Face Book Game Dream

Dreamed on 7.24.2017.  I woke up from the dream at 5:40 A.M.

The dream started with me watching my computer screen.  In writing, this dream, I did use a bit of creative license, but I had to change very little. Many of the quoted sections are exact or close paraphrases.  Once, I had a creative writing instructor, who said that I had to be making my dreams up because people never dream with such vivid detail or logical consistency. My friends who know me, realize that I have been dreaming like this for decades.  Most of my dreams are normal, but I often have special dreams where I can think, or elements of the dream are very detailed and follow a pattern. Such dreams as this one are also called lucid dreams or night visions. The characters in the dream were either real Facebook friends or friends from a Home Fellowship that I attended in Medford, Wisconsin before I moved out of the area.

Anyway, back to the dream. There was a map of the United States on it.  About an inch on the top of the screen was the game title and the Facebook Logo area.The right side also had a panel that was an informational panel for the game.  I can’t remember the exact title of the game. It was something like Facebook Friends and Family American Vacation Game.

On the right side of the screen was a list of your friends who were playing the game.  If they were your friends and you were in an instant message group with them, they showed up as an icon rather than just a dot.  I had at least a couple of dozen Facebook friends who were just dots.

I did have some friends who had icons!  Kathy Lewan was the dog from the Monopoly Game.  Josh Lewan had the icon of Luigi with a big wrench.  Breanna was a violin. Amber Lewan was a shiny penny. Lindy had a surf board, but she was only on for about a minute or two.  The same thing happened to a lady with a South American name; I don’t remember her token. I thought Rod Hawkes might show up with a guitar icon or cowboy hat, but he never did.

 

 

 

 

A few friends that I instant message, I expected to show up as tokens, like the Welkers, or Spark, or Aaron Victor or Adam Zens. But they never did appear. I did see a few names of people who are on my friend’s list, but I never or rarely instant message, inside the box on the right of the screen (the information panel).

Strangely, just as I was writing the word Welkers, in the last paragraph, at about 6:30 A.M., Ken Welker stopped in his office on the first floor to pick up a box he needed for a business trip out of town. He popped upstairs to say a quick “Hi and Bye” and off he went. I’ll give him a copy of the dream later. He’ll get a kick out of it.

I don’t remember all the rules. It was a one-day game, and only a limited number could play. I think the virtual tour part of the game would continue, but after twenty-four hours the special audio interaction feature would be turned off. Whether that number was fifty, one hundred, or five hundred I have no idea.  There were multiple games available, but you could only participate in one of them. Only your Facebook friends could join a game.  And if they shared an instant messenger group you could hear them talk if they had microphones hooked up to their computers.

Players had to come within one space of another player on the game board. Otherwise, they were just an anonymous dot. Once tagged, a dot would provide a name if you hovered over it or always display as a game token. For example, my token was a stick figure Atari Game adventure character. The game had a zoom-out (map of the U.S) and zoom-in level (Virtual Reality Historic Site).

 

 

 

 

In the zoom out level, you just followed highways or bodies of water across the map of the United States.  You could also zoom in if you moved over a zone with a national park or famous tourist attraction like Grand Old Opry or the Empire State Building.

Players could click their mouse and move anywhere on the map, but then for a certain amount of time they could only move their token “one space.”  In one sense, you were trying to play tag and find your friends. In another sense, you were exploring virtual parks, malls, theme parks and famous travel spots like the Mall of America or Yellowstone Park.

When I logged into the game, I heard Kathy Lewan and Josh Lewan talking.  Breanna laughed a few times, but otherwise, she didn’t make any comments. I greeted them.  They all greeted me back, and Josh continued talking about whatever conspiracy theory topic he was discussing. I asked them if they were in Tennessee. Kathy said, “I am traveling on Highway 24.”  Joshua laughed and replied, “Do you mean ‘where do you live or where are you in the game?’”

Breanna laughed and replied, “I’m with Josh!”

I replied, “I know where you both live. I’ve been there!”

Breanna laughed and said, “Josh and I are camping in a state park somewhere west of Wisconsin near the Canadian border.”

“That’s all we’re going to say,” interjected Josh. “It’s a tag game. And we’re not going to spoil it.”

“Tag you’re it!” exclaimed Breanna.

Kathy said, “I just left the Grand Old Opry, Wayne.  I started in Dunlap, but obviously, Josh isn’t home, so I’m back on the road again! I am heading to the Great Lakes. See if you can find me.”

I took the ferry boat crossing over Lake Michigan. I couldn’t find her.  My icon was an adventure game character from an old Atari game.  Why I had that icon, I do not know.  It was just a white stick figure with a round head with a cone top (a helmet I presume) that carried a sword.  When I moved the token across the board, the arms and legs would move like it was walking.

