Mustafa, 16, a high school student who lives in Istanbul and plays video games on his PC, PlayStation 4 (PS4) and his smartphone. Does this make him a gamer? He thinks so. "I play both offline and online. I like the way most single-player games create their stories. I play 'The Witcher 3' on PC and 'The Last of Us' on PS4 for their storytelling. But I also play competitive games like 'League of Legends' [LoL] or 'Counter Strike' with my friends online." His first video game was "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" – an action-adventure game about stealing cars and rising in underground organizations. It is the fourth installment of the contemporary "Grand Theft Auto" series, one of the most popular game series in history. When Mustafa first played "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," he was 8 years old. Now he plays "Grand Theft Auto V," one of the most successful video games of the last two years. Just like Mustafa, Turkish gamers easily become attached to similar series and they turn into fans. This attracts many big game publishers, especially from Asia. Turkey also has another characteristic suited for publishers from the Far East.They prefer free-to-play games"Turkish gamers mostly prefer online 'Free2Play games,'" explained Faruk Akıncı, CEO and co-founder of BigKazan. "It's where a player can play the game entirely for free but boosting an account would need real money." This is what the game community calls a "micro-transaction" model. Not every gamer has cutting-edge tech in their homes. So, this is why the Free2Play titles are mostly preferred; their minimum system requirements – hardware configurations that a device needs to effectively run a game – are so low, making them highly accessible. "And competitive features where players can battle each other can be played in short bursts. The learning curve of these games is low but mastering them could take time." Akıncı has been a gamer for 25 years and has been in gaming journalism for more than 10 years. He founded BigKazan for game publishers to discover new business models in Turkey. He summarizes Turkish gamers in three words: Competitive, loyal and short-tempered.Their focus is shifting to EuropeWhen asked about Turkish gamers' favorite region, he recalled that the focus four years ago was on Asian games but now the balance of the gaming industry has shifted to Europe and U.S. markets. This is also why they have services for both Asian and European publishers. "We provide marketing and monetization models to G2A.com, Crytek, Plinga, Oasis Games and Ingame Group." Akıncı said.They love their games in TurkishIn Turkey, localization is definitely one of the most important aspects of the game. "By localizing a game, a publisher would certainly increase the content's target audience; it would make a great public relations story if you work with some local celebrities as well. The local team of one of the biggest console manufacturers began to do that five years ago, and now they have 85 percent of market share." "'League of Legends" developer and publisher of Riot Games, one of the most popular free-to-play games globally, made an incredible job of localization by hiring top Turkish celebrities for voice acting. Now every Internet cafe in Turkey has thousands of players enjoying their LoL experience in Turkish.They are competitiveThe Turkish gaming industry is running around competitive and Free2Play games. "Sports titles, role-playing games and [multiplayer online battle arena] MOBA games are the most preferred genres," Akıncı said. "E-sports are on the rise and have been in the prime since their foundation. If a publisher decides to make a strategy for Turkish territory, the content should be easy to access [browser or minimum amount of clients], must feature player versus player (PvP) modes and should be easy to learn."They are hungry for mobile gamesTurkey has a huge gamer community – 27 million people. This is more than most European countries' total population and it is mostly thanks to mobile gaming. When mega popular games like "Angry Birds," "Candy Crush" and "Fruit Ninja" arrived, suddenly everyone became a gamer. "We would expect even more growth with 4.5G and more use of smart devices. There are more than 34 million active mobile data users in Turkey and nearly 18 million of them are playing mobile games. We expect 18 percent growth next year," Akıncı stressed.They prefer digitalDespite home and mobile Internet usage being restricted by monthly quotas established by service providers, "most of the players prefer digital download platforms like Steam or marketplaces like G2A.com. However, retail is still alive and well for those who want their content in physical form in order to build a collection." Akıncı said. With about $460 million generated last year, Turkey sits in 16th place in the global gaming industry. All business veterans see good potential in the "video game center of the [Middle East and North Africa] MENA." So, it is time for developers, both local and international, to step up their game in Turkey.