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It’s a bright, brilliant day strewn with cotton clouds, as you arrive in the fields and downs of a little town named Clovenglade. Wild horses gallop across the fields under the multicolored festival banners weaving the wind, and you can smell the cinnamon excitement in the air of this place- a place where magic hasn’t died.
It seems you’ve stumbled into a Virtual World of sorts, or at least the pale shadow of one. This is my reconstruction of the sorts of Virtual Worlds and websites I used to frequent as a horse-obsessed young girl. For years I made these sites my home; almost all of them are long gone and wholly unarchived. As you explore this magical land, I intend to celebrate and analyze various aspects of this era of the internet, and the impact it had on me as a child. It lies between the old, vibrant 'net of yesteryear and the hypercapitalist web of today. For better or worse, this was my nostalgia, the zeitgeist of the internet I knew as a child.
Thus, this is a nostalgia project- both in the sense that it’s a shrine to things that hold a nostalgic place in my heart, and a dissection of what nostalgia means. I do find myself nostalgic for that time, especially now that the internet has grown more homogenized, and I think finding myself in the small/personal web has really revitalized this yearning. I have immersed myself in a subculture dedicated to revitalizing the independent and creative parts of the internet. Because of that renewed interest in the history of the web, here I'd like to discuss this online phenomenon, the cyberspace I remember growing up with. These Virtual Worlds were often aimed at children, often based on a "freemium" business model, and often, they wanted to sell you something. Virtual Worlds are distinctly more corporate, and they were part of a sort of economic bubble in the 2000s- for example, there was a McDonalds Virtual World, during the height of the craze; Beanie Babies, Disney, Burger King, Barbie and more all wanted a piece of the Virtual World pie. All of these companies were creating MMOs and browser games aimed at kids, often with predatory marketing and monetization tactics. Websites like these made up my childhood, and are the last vestiges of online spaces that were aimed at creating a space for children- but these memories are often dissonant. As fun as these sites were, they were also often predatory, exploiting the same child audience that found a home there. And now they're gone. The bubble burst, as everyone realized these were costing more money than they were making. While some games linger on, most shuttered, especially once Flash was discontinued. It’s a conflicted sort of nostalgia and that is what I want to explore here. The good, and the bad, from this turning point of the world wide web. Something so bright and shiny, a childhood dream, and yet an omen of what was to come.
There were so many of these sites and games, but Bella Sara is the one I remember the most fondly, and hazily. Bella Sara was a series of horse-themed TCG cards, each with a detailed and beautiful illustration of a magical horse, and a positive or guiding quote. (You can browse through the cards at the Bella SaraRCHIVE website). But what I remember most fondly wasn’t the cards (though I did own some), but rather the website. The basic conceit was that you could enter the code on your Bella Sara cards to get in-game currency as well as take care of the horse pictured on the real-life card in a virtual stable. This wasn’t necessary to play the games on the site, though, including minigames as well as a top-down Adventure game that allowed you to explore the world of North of North. I must have spent hours and hours in that game, just to experience the magic of that world. Some may consider a single player browser game to not count as a “Virtual World”, but I played several games with the same trappings of the genre at the time, and I think it fits in among its peers. As it was the most special to me, I will be using it as the case study and inspiration for the shape Clovenglade takes.
I remember wanting to revisit the site some years back, but this was unluckily right after the Flash crash. Nowadays, the Bella Sara website is a shadow of its former self. The shutting down of Flash simply killed it. You can still browse through some of the cards and read the lore guide, listen to the soundtrack (which you can also hear throughout Clovenglade), etc, but nothing else really remains of the land I knew (unless you seek out fan archival projects, of course...). Every so often I think again about how much of my childhood is unarchived, and forgotten. Bella Sara, Horseland, and more- the lands of horse girl dreams. Ephemeral. Forgotten. Nearly lost. And what do the children of today, the new generation of netizens, have? Nothing.
Thus, I have created Clovenglade, a celebration of my memory and of the things that are now lost. I never want to become someone who only ever wallows about this kind of thing without action. I love to create; nostalgia is as much a motivator as any other reason to create digital art. Isn’t that the whole point of the retro-web revival? Why don’t we take the “corporate fantasy” of the virtual world into our own hands, and create our own digital realms instead? We can make this lost land our own.
Think of this as an "interactive essay" split across several pages, in the "shape" of one of these defunct games. This is a celebration, after all.
Clovenglade is a game that doesn't exist, made entirely out of vaguely-shaped memory. It is about these sites as I remembered them, more than as they truly were.
My goal with these pages is to examine my memory of these Horse Girl games, the role online worlds had on the internet for my age group, the relationship between nostalgia and creation, and to tie it in with the ideals of the online art subcultures dedicated to reclaiming the fun of the internet.
The web is a beautiful place. With a little bit of imagination, we can make interactive worlds out of lines of code and formatting, fantasy from nothing. My intention here is to take the ideas spawned from the original virtual worlds I dwelled in, and create something in that spirit! To show that we can achieve this immersion even with the skills of a hobbyist. That we don’t need big franchises and to turn the gears of the capitalist machine to have a digital world we can immerse ourselves in, at least for a little bit. We don't need them anymore.
So, allow yourself to be immersed...
Like every year, the people of Clovenglade are celebrating the long life of their dear Princess, Her Majesty Rhoan Clovenglade, though she hasn’t been seen in some time- rulers are quite busy, after all, and her reign is as strong as ever.
As part of the great festival, the Merchant’s Faire is in town, and the annual racing tournament is open for anyone who wishes to enter!
However, it will probably be wise to visit the Cottondown Stable first- there are five horses ready to be ridden at any time, and that is where you can pick which horse to take with you. You can ride and explore together, race, relax, and more. There’s also been a cottage prepared for your stay, conveniently located next to the stable.
Just click on your World Map to visit the various places of Clovenglade, and enjoy your stay. And make sure you allow Javascript and autoplaying audio to enjoy the full experience!