Examination of online digital games in the framework of political economy Sanalika example

The main idea of this study is to examine the economy of 'Sanalika' game, which is one of the digital games, and the economy that it creates in the framework of the economic-political approach by also considering capitalist consumption and consumer culture. With this thought, both observations and semi-structured interviews were made on how 'Sanalika' players make commercial transactions in the game, the consumer behaviour of the players, the online communication established within the game and how the game affects the social lives of the users economically. A qualitive method was used with the thought that it would be more suitable for the purpose of the study, and 'Netnography' supported the research. In the study, semi-structured interviews were held with 20 'Sanalika' players whose criteria were determined with the criterion-sampling model, and the information obtained as a result of this interview was analysed with a descriptive technique. Themes were created as a result of the analysis. As a result of the research, it has been revealed that the new media emerged with digitalization and the digital games, which are an element of it have an important place in the digital economy. 'Sanalika' is moving in parallel with the digital economy and creates a commercial market within the capitalist order. It has been observed that 'Sanalika' keeps consumption alive with micro-transactions in the game, and affects negatively to the consumer that is moving away from the perception of reality. Finally, it has been observed that there is a positive correlation between the player's micro-trading reasons for social interaction, pleasure, alienation from reality, leisure time, satisfaction and economy, and their behaviour of purchasing virtual items. Key Words: Political Economy, Consumption, Digital Games, Digital Economy, New Media