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.
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 miss my digital memories a lot, especially now that the internet has grown more homogenized, and I think being involved in Web Revival spaces has really revitalized this yearning. There’s a lot of focus on reviving personal sites and blogs and fansites and everything under the sun- but the legacy of the Virtual World has remained untouched. And I get this- Virtual Worlds are pretty high budget affairs and beyond the scope of most hobbyists. They’re also a particularly 2000s phenomenon compared to the late 90s aesthetics that these movements tend to replicate. Virtual Worlds are also distinctly more corporate than what nostalgia these subcultures are aiming for- 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- creating MMOs and browser games aimed at children, often with predatory marketing and monetization tactics. Websites like these made up my childhood- but these memories are often dissonant. As much as I loved, for example, Pixie Hollow, I also remember how intrusive the site was about asking for your money to become a “member”, and how the user experience suffered as a result of this manipulative tactic. It’s a conflicted sort of nostalgia.
And thus- we arrive at Bella Sara, the one I remember the most fondly, and hazily. Bella Sara was a series of horse-themed TCG cards, each with a detailed 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, collecting items and planting plants, 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.
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 (though there are some fan archival projects being worked on as we speak). 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. While I did play Horseland and some other games, Bella Sara has the most influence on this project because it’s the one I remember the best and most fondly.
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. 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 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?
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, of course, tie it in with the ideals of the Web Revival, an online art subculture dedicated to reclaiming thr 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. 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.
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!