 2008 campaign, the Democrats advertised inside of 18 games, including Burnout Paradise, Guitar Hero 3, NASCAR 09, NBA Live 08 and NFL Tour. They were targeted and delivered over the web via the Xbox Live network.
This advertising approach later gave way to a more interactive use of gaming. Independent candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez famously took to Among Us to talk directly to voters in 2020 via a Twitch stream. That amassed over 400,000 viewers.
In the same election, the Biden-Harris campaign got in on the action, launching campaign signs and avatar merchandise in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Both sides of politics in the US joined the fray in the 2024 election. The Harris campaign created a virtual space called Freedom Town in Fortnite to canvass players. Trump's campaign leveraged the power of gaming streamer Adin Ross, broadcasting a live interview with the influencer and the now President on Kick.com.
Ocasio-Cortez upped her game too, running a stream of US football game Madden 25 and Crazy Taxi with Democrats vice president candidate Tim Walz.
Though, as Bloomberg reported at the time, the impact of all of these efforts during the 2024 election — compared to other aspects of campaigning — were mixed. It raised questions as to whether gamers want to engage in politics alongside their hobby.
Globally, examples are more scarce. Politicians in South Korea have dabbled with the trend, creating a game-like metaverse to engage with voters. Elsewhere, in the 2021 Canadian election, Jagmeet Singh, leader of Canada's progressive New Democratic Party launched an Animal Crossing island, similar to what was seen during the 2020 Biden-Harris campaign.
Will campaigning through games grow from here?
Global video game marketing company Livewire believes campaigning through gaming is a growing trend. But its new APAC CEO Fiona Mellor isn't surprised to see a low uptake of it this Australian election despite the focus on news influencers.
"They're [the major parties] still stuck recycling the same tired media plans that barely cut through five years ago, let alone now," Mellor said.
"We've witnessed it firsthand - one of our largest media spends six weeks out from the US election voting day. These US political campaigns were state-specific, in-game ad placements with laser precision targeting with real impact. It's smart, scalable, and speaks the digital dialect of a new generation."
Contrasting Livewire's own account to what made it into stories on the topic during the US election, the actual investment into game-based advertising during the 2024 Trump-Harris tussle may have been under-reported. Many focused on gaming campaign activations and streams instead of game-based advertising — such as what was seen with the 2008 Obama campaign.
However, there's a key difference between Australia and the US' federal electoral systems. In the US, politicians have to convince the public to first turn up to vote and then to elect them. Compulsory voting in Australia removes a step, possibly reducing the major parties' need to engage on all available channels.
Despite this, Mellor expects the major Australian parties to wake up to this market eventually.
"Fifteen million eligible voters in Australia are gamers, 84% of 18-64 year olds. Ninety-four percent of Aussie households have a console,” she says.
"This isn't niche—this is the new mainstream. It's an open goal for hyper-local, high-impact political messaging inside deeply engaged environments."
As for why politicians haven't already jumped onboard, McKim ties it to Canberra's dim view of gaming.
"A lot of politicians are pretty old and out of touch," he said. "So they view video games through a pretty old-fashioned lens."
"But in the Greens we realise how massive gaming is and how people from all walks of life are getting involved. So we want to meet people where they are and get more involved too."
"Watch this space!" McKim says. "I wouldn't be surprised if there were more Greens MPs hopping online and playing various games in the near future."
Though at the time of publishing, McKim remains the only Greens candidate to leverage gaming in their campaign this election.
What do you think about seeing political ads while gaming? Are politicians crossing a divide they shouldn’t cross? Or, would you like the opportunity to engage with candidates on your terms? Let me know in the comments.
Infinite Lives will be taking a break over the Easter and will be back the following Thursday April 23.
Have no qualms about a politician streaming a Q&A on a platform like Twitch or whatever while playing Fortnite etc, because that is opt in. And it is a good way to connect with otherwise disengaged voters.
But I don't want to see politicians or signs or any of that in-game, for obvious reasons.
Solid reporting! Good work.
This makes sense to me. I think the aversion to politics and civics is (at least partially) why the world is in its current state. Initiatives like this might encourage more people to involved.