I've been thinking a lot about the old web lately.

I started using the Internet around the turn of the millennium; I think it was 1999 or so when I got online. It was a very different time!

At the time of writing, it's been twenty-five years since then. The Internet has gone through a lot of changes, from its overall structure to the ways people choose to communicate.

Back when I started using the Internet, there were countless little websites people of all ages had created about whatever they were passionate about. I made a website of my own, about Pokémon, when I was twelve years old. It was genuinely terrible. I have seen it cited in multiple places as an example of bad web design. But it was enthusiastic and heartfelt.

In the present day, it's rare to find a personal space someone's carved out on the Internet. People only have some sort of personal existence on a handful of social media websites, and any individual website you might find probably belongs to a company.

That's a lot less fun, isn't it?

There's been a small resurgence in personal websites recently, largely through Neocities, and it's been really cool to see. I doubted I would get involved, though. I couldn't really envision how I would structure a personal website, or what it would focus on.

And then I remembered a particular website style I was always fond of: weird little mazelike websites that you explore as if you're exploring a physical space.

Balamb Garden, with its distinctive layout and clearly defined sections, seemed like a location that could be recreated in website form. And I had a lot of things to say about Final Fantasy VIII! It's my favourite game of all time, and I've loved it for over two decades. I've replayed it a frankly unreasonable number of times. It has its flaws, but nothing else impacts me in quite the same way.

I could have created a more standard website with links to a series of essays about the game, but it seemed more fun to build a site where you're just poking around Balamb Garden, uncovering my thoughts here and there.

I was right; it is fun. I love Balamb Garden, and I'm always happy to spend time there, whether I'm playing Final Fantasy VIII or creating this little version of it online.

Thank you for visiting. Feel free to wander around for as long as you'd like.