I searched “background games” but couldn’t find anything relevant.
What games do you play that doesn’t require your full attention the whole time? Games that you can run in the background while busy with something else. I’m not talking about idling games like Cookie Clicker.
A game I run in the background (haven’t done so in ages though) is Banished. You only need to pop in every once in a while.
I’m keen on trying out new games.
Used to play https://www.eveonline.com/
There are some activities that you can do in the background while working/watching series/movies. I even used to play other games.
I’m addicted to Torn right now, but would also like to find a cool background game.
Used to play WoW Windowed mode and alt+ when boss walks in
Back when i used to play GW2 i played windowed mode waiting for world bosses to spawn.
Ark farming in official 1 x servers 
Edit: IT might spot the 50Gb install 
Interesting recommendations so far.
I always wanted to try out EVE, but don’t have the time for it. First time I hear that there are activities to do in the background. Activities like traveling? Or others?
I thought Turn is an active game, nothing happens if you don’t play?
Can’t imagine playing an MMO in the background. I like being immersed in the story. Wouldn’t mind getting back into GW2.
Never played ARK. Can’t people come and kill you while you’re farming? Doesn’t that count for all these games?
In Eve there is one activity that you can easily do in the background and that is mining. It is by far the easiest way to make in game money in the game and very relaxing (or boring, depending on your perspective) and is for the most part hands off. You can also set up automated processes like production and also play the market in the background by buying and selling items on the massive market in the game. You can combine all 3 and do them all in the background: mining, producing items with the mining and then selling them on the market…
You can also do exploration in the background, where you fly a cloaking ship around to find hidden areas, archeology sites etc. You can do the exploration all cloaked up and nothing and no one can kill you while you alt tab back to work.
If PVP is your thing and you want to shoot people’s ships/structures, you can cloak up in other people’s back yard and hunt with impunity, waiting for the right moment to strike for a ship kill or when the boss leaves the office.
All in all Eve is a game that allows you to do much without you having to give hours of attention to it. Skill advancement is time based and you go up in progression even when you are not logged in.
When you want to give it all your attention, you can and do much more.
Frozen Synapse is perfect for this. It’s a turn based strategy game, but there is no time limit, and you can have as many games going at a time as you want. It also has an amazing soundtrack.
If you play on a PvP server Yes. but there is PvE servers
The Battle for Wesnoth is a great game for alt-tabbing. It’s a free, lightweight turn-based strategy with a high fantasy setting. Since it’s turn-based there’s no time limit and you can easily pop back and forth between work and the game.
I Alt-Tab pretty much every game I have.
Because of my ADD, I lose interest, A-T, watch some YT videos, completely forget I had a game A-T’d, then close the game. 
Don’t!!! haha, it’s so easy to open a browser play for a couple mins and come back an hour later. You end up addicted
I’m sure this is the best advice in this thread…!
Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe (OpenTTD). I do it all the time! You spend a few minutes in the game to set it up, then just check in every now and then to see how you can expand.
You can choose the speed of the game to match your availability.
Hey I love that game. Haven’t played it in a while. That will work on my work PC for sure.
Yeah! It runs on just about anything!
FTL is perfect for this…space to pause whenever you want. low usage (can play on potato) and doesnt even have to run fullscreen