Examining barriers to political engagement and participation through online multiplayer games

An unobtrusive observation of players in an online multiplayer server examining social and political processes which occur there. Analysis of everyday democracy, successful democratic processes and factors influencing engagement and participation.

Grand Theft Auto Online (henceforth GTA V Online) boasts hundreds of individual servers with some attracting viewership as large as 1 million combined viewers on streaming platforms such as Twitch. In these spaces, individuals roleplay as characters and take part in democratic processes such as electing a mayor, having everyday political conversations, and campaigning for changes to their world (or sever) to name only few.

This project aims to investigate this growing online space in which engagement and participation in social and political processes are high to explore what motivates this in contrast to disengagement and distrust of government offline. Using observation and interviews with players, this project will aim to highlight what drives high engagement in this virtual politics to present recommendations to import democratic process offline.