For Gen Z, politics increasingly feels like a spectator sport—but gaming flips that logic. In online worlds, players organise, negotiate, and build collective power every day. What happens when that mindset enters real-world democracy?

This session brings together leading voices like Sebastian Deterding (game design and ethics) or Hendrik Lesser (game development), Jane McGonigal (future gaming and social foresight), creators from YouTube and Twitch, and political storyteller Jan Schippmann to explore how interactive media and gaming culture are transforming civic participation.

Together, they’ll unpack:

• How mechanics like quests, leaderboards, and world-building nurture civic agency and collaboration

• How gaming communities mobilise around political causes and digital rights

• What “playable democracy” could mean in an age of streaming, avatars, and algorithmic publics

Participants will leave with concrete ideas for how campaigns, NGOs, and young creators can harness the logic of play to prototype, test, and scale new democratic experiences—turning engagement into action and imagination into power.