For quite a few minutes I chattered, frustrated because I couldn’t find Kathy.  When I finally saw a dot appear and a minute or so later I could get close enough so that her Monopoly dog token appeared, I found Kathy.

After that, I just kept hopping west checking out State Parks along the Canadian border.  I did run into dots at times, but they weren’t Lewans. When I was in a park, I would switch zoom modes so that I could explore the virtual park and see the dots.  Sometimes when you did this, you would find obstacles and need to figure it out or get stuck for a while before you would time out and be allowed to move on.  In the park where I found Josh and Breanna, there was a stream that I couldn’t cross.  I had to find a boulder and push it so that it fell and created a bridge.  I was trying to get to some dots there.  When I found the way to cross into the camping spot, a photo of Josh and Breanna popped up showing them sitting around a campfire roasting hot dogs!

Josh and Breanna chorused, “You found us!”

Kathy’s voice came on, “I’m almost there! Who’s there? Did Amber make it there yet?”

“Mom!  I just finished telling Josh and Breanna not to tell Wayne where I am at!”

Josh laughed, “Cat’s out of the bag!” He paused, “Lindy was here for a while, but she had to go to work. Pretty much all of the Lewans on Facebook have been watching the game, but they aren’t really playing or saying much.”

Breanna said, “Amber left as soon as Wayne solved the rock bridge puzzle. Not long after she said, ‘He’ll never click the rock!’  Guess what? He clicked it! Amber’s now off to the Mall. Hint. Hint.”

“I heard that!”

I knew it was a long shot, but I headed off to the Mall of America and zoomed into the virtual tour mode.

It took me a while to find her.  And you can guess, the Mall was full of dots.  When one of them turned into a shiny penny, I launched into a James Bond imitation, “Well, I must say, Miss Moneypenny, you’re getting more beautiful every day!”

“Go away! You’re embarrassing me!” exclaimed Amber.

Suddenly Amber’s shiny penny icon disappeared.  I figured Amber must have stopped playing, but I decided to continue exploring inside the virtual Mall of America anyway.  I was at an intersection that led into the bathrooms near the food court.  A token of a Harry Potter book appeared.  I looked on the legend on the left of the screen and Amber’s icon had changed from the shiny penny into the Harry Potter book!

“I don’t know how you did that Amber!  How are you hiding beneath a Harry Potter book?”  (In the dream I was mystified, but when I was running through the dream while awake, thinking about it, I realized that she had just switched icons.  I couldn’t stop thinking about the dream, to go back to sleep, so I got up and started writing it down.)

“WTF! Stop following me!”

I heard a few intakes of breath from the other instant message players. It sounded like Josh laughed.

“It’s just part of the game, Amber!”

“Who invited you anyway?”

“Facebook.”

“If I ask you to stop playing, will you stop?”

“This is just a dream and a game. Probably not.”

“Since this is just a dream and a game, I am making a new rule. ‘Wayne has been disqualified from playing the game for…uhm…being a nuisance. Making stupid comments. Harassment. Etc.’”

“If I can’t play, then I’ll just shut the game down for everybody!”

“Yeah, right.  GO AWAY!”

Kathy started talking, “Even if you could do that, Wayne, you wouldn’t. That’s out of character for you.”

I laughed and said, “This is a dream.  I am the one dreaming it.  I have a friend Nathan Lee who I played board games with years ago when he lived in the area.  He was famous for making novel game moves or sacrifice plays. He would say, “I am going to do this just because I can!”

About a minute later a voice interrupted the game. “This is [Blank]. I am on the staff of Facebook and am the manager of today’s game ap.  I have just been told that today’s game for your group must be terminated. I am sorry for any inconvenience.”

“I can’t believe Wayne did that!” exclaimed Kathy, “He would never do that in real life!”

“God Wayne! Why would you ruin this for everyone? Wayne, why are you being such a brat?”

“How did he stop the game like that?” asked Breanna.

“He certainly did stop it. Wayne the Game Stopper!” said Josh.

After a pause, I said, “Kathy’s right. The real-life Wayne wouldn’t do that. Since this is just a dream and just a game and I had my chance to say, ‘I am going to do it just because I can,” I promise, no Game Over just yet.  I’ll retract my Facebook complaint about our Facebook Friends and Family American Vacation Game.  It’s time for me to eat breakfast and start putting together book orders anyway.”

The Game Manager’s voice interrupted once more. “This is [Blank], again. The Facebook manager of today’s game, for your player group. I have just been told that today’s game for your group for Facebook Friends and Family American Vacation Game is back online. Happy Gaming! Facebook thanks you for your understanding and cooperation. Have a nice day and a great game!”

End of Dream