12 * Fezile Özdamlı E-mail address: fozdamli@neu.edu.tr International Journal of Learning and Teaching Vol 2, issue 2 (2010) 12-20 www.world-education-center.org/index.php/ijlt A Descriptive Study of High School Students’ Game-Playing Characteristics Hafize Keser a , Fezile Ozdamli b* , Huseyin Bicen b , Mukaddes Sakalli Demirok b a Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technologies, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey b Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technologies, Near East University, Nicosia, 98010, Northern Cyprus Received January 05, 2010; revised March 15, 2010; accepted May 15, 2010 Abstract With the expansion of the internet and the increasing use of computers, certain changes have occurred in the social lives of all individuals. Several negative effects, brought about by the use of computers, have also emerged along with numerous benefits of using the technology. Also, computer game skills have increasingly been applied to almost all areas of human activities within modern societies. This study aims to observe high school students’ game-playing characteristics and their personal opinions about the effects of these games, as well as giving suggestions to students, academic staff and families about the use of computer games in an effective and safe way. The study was conducted in the fall term of 2009/2010 and was carried out as a descriptive research. The study was based on 4823 students studying in North Cyprus and was held among 1148 students randomly chosen from all areas of the republic. Keywords: Computer games; high school students; game playing ©2012 Academic World Education & Research Center. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The computers are coming at the beginning of the list of sine qua non of our life. Without making it easier for jobs in many areas of our lives, as well as PCs, games are also used as a means of entertainment.The popularity of internet usage and internet communication tools has become more important (Tezer&Bicen, 2008; Cavus, Uzunboylu& Ibrahim, 2008). Within the present information age, the use of computers and the internet has been increasing due to the continuous development of technology. The uses of the internet and computers, which are a major part of modern life, are also used effectively in many aspects of the lives of the world’s youth (Ott&Tavella, 2010; Coklar&Bagci, 2010; Pieri&Diamantini, 2010; Huang &Alessi, 1997; Uzunboylu&Ozdamli, 2006; Ko, Yen, Yen, Chen & Wang, 2008; Siomos, Dafouli, Braimiotis, Mouzas& Angelopoulos, 2008; Uzunboylu, Bicen&Cavus, 2011; Jitgarun&Tongsakul, 2009).