Politics and Gaming Collide as AOC Plays Among Us
Politics may never be the same.
Politicians have started using online gaming as a platform to reach younger audiences and encourage them to get more involved with politics.
Among Us, an extremely popular multiplayer video game, is the latest example. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) recently played it to encourage younger voters to vote.
More 400,000 viewers tuned in to Twitch, a live video streaming website, to watch her play with her colleague Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (MN-5) and popular internet personalities Jacksepticeye, Cr1tikal, and Pokimane. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez garnered 550,000 followers from the event.
President Trump and President-elect Joe Biden have streamed events on Twitch, total views have never gone beyond 17,000.
Among Us became an end of summer hit. Downloads during August generated over 18.4 million new players, and September brought in closer to 42 million more players. These downloads make up about 70% of all Among Us players.
The game’s premise is simple. Crewmates do simple tasks on a spaceship while an imposter in their group tries to kill them without being found out. Crewmates are the innocents just trying to complete their tasks while two or three imposters try to kill them. To win, crewmates have to correctly guess the identity of the imposters and eject them. The imposters, on the other hand, have to kill everyone without crewmates identifying them.
A multiplayer game, Among Us is Mafia and Werewolf with a kid-friendly difference. The concept is the same, but the game’s cute characters soften the other game’s harder edge. AOC… Did she have an effect? There’s no way to tell. But political involvement in online games is likely here to say.
The Biden campaign created an island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons where anyone interested can learn about the 77-year-old candidate.
