Register to Vote with your XBOX 360

Posted by ms.cindywong on
Friday, September 26th, 2008 at 3:48 pm

Rock the Vote has partnered up with XBOX 360 to accelerate its goal of reaching two million young voters before the presidential elections in November [Gizmodo]. The market is huge: Xbox Live has 12 million estimated users. Gamers will be able to register to vote, participate in polls, download political public service announcements, and sound off in political message boards.

From the article: “Xbox LIVE is the largest online social network connected to the television, with membership totaling 12 million — if Xbox LIVE were a state, it would rank as the country’s seventh largest, giving it approximately 20 electoral votes.”

Rock the Vote advocates believe in pursuing alternative platforms to tap into the under-30 voting audience:

“Xbox is a natural partner to help us reach out to youth voters,” said Heather Smith, executive director, Rock the Vote. “To realize our goal of registering 2 million young Americans by this fall, we need to go where young Americans are, and there’s no doubt in our minds that many are on Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE.”

The implications:

a) Digital media is the popular investment to attract/engage younger voters.

b) Civic engagement becomes more accessible (rather then repellant) for younger folks. Less hassles, more relevantly aligned with their choice of entertainment. Note on the screenshot: “Get a voter registration form sent to your email.” Think back a few years ago: most classmates had to leave the house — visit the library/driver license office/city hall to fill out the paperwork BY HAND.

Check out Microsoft’s PSA for its Rock the Vote promo as spoofed by its Halo characters (produced by Red Vs. Blue)

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4 Comments, Comment or Ping

Dan Monaghan

It would thrill me to no end if, thanks to efforts like this, the long-sought youth vote truly was mobilized, at last, and McCain loses in a surprise landslide of historic proportions.

If that happens, I will finally buy an X-Box in appreciation.

Sep 28th, 2008
Alvin Singh

Great article and this really shows that their are more ways to get teh youth voters interested. Lets hope they arent playing during the election day!

Oct 1st, 2008
joey

Rock the Vote is definitely making an effort to engage a younger demographic. This is encouraging, and I hope they’ll keep devoting resources towards reaching new audiences in creative ways. Most people aren’t going to expect to register to vote while playing Halo, but I think it’s a cool concept and I hope it gets more traction.

I’m not an Xbox expert–Super Nintendo is my platform of choice, and I’ve only dabbled in Halo–but I’m wondering how social this platform actually is. There’s no question in my mind that online gaming is a social activity, and I think it’s gaining credibility in that respect. But what about applications like Rock the Vote that aren’t fun and addictive? The success of this kind of application relies on its ability to capture a user’s interest and to get them to recommend it to their friends. I don’t know how this application would spread through the Xbox Live social network, and I’m not sure it’s very well suited to that environment in the first place. That leads me to wonder whether it would have been a better use of time and energy to promote GOTV efforts in more social and engaged environments like Facebook and MySpace. (Rock the Vote has presences on both, but as an active and engaged user, I haven’t heard from them lately.)

Still, no question that every networked platform should be home to socially-conscious applications. This might only be a first stab, and maybe too close to the registration deadline, but I think it’s another step in a trend towards increased voter access as a result of increased connectivity.

And one more reason why online voter registration needs to be a high priority.

Oct 1st, 2008
Cindy Wong

Joey, you raised some very thoughtful points. How successful will the Rock the Vote + Xbox 360 collaboration will be? Is social networking within the Xbox Live marketplace fluid outside of just purchasing games and engaging in gameplay? I think this is an experiment between the two companies, a “first stab” as you mentioned. I fathom that Microsoft’s campaign is to grow the Xbox Live as an extension of your lifestyle: play games, download/watch Netflix movies, engage within the Xbox community.

The user-interface of the Rock the Vote campaign leaves alot to desire — it is limiting in terms of how members can engage with each other.

Oct 1st, 2008