Digital Games as Persuasion Spaces for Political Marketing: The Case of Fortnite and Joe Biden's Campaign

This study examines how entertainment digital games can serve as spaces for political persuasion during electoral campaigns, using Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign "Build Back Better With Biden" island in Fortnite as a case study. Positioned within game studies and political communication research, the paper argues that while persuasive gaming research has focused largely on serious games designed with persuasive intent, the use of commercial entertainment games for political marketing remains under-examined. The authors frame the question of how electoral propaganda is integrated into entertainment games and situate it within a broader trend of politicians using platforms such as Animal Crossing and Twitch to reach young audiences.

The methodology combines qualitative approaches in three stages: a content analysis of the design of Biden's Fortnite island using a persuasive communication model, a discourse analysis of 20 digital press articles selected through advanced search, and in-depth interviews with a convenience sample of 10 players aged 12 to 28. Preliminary findings indicate that electoral propaganda in game environments operates on three persuasive levels, namely signs, system, and context, with the aim of shaping players' beliefs both within the game world and in the physical world. The press analysis suggests that digital media frame the campaign's role in representing social reality and in shaping which governments are supported or hindered.

Players' perceptions were found to be divided. Some viewed politicians' presence in youth-oriented gaming spaces favorably, describing it as fun and sympathetic toward the candidate, while others considered such content intrusive, out of place, and inappropriate for the age group targeted. The authors note that these results are preliminary, drawn from a small convenience sample and a limited set of press articles, and therefore indicate directions for further research rather than generalizable conclusions.