The accelerating pace of digital life has intensified psychological strain, increasing the demand for accessible and systematized emotional support tools. Relaxing video games—defined as low-pressure, non-competitive games designed to promote calm and emotional relief—offer immersive environments that facilitate affective engagement and sustained user involvement. This study proposes a computational framework that integrates sentiment analysis and topic modeling to investigate the affective mechanisms and behavioral dynamics associated with relaxing gameplay. We analyzed nearly 60,000 user reviews from the Steam platform in both English and Chinese, employing a hybrid methodology that combines sentiment classification, dual-stage Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), and multi-label mechanism tagging. Emotional relief emerged as the dominant sentiment (62.8%), whereas anxiety was less prevalent (10.4%). Topic modeling revealed key affective dimensions such as pastoral immersion and cozy routine. Regression analysis demonstrated that mechanisms like emotional relief (β = 0.0461, p = 0.001) and escapism (β = 0.1820, p < 0.001) were significant predictors of longer playtime, while Anxiety Expression lost statistical significance (p = 0.124) when contextual controls were added. The findings highlight the potential of relaxing video games as scalable emotional regulation tools and demonstrate how sentiment- and topic-driven modeling can support system-level understanding of affective user behavior. This research contributes to affective computing, digital mental health, and the design of emotionally aware interactive systems.

In the context of infrastructure modernization, enhancing the durability of reinforced concrete (RC) structures is crucial for achieving sustainable and resilient development. Impressed current cathodic protection (ICCP) is a popular technique to improve corrosion resistance of RC structures exposed to chloride-rich environments but may also induce localized acidification in the external anode mortar due to continuous OH⁻ consumption and H⁺ generation. This phenomenon leads to the dissolution of calcium hydroxide and acidification erosion damage on the anode metal and mortar, undermining the long-term performance of the protection system. This study uses modified aggregates that are incorporated with Ca(OH)₂ to improve the corrosion resistance of anode metal and mortar. Results from electrochemical measurements, pH monitoring, and XRD analysis show that the Ca(OH)₂-loaded aggregates extended the stable alkaline buffer time of simulated pore solution during ICCP by 1.5 to 2 times longer and exhibited good resistance to the mortar acidification. These findings offer a promising pathway for safeguarding RC structures and advancing infrastructure modernization by integrating protective functionalities at the material level.