Abstract

In this study, the opinions of the secondary school students on digital games were examined. The research is a screening model research and has a descriptive feature. It was carried out with 521 secondary school students in Elazığ (a province in eastern part of Turkey) [MSS1] in 2013. Almost all of the participants use computer. More than half of them have computers and internet connection in their houses. It was found that 83.3 % of the participants use computer 0-2 h a day. It has been found out that the secondary school students use the internet to do research, play games, watch videos or movies and communicate with their friends. Most of the students stated that they like playing computer games, feel happy when they complete the game stages successfully. However, there are also some negative aspects, such as addiction as a result of immense gaming motive, [MSS2] some games which involve violence affect individuals adversely, and is considered a  waste of time. The findings showed that male students like playing computer games, become happier when they succeed; want to play games more than the female ones and they believe playing computer games contributes to their effort to tranquilise. On the other hand, the female students primarily believe that playing computer games is a waste of time, affects their social life in a negative way and the violent elements in these games are more dominant on the individuals.

Key words: Computer games, digital games, secondary school students.