Information for participants

Title of Project: Ctrl-alt-play: Phase 2        

Name of Researchers, Faculty, Department, Telephone & Email

Principal Investigator:

Dr. David Hodgins, University of Calgary, Faculty of Arts, Department of Psychology, +1-403-220-3371, dhodgins@ucalgary.ca

Collaborators:

Dr. Michael Schaub, University of Zurich (Switzerland), Faculty of Philosophy and Faculty of Medicine, Swiss Research Institute for Public Health & Addiction, 

+41 44 448 11 65, michael.schaub@isgf.uzh.ch 

Dr. Anna-Carlotta Zarski, University of Marburg (Germany), Faculty of Psychology, Department of Clinical Psychology, Division of eHealth in Clinical Psychology +49-6421-28-23314, zarski@staff.uni.marburg.de

Dr. Andrew Kim, University of Calgary, Faculty of Arts, Department of Psychology, +1-416-414-6133, andrewh.kim@ucalgary.ca 

Dr. Kristina Brache, Alberta Health Services, Addiction Centre

Student Researchers:

Brad Brazeau, University of Calgary, Faculty of Arts, Department of Psychology, +1-403-210-9522, bradley.brazeau@ucalgary.ca

Nirav Saini, University of Calgary, Cumming School of Medicine, +1-587-322-0702, nirav.saini@ucalgary.ca 

Research Assistants:

Lisa Henkel, Faculty of Arts, Department of Psychology, lisa.henkel@ucalgary.ca

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this research study is to test an online self-help website designed to help individuals change their gaming behaviour.

This study is looking for individuals from Canada who are worried they may have an unhealthy relationship with gaming and want to change their gaming habits. We are currently looking for adult Canadian participants who regularly play video games. 

Important: This website is still under development to address gaming disorder. The content of this website has been researched in other areas, such as internet use disorder and depression; however, this is a pilot study, and we cannot guarantee you will see any changes to your gaming.

What Will I Be Asked to Do?

If you want to join this study, you will first take a brief 5-minute survey asking questions related to your personal background and gaming history to see if you are eligible to participate. 

If you meet the criteria to participate, you will be asked to complete another 15-minute baseline survey, asking for more information. When you complete this baseline survey, you will be enrolled in the study and randomly assigned to a group. 

There are two possible group assignments: Immediate or Waitlist group. You will be asked to use a valid email address to create a profile to access the website. 

Immediate Group (IG): Will gain immediate access to the website. After 8 weeks of website access, you will be asked to complete a follow-up survey. In the follow-up survey, you will be given the option to provide an email so we may contact you for an interview about your experiences with the program. Please note there are limited interview spots available. Not all participants will be contacted to complete this interview.

Waitlist Group (WG): Will wait 8 weeks from the date the baseline survey was completed. Then, you will be asked to complete a follow-up survey. After this survey is completed, you will be given access to the website. For example, if you finish the baseline survey on July 4th, 2026, you will gain access to the website modules, 8- weeks later, on August 1st, 2026. 

To complete this study, researchers will ask you to complete 5 surveys and, if selected, an interview. Interviews will only be offered to those in the immediate group that indicate they would like to take part in their 8-week follow-up survey. The full study schedule is as follows:

1. Eligibility Survey
2. Baseline survey
3. An 8-week follow-up survey
4. A follow-up interview (if you are selected)
5. A 6-month follow-up survey
6. A 12-month follow-up survey

What Type of Personal Information Will Be Collected?

You will be asked for your email, age, marital status, ethnicity, education, and employment. Your IP address is recorded by the system to ensure you are a Canadian resident. Your IP address is not kept or viewed for data analysis. 

As a participant in this research study, you will be assigned a unique participant ID code. This code will be used to identify your study data. Before any data is analyzed, all identifiable information (email) will be replaced with this code, and no identifiable information about you will be kept with the data set. 

If you are selected to be contacted for an interview, researchers will email you at the address you provided and ask for consent to conduct the interview, schedule the interview, and the name you wish to be referred to during the interview.  You may choose to use a pseudonym for the interview process. The interviews will be conducted by student research assistants using Microsoft Teams to record and transcribe. 

What Happens to the Information I Provide?

Any personal information you provide in surveys will be available to the research team only. While the study is ongoing, any information you provide on the website (ctrl-alt-play.ca) is stored through the webhosting service NovaTrend, on Switzerland servers managed by the University of Zurich.

For the interview portion, the initial recording and transcription will be reviewed by a research assistant to maintain accuracy and ensure the transcript is de-identified. The deidentified and interview transcripts and audio will be kept for use in future research. Interviews will be summarized for publication or presentations. If you agree to be quoted for the purpose of academic publications and presentations, any quote will be attributed to a pseudonym, you will not be identifiable.

UCalgary stores all interview recordings and transcripts on a UCalgary managed SharePoint site with a back-up on a Secure Computing Data Storage (SCDS) managed by the University of Calgary.

Once the study has completed, the pseudonymized data will be removed from servers in Switzerland and stored indefinitely on UCalgary managed SharePoint servers for use in future research. You will not be individually identified in any publication of the results.

Data in anonymized, summarized forms collected from this study may be used in future projects unrelated to the current research question.  

Are there Risks or Benefits if I Participate?

You may feel uncomfortable at times when asked questions of a personal nature, particularly about gaming behaviour and mental health. You may also experience boredom or fatigue when answering some of the questions. You are free to not respond to any question you do not feel comfortable answering.

Voluntary Nature of Participation?

Your participation in this study is voluntary. You may refuse to participate altogether, refuse to participate in parts of the study, decline to answer any or all questions, and withdraw from the study. You may request your data (baseline, 8-week, website data) to be removed within 2-weeks of completing your follow-up survey. A total of 10 weeks after you have completed the baseline survey. A data removal request is made by providing email instructions clearly stating you do not want your data used for the purposes of this study. Your survey data CANNOT be removed after this 10-week period. If you take part in an interview, you have the right to request to withdraw your interview data within 2-weeks of your interview completion date. Similarly, you have a period of 2-weeks after you have completed the 6 and 12-month follow-ups to request a withdrawal of that survey data.

These timelines stand as after you have completed your survey’s and/or interview, your data will be the pseudonymized and analyzed within a 2-week time. Once the data has been the pseudonymized, we have no way of identifying which data is yours; therefore, we will not be able to remove it.

If you withdraw from this study before it is completed, you will be provided with resources for other treatment for problem gaming in your area.

Signatures 

By providing your email address and clicking the “NEXT” button, you indicate that: 

1. You understand to your satisfaction the information provided to you about your participation in this research project
2. You agree to participate in this research project. 

Questions/Concerns

If you have any further questions regarding this research and/or your participation, please contact: 

Study Ctrl-Alt-Play Study Research Team

CtrlAltPlay@ucalgary.ca

and/or

Dr. David Hodgins (supervisor)

Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts

403-220-3371, dhodgins@ucalgary.ca

If you have any concerns about the way you’ve been treated as a participant, please contact the Research Ethics Analyst, Research Services Office, University of Calgary at 403.220.6289 or 403.220.8640; email cfreb@ucalgary.ca. A copy of this consent form has been given to you to keep for your records and reference. The investigator has kept a copy of the consent form.