Have you ever had a dream about a videogame?

A few years ago I was petsitting a dog in Singapore (long story) and playing Hearthstone a lot. I remember very distinctly having an extremely vivid dream in which I became annoyed with the dog (Hector, he was a German shorthaired pointer. He would only eat toast for breakfast.) because he had erased all of my hearthstone decks and replaced them with a deck that comprised only of Dog cards. I would go as far as to say I was disproportionately upset about it, in the dream. It was extremely weird to realize that a game had penetrated my subconscious so deeply that it had invaded my nighttime headspace. Ever since then my girlfriend and I have joked about the elusive dog-only meta...

That's not the only time it's happened, though. I've found over the years that when I fall into an obsession with a game it consumes my brain entirely to the extent that I can't stop thinking about it even when I'm asleep. The most recent time this happened was during the World Of Warcraft Shadowlands release; I was riding that zeitgeist so hard, I was so desperate to be the first to master that new content, that I couldn't stop thinking about it. I didn't dream that I was in the game, but that I was playing it. Which felt fucking weird.

But I'm sure it's not weird at all and a very normal thing which has happened to a lot of other people and if anyone wanted to confirm that for me that would be lovely thanks.

I have had numerous video game dreams. Sometimes I dream about playing a game (which may or may not be a real game), sometimes I dream about being in a game world in some way, and sometimes I have dreams that are not literally about games but clearly inspired about them (like if I'm playing a very frustrating game before bed and then dream about some kind of frustration.)

I'd say that the worst is dreaming about playing a game that doesn't exist only to wake up and find out that it doesn't exist, or dreaming about beating a game and then waking up and realizing that you didn't actually finish it because it was just a stupid dream.

Dreaming about being in a game world can either be pleasant or unpleasant depending on the world in question.

My biggest triggers for dreaming about games are, of course, temporary obsession with a particular dream or falling asleep while playing a game, which I rarely do anymore but used to do regularly. If the sound for the game is still playing while I'm snoozing that's a pretty strong trigger for some kind of dream related to that game.

Numerous times, usually about playing or seeing trailers for unreleased or unannounced games. In particular, I have semi-recurring dreams of looking at maps for unannounced Rockstar games. I remember a very detailed dream circa 2015 or so of poring over a paper map of the as-yet unannounced Red Dead Redemption 2, which encompassed a The Crew-style geographically-questionable rendition of the entire United States west of the Mississippi. Ironic that most of the actual game was set in environments distinctly east of the Mississippi. In the past couple years I’ve had a lot of GTA 6 map and trailer dreams, which have all been set in Vice City. So based on my track record with Red Dead, you can expect whatever the exact opposite of Miami is for the setting of the next game. Chicago, maybe?

I almost never have dreams, and I've never had one about video games, but when I was a kid, I did have one of those nightmares, where you try to scream but nothing comes out, involving the ghost of Garfield and Walker, Texas Ranger.

I had a dream about Satisfactory that grew so complex that I jolted awake as if my brain had to reset.

Normally when i'm really into a game and can't stop thinking about it ill often dream about it.

They're usually a little vague, like evoking moments from a bunch of games but not about one in particular. Like, dreaming I'm about to take a train but have to finish some kind of mission objective or puzzle before it'll arrive, or travelling between cities appearing as the world map in Civilization.