Psychological effect of online games on adults through deep neural network analysis

2.1 Large market share of adult online games

Online games develop into an important entertainment method in the Internet era. Facing great pressure in life and work, some adults will find relief from or further become addicted to these games, which is verified according to market researches. As this market expands with more users, the addiction issue emerges out of its prosperity, leading to more serious problems such as crimes or family conflicts. Table 1 shows the market scale of Chinese adult games from 2008 to 2021, indicating larger share of the overall market, especially that in 2015 [3, 4].

Players’ actions and efforts in video games can receive positive feedback faster and more consistently. However, real-world positive feedback occurs more slowly and is more likely to fail. At the same time, most players feel much less pressure in video games than in real life. For these reasons, video games tend to be addictive to people who rely on quick positive feedback or have a stressful life.

2.3 Disasters to adults’ physical and mental health

Adults’ dependence and obsession with online games can strongly corrode their physical and mental health. Specifically, they have less energy for work and life. Also the biological clock disorder may lead to fret and anxiety. If online games dominate their life, people will reduce attention and interest in work and study, which seriously affects normal life. Moreover, those game-addicts are indifferent with a tendency of bloody violence. In real society, they have less interpersonal communications. As a result, they choose to hold back instead, which further worsens the situation and indicates seriously insufficient pressure-resistance [5, 6]. That is, negative psychological state in life and work leads to their retreat into game world, then such addiction greatly damages physical and mental health, which bring about a series of individual and social problems. For adults, life does have a lot of stress. For mentally healthy adults, there are many ways to manage stress, including appropriate travel, cooking, reading, socializing, and more. But video game addicts clearly lack the knowledge and ability to properly manage stress.

2.4 Inevitably weakens living conditions for adults

In addition to the physical and mental effects on adults, video game addiction has a number of negative effects on their quality of life. First of all, the purchase and top-up of video games, as well as the purchase of game equipment will cause a non-negligible financial burden. Adults have to cut other expenses to meet this financial expense, and this behavior reduces their quality of life. When adults are addicted to computer games, they will lack time for social activities with their family and friends. Over time, their social and family relationships will be destroyed, and serious family conflicts will occur. When the above-mentioned negative effects are too great, game-addicted adults may take various irrational extreme behaviors, resulting in great damage to property or life.

Figure 1 shows the proportion of sales revenue in China’s game market in 2021. According to it, adults spend most in mobile games. As client and web games are not top choices due to busy work, mobile devices naturally gain more popularity.

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3.1 Model based on deep neural networks

A deep neural network is a machine learning network structure with the ability to learn data features. At the application level, it is mainly used in the fields of prediction and classification. At present, deep neural networks have been applied in the fields of meteorological forecasting, fault forecasting, and financial analysis. The use of deep neural networks can better study adults’ game psychology. During gaming, the entertainment feature can greatly satisfy adults. But according to surveys on adult games on the market, most are more or less involved in violence or pornography. Games such as Assassin’s Creed and Rotten Country include a lot of violence that damages other people’s limbs and blows up buildings and creatures. In addition, it is represented by games such as cyberpunk, which contain a lot of pornographic descriptions and overly detailed portrayals of characters such as prostitutes. A neural network analysis model was established for comprehensive analysis of various factors towards online game addiction. Then relevant measures can be taken after evaluating different elements, especially those strongly affect the development of potential addiction, so as to correct adults’ view towards online games, ensuring both enjoyment and self-control during game process. That is, online games are only part of entertainment, which accounts for a small proportion of time and energy. Similarly, the corresponding model also adopts above principle to calculate the connection right values between neurons under different impact factors. The following models are used to adjust the right value method.

S z = S i + Δ ⁢ S i(1)

Through the above calculation method, the use and analysis of the neural network can be effectively quantified, so as to have performance functions according to different impact factors.

S z = S i + λ ⁢ Δ ⁢ S i(2)

Then through comprehensive analysis of performance functions and neurons sets of different effects, the following quantitative analysis is conducted on the errors between neuron output and target output correspond to influencing factors of adult online games.

e i ⁢ ( t ) = λ ⁢ S i ⁢ ( t ) - S ⁢ ( t )(3)

Then target function is taken to build the following evaluation and analysis model:

S ⁢ ( t 0 , t i ) = 1 2 ⁢ ∑ i = 1 n [ e i ⁢ ( t ) ] λ(4)

Utilizing above analysis model, key factor affecting adults’ game psychology can be better understood. That is, comprehensive judgment of different impact factors and neurons based on the analysis of deep neural networks are made to figure out dominant factors. Accordingly, measures can be adopted to avoid game addiction or conduct scientific training under policies [7, 8].

