6 267 EXPLICIT MESSAGING PROMOTES GAME SELECTION Procedure Participants were recruited for the study on a university and higher vocational education campus in the Netherlands through flyers and the university’s online research participation system. Young adults (n = 648), who provided informed consent, were invited to fill out a 15-min online screening questionnaire either voluntarily or for study credits. The online questionnaire was used to assess eligibility, as well as to gather information on demographics, video game behaviour and additional questionnaires that are not part of the current study. The inclusion criteria were: (1) Being 18 years or older; (2) Having at least a mildly elevated score on the DASS-21; (3) Being unfamiliar with the game Monument Valley, meaning that the participant had not seen or heard anything about the game; and (4) Being willing and able to sign informed consent. Those who met the inclusion criteria (n = 264) were invited to participate in the lab experiment within 2 weeks from completing the screening questionnaire (range 1–20 days, M = 8.15, SD = 4.52). Of the 155 young adults participating in the lab experiment 9.0% participated between 2 and 3 weeks from screening, due to holiday periods and unavoidable delays (e.g., a participant being ill). Both the screening and experiment questionnaires were available in Dutch and English. For standardized questionnaires with no official translation, the Dutch translations of Poppelaars, Lichtwarck-Aschoff, et al. (2018) were used (see article for further information). During the lab experiment, participants were seated in a plain cubicle with a computer and a tablet. At the start of the experiment participants were given both verbal and written information on the study and gave informed consent. Participants were told that they would see two trailers of video games. The researcher requested the participants to choose the game they believed they would enjoy most, under the guise that the study’s topic was gameplay of a game that participants may have played at home. To further encourage choosing the most appealing game, participants were informed that they had a chance to win their chosen game. Next, participants received instructions on using the tablet. They were told they were free to play the chosen game as long as they liked, but that it was important that they could evaluate the game. In fact, although there was no minimum time limit, participants were told to continue with the questionnaires 50 min from the start of the experiment (approximately 40 min of gameplay), to ensure they did not exceed the 60 min set for the experiment. Once the researcher left the cubicle, participants filled out an assessment of affect. Next, participants were shown, in a random order, two trailers of the video game Monument Valley. One trailer portrayed the game as an
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