[selune]

I haven't played it too but from what I've read about it, I suspect it might cause a so called Tetris Effect when the game mechanics basically invades people's though patterns.[0] It can be used as a somewhat effective "distraction" for your brain during episodes of anxiety[1] helping to overcome it. So if someone is planning their crops, they're probably just distracting themselves from anxious thoughts. Just my understanding from reading the article and different opinions of players.

Anecdotal: a friend of mine used to play some casual mobile game for quite some time (Candy Crush or something), she told me once that when she was giving birth she involuntarily started to "play" the game in her mind when the stress and pain became too strong, she said it helped her both to distant herself and to focus. :)

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris_effect

[1]: https://www.nature.com/articles/mp201723

[b_tterc_p]

You sound like someone who has never had Tetris vision. It’s mildly frustrating. You close your eyes and your brain starts simulating whatever game you’ve played too much (in my case, dungeon crawl stone soup). But it’s not a fun simulation, it’s more so just a random imagined game state and then predicted next state, vaguely dream like.

Honestly it’s probably the same mechanism as dreaming. Just your brain training itself too hard while you’re still awake.

[dkersten]

I've never had it from Tetris or other games, except the "falling sand game". It took a few weeks before it went away. It wasn't fun.

[cmrx64]

when i was a kid i fell asleep on a pokémon game and for a few hours after waking up lived in a world echoing with one pokémon song. sleep deprivation from staying up all night playing pokémon surely doesn’t help. toying around with the tetris effect is fun. human sensory perception is whack, even without drugs! our brain can play us scenes if we guide it a bit.