According to the above-mentioned analysis, impact factors mainly come from adults themselves and online game designers. Besides, family and society are Secondary influencing factors. On the one hand, adults should improve their self-control ability. On the other hand, online games are often more or less involved in violence or pornography. So the state and responsible Internet authority should establish a stricter and scientific supervision and management platform. In addition to the players themselves and online game designers, the influence from society and family is also crucial. At the family level, family members should focus on mutual understanding and harmonious communication, and maintain a harmonious interpersonal relationship structure. A large number of online game addicts is avoiding poor family relationships and social situations in the real world. At the societal level, it is necessary to intervene with false advertising and avoid putting undue pressure on residents. In fact, too much stress is often one of the excuses for gamers to become addicted to games. In Fig. 2, different types of online games in 2021 are studied, indicating higher share of online games involved in pornography and violence by getting around the ban.

3.3 Measures to avoid Internet addiction

According to factor study, pressure from work and life will push adults to escape real life into online game addiction, affecting normal life in turn. They can gain a lot of joy at first, but are hard to quit online games. Once indulged, self-control can hardly outrival stronger addiction. Therefore, the social and online regulatory departments should play their roles in setting corresponding regulations and system. Typically, the real-name registration is a successful story in efficient control and management [9, 10]. In terms of social and family side, external advice or emotional power can give adults more confidence and help grad them out of the addiction trap. Moreover, appropriate methods should be considered to avoid mental disorder. Here, Table 2 shows the market size growth of the domestic game industry from 2007–2021.

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According to above surveys, online games targeted adulted on the market are often prone to involve pornography or violence, thus attracting adults or further developing their addiction. Therefore, the national and online supervision departments should effectively guide the health status and positive energy of those online games, so that adults can feel the beauty of life in a more scientific and positive network environment. That is, stronger measures should be taken to crack down on those games related to pornography or violence and replace them with the core values of Chinese socialism. Through the integration of different cultural elements together with proper restrictions and control, online games can thrive under positive and health context. However, in terms of foreign games, stronger and stricter measures are necessary. Generally, integrated cultural elements are powerful tools to shape a better online environment and cultural direction under effective regulations of relevant authorities. For game design enterprises, they should create healthy content to entertain adults, and meanwhile monitor themselves to be free of trash information. Finally, online games players should enhance self-control to aviod indulgence.

Figure 3 shows the focuses of domestic 3A game platforms [11, 12].

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4.1 Situation of game monitoring and management

At present, some countries have made efforts in the supervision and management of video games. Most European and American countries and Japan have established rating systems for games, but this is not effective for adults with gaming addiction problems. There are also some countries that limit the frequency of broadcast and exposure of game advertisements, trying to reduce adults’ exposure to them. In China, the administrator has introduced the measures of game version number and real-name authentication, that is, only games that have been reviewed by the administrator can be released, and players need to verify their real identity in the game before they can play. This system limits the player’s addiction to a certain extent, but it is not a permanent solution. Factors to suppress online game addiction based on Neural Network will be discussed next.

4.2 Online game improvement

The national and online regulatory departments should make full use of big data management platforms together with deep neural network analysis to comprehensively manage online games. More specifically, regular measures such as selecting out illegal or in proper content to build a more positive and healthy online environment. In terms of game settings, respect to culture and history and not to violating normal humanistic concepts and ethics are fundamental. Besides, it is vital to balance the real and online worlds, easing pressure without sharp contrast. More importantly, violent scenes such as slaughter should not be on the screen to induce crime conducts. To this end, the national and online authorities should take regular measures, guiding to build cleaner and more positive online space under correct cultural background.

4.3 Effective control of game time

According to neural network analysis, advertisements and pleasant game experience are factors to addiction. To solve these problems, self-control and family help is useful. If someone is relatively more self-disciplined, addiction is not a big problem. But adults who cannot control themselves well, family members or social help can better control their game time. More specifically, game platforms can provide time alert or compulsory time limit, so as to cut their indulgence in virtual world or further mental problems. Investigations on different online platforms show that among adult games, tendencies and addiction are in line with types, demonstrates in Table 3, especially higher possibility of addiction in shooting-related games [13, 14].

According to deep neural network analysis, the key to adult game addiction is poor self-restraint and management ability, and sometimes the more they play, the weaker such ability is [15]. That is, adults should form good habits, and strengthen self-management ability, so as to better plan their time [16, 17]. In this way, adults will only turn to online games to alleviate pressure rather than being lost in games. In addition, adults should grow their confidence in this aspect, thus enjoying in correct time and environment.

4.5 Supporting role of family and the society

Apart from all the mentioned factors above, care and support from family and social sides are also important. Game addicts always need correct guidance and psychological help. If equipped with a strong sense of responsibility both in family and the society, they can better understand the significance of self-control in avoiding game addiction. What’s more, care and support can enhance adults’ mental endurance and provide psychological shelter. In this way, even facing great pressure, they can turn to others for help instead of indulgence in virtual world. Both families and the society should create a better environment for those who wants to find their sense of presence in the virtual environment.