The Evolution of Role-Playing Game Communities in Turkey and Their Effects on Creative Industries (original) (raw)
Digital Games Industry and Game Developers in Turkey: Problems and Possibilities
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals), 2018
This study aims to understand the games industry's problems in Turkey and the relation of those problems with game developers, their working practices and the ecosystem. Adopting an ethnographic approach, in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 game developers, who work in digital games industry, mostly in one of the most important creative clustering examples in Turkey, METU Teknokent. According to the findings of the field research, main problems are defined as the lack of know-how and human capital. It is understood that those problems aggravate adverse working conditions for game developers by causing working without getting paid or underpaid and the self-teaching process that generates excessive working hours. In this regard, the potentiality of creating a culture in the game ecosystem based on solidarity, collective learning and sharing information is argued to improve Turkey's games industry and game developers' working conditions.
Exploring Turkish Digital Game Culture in
Her MA thesis centered upon the field research on the reception practices of soap operas by women audiences; her Ph.D. dissertation focused upon gendered uses of new media technologies both in Japan and Turkey. She teaches media sociology, intercultural communication, and new media culture and currently working on digital game culture and critical media pedagogy. Her recent publications are: a co-authored book Eleştirel Medya Okuryazarlığı (2007), an edited book Yeni Medya Çalışmaları (2007) and she is an editor of a special issue on digital game culture in Turkey, published in Folklor ve Edebiyat (MLA) (2007).
İletişim Kuram ve Araştırma Dergisi, 2025
This study examines the genres and themes of the most purchased games in Türkiye on the Steam platform from 2021 to 2024, addressing the influence of these games on users' cultural preferences and social values. For this purpose, the top 10 best-selling games in Türkiye were tracked on the Steam platform during January, February, March, April, May, and June 2024. Additionally, the top 50 best-selling games overall from 2021, 2022, and 2023 were analyzed under various categories. These data were evaluated individually and collectively to understand how games function as cultural carriers. The research incorporates content analysis, data collection, and comparative analysis methods within the framework of cultural studies. It analyzes how the themes, characters, stories, and gameplay mechanics reflected in the game content interact with social norms, values, and behaviors within the context of genres and themes. Strategy games, particularly popular among young people, enhance critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Historical-themed games foster a sense of national values, and competitive games strengthen teamwork and leadership skills. Furthermore, interaction with global cultures through games can broaden young people's worldviews and build bridges between different cultures. The analyses conducted in this context demonstrate that games are not only tools for passing time but also powerful cultural instruments capable of influencing social norms, values, and behaviors. The research findings reveal that digital games play a significant role in shaping the representation of concepts such as gender, race, nationality, and class, and in the construction of cultural identities.
Narrative Design in Turkish Video Games: History and Comparison
Games and Narrative: Theory and Practice, 2022
Digital games are played by millions of people worldwide, and the industry of digital games is one of the fastest-growing industries. The growth in the digital game market, which exceeded 70,000 dollars in 2012, has more than doubled in 7 years and exceeded 15,000 dollars. Growth in the mobile game market since 2015 has peaked, surpassing the growth in console and PC games. 1 According to the data released in May 2019 by Entertainment Software Association (ESA), 65% of adults in the USA regularly play video games, and most games are played on mobile phones with a staggering 60% rate. It is known that the average age of gamers is 33 years old. 2 In the light of these developments, game developers in Turkey, who are already closely following the digital games industry, aim to produce games that could compete in this global market. About 30 million people in Turkey are playing games, and the game market in Turkey was valued at 750 million dollars, yet in 2018 it reached 878 million dollars (Dijital Oyunlar Raporu (Digital Games Report) 2019, 10).
Creative Industries in Turkey, 2020
Introduction Jenkins (2012; Jenkins & Deuze, 2008) proposes that today’s media cultural scene is a participatory one. This defines both the consumption of the media and the processes of production. Especially for the video games industry, it is seemingly less and less possible for gamers to consume a video game without actually participating in its extended media presence (e.g., social media content and interactions, gaming news, review videos, playthrough videos, fan fiction, fan art, forums, walkthroughs, leaderboards, internet memes, transmedia practices, etc.). Postigo (2007) asserts that “the fan culture for digital games is deeply embedded in shared practices and experiences among fan communities, and their active consumption contributes economically and culturally to broader society.” (p. 300) Video game producers begin this communication and participation process during the production of a game, and an increasing number of video games rely on prerelease marketing or communication to be successful. Preview copies, demos, crowd-source funding, developer blogs, and alpha and beta tests constitute some of the methods mobilized for this aim. Equally useful are do-it-yourself tools and media kits released along with the video games to promote fan production and modding. A contemporary discussion focusing on gamers, however, underlines that excessive critique and exercise of power in production of games from the perspective...
The growth of the gaming industry in the context of creative industries
2020
This paper aims to provide an overview of the studies and literature regarding creative industries, with particular consideration of the video game industry, and define potential areas of further research, among others regarding e-sports. The author seeks to define creative industries, describe the Polish and global video game industries, point to their characteristics and present the development of the Polish and global video game markets providing the examples of the conducted research. The study involves a survey of literature sources, mainly covering the themes related to creative and video game industries, seeks to analyse the global and Polish video game markets based on the data from domestic and international reports.
Digital Game as a New Media and Digital Game Playing Habits of Youngsters in Turkey
Journalism and Mass Communication, a professional academic journal, commits itself to promoting the academic communication about recent developments on Journalism and Mass Communication, covers all sorts of research on journalism, radio and television journalism, new media, news ethics and regulations, the integration of media and culture and other relevant areas and tries to provide a platform for experts and scholars worldwide to exchange their latest findings.
Digital Games Between the Tensions of Culture, Creativity and Industry
2019
People working in the games industry and researchers in this field probably know that it is not easy to reach comprehensive global data and analysis of the digital games industry. The first reason is the complex structure of the industry since it depends on many variables such as national and regional policies, cities, investments, incentives or the organizational strategies in political, economic, social and cultural aspects. The second reason, on the other hand, is related to finding an objective and independent statistics of the digital games industry. Apart from that, academic studies on the digital games industry mostly focus on the content of digital games and rarely on the structure of the industry or game workers’ experiences. The absence of these studies in the literature is reasonably foreseeable considering the rapidly changing and transforming nature of technology and the difficulty to find long-term research funding for scholars.