264 Chapter 6 are able to be successful given your skills) and relatedness (experiencing a connection to others; Ryan & Deci, 2000). Self-determination theory is particularly interesting as need fulfilment and intrinsic motivation have been associated with better outcomes, including therapeutic outcomes (Ryan & Deci, 2000; Zuroff et al., 2007, 2017; Ryan et al., 2011). Moreover, Ryan et al. (2006) showed that experiencing autonomy and competence during gameplay is associated with game enjoyment, continued gameplay and better mood after gameplay. Initially, youth’s motivations (e.g., improving their mental health) and experienced need fulfilment (e.g., feeling autonomy is limited by the mental health message) may influence game choice. Thus, self-determination theory may be another theory that can explain youth’s game choice, although again it allows both hypothesis in favour of mental health messaging and in favour of entertainment messaging. Moreover, during gameplay intrinsic motivation and need fulfilment are elements of the game experience (i.e., experiencing low or high competence during gameplay) influenced by gameplay and potentially messaging. Therefore, intrinsic motivation and psychological needs may be vital when we try to understand the impact of messaging on game experience. Thus, theoretically it is hard to predict how youth will react to serious games with an explicit or stealth promotional approach. Moreover, there is hardly any empirical evidence that can guide our hypotheses. In one closely related previous study, we examined how a mental health or entertainment trailer preceding a commercial video game influenced the experience of this game (Poppelaars, Lichtwarck-Aschoff, et al., 2018). This study showed that even though all participants played the same game, game experience was influenced by the trailer that participants viewed. Although intrinsic motivation and changes in affect were equal for participants regardless of the trailer message, participants who saw the mental health message experienced less autonomy in the game. Also, participants who reported more depressive symptoms and saw the mental health message experienced less competence. Additionally, participants with more depressive symptoms increased their positive affect after gameplay. This suggested that gameplay may at least temporarily improve the depressed mood of those at elevated risk for a depressive disorder. In contrast to daily life, however, participants had no influence on which game they played. Therefore, the current study was designed to replicate the main findings as well as expand the scope of the previous study in three ways. First, to better approximate real-world media decisions, the current study allowed participants to choose between games promoted with a mental health or entertainment message. Second, as serious games may be most valuable if they target youth
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