Games and gamification projects in the Australian public sector

This article surveys the arrival of gameful government into Australian public sector practice. Gameful government is a shorthand, descriptive term denoting the interpenetration of (video)games, and design elements and thinking from them, into public sector work. Knowledge of gameful government is limited, in Australia and internationally, due to localised usage, low visibility, and limited understanding beyond informed observers. Our study partially redresses this under‐exploration of public sector games and gamification, both empirically and ethically. To do so, we detail the history of gaming for public sector purposes, a story starting with wargaming. Then, we categorise past and current gameful Australian public sector projects into a typology with five categories: recruitment; training and learning; public communication and policy education; engagement; and implementation and evaluation. We analyse the typology categories and characteristic cases within them. Finally, we assess the benefits and risks of gameful government for citizens and public sector practice. Points for practitioners: Knowledge, skills, and practices from (video)game play and development are increasingly prevalent within the Australian public sector. This article descriptively terms this gameful government. Despite a range of current use cases—for recruitment, training and learning, public communication and policy education, public engagement, implementation, and evaluation—Australian public sector examples are localised, particularly in Defence. Realising the potential of games for public sector and societal ends will require broader acknowledgement and understanding of this practice, as part of larger shifts in public sector capability and technological transformation.