METAPHORS IN DIGITAL GAME CULTURE

A nation's culture lies in the soul of its digital games. Nowadays, most of the teenagers use digital devices. Digital games represent an innovative method in sharing global cultural awareness among teenagers. What are the differences in students' choices of digital games? Is there a relation between students' digital game choices and their gender or their culture? How much are digital games indispensable for students? How much of their time is spent using digital machines? And most importantly what are their metaphors? Metaphors help people talk about their inner thoughts and sometimes the unspeakable ones. This research study aims to find out the digital game metaphors that Turkish and Romanian students use; and the relationship between these metaphors and their cultural values. An online questionnaire was elaborates in English and translated into two different native languages: Turkish and Romanian. The questionnaires were distributed to lyceum (high-school) students; ages between 15 and 17, and 401 students answered the questionnaires. This study has shown that some of the metaphors that students use do not change according to culture, while some were remarkably different. Differences between two different digital game cultures were explored, and recommendations were provided in the article.