I gotta disagree there. My yard even when mowed is a haven for all sortsa critters. Lizards, squirrels, and birds prance around by day, and at night you can find hundreds of varying spiders and wasps hunting smaller insects. Rocks might afford some of that but just about nothing would be happy with plain sand backyard. Then again, I live in an area with lots of rain and no shortage on water.
I try to mow pretty high and I let it grow for a few weeks between, but unfortunately I cant just leave it be due to my hoa.
Funny that you mentioned 2048 specifically, that one got me on the high way one time. For half a second I thought I could get past traffic if I compressed all the cars in front of me into the right lanes.