This– is Berk. It’s located solidly on the taskbar of my laptop, and in the game folder of my iPad. Sure, it’s pixelated, and a bit muddied, and you clip through the floor more often than not– but it’s home. Our home. Those of us who found peace in the chaos of a rainy, murky, rough-and-tumble island and visited it again and again through the nostalgic, open world RPG game.
Yet, I haven’t seen Berk in 661 days.
As a child, discovering the animated world of how to train your dragon was a core memory for me, and every moment after that has felt like belonging. The characters remind me of my close friends and family, and I could easily see myself living there with my loved ones– I already have a mead hall for a bedroom, and a dragon for a horse. Before I had these things, though, I had School of Dragons. School of Dragons was the open-world RPG game based upon the HTTYD franchise– the main quest timeline took place sometime after the second movie, and was updated slowly as the trilogy concluded. When it began, I played on my father’s old computer that he inherited from my great uncle– so the graphics moved a bitttt slow. Over time, however, I grew and rediscovered the game in my young adulthood, and I was able to play the mobile version on my iPad (a gift from my sister for beginning my undergraduate degree). The game wasn’t exactly as it used to be, but the nostalgia factor outweighed any missing pieces (rest in peace, Timberjack flight path between islands).
My favorite parts of gameplay were the festivals and seasonal updates that would come around every three months or so– in the Winter there would be Snoggletog, with snowy landscapes and cookie collecting, and in Summer there was Summarhildr to pick flowers and make campfires that crackled with each horribly rendered graphic glitch. Oh, I loved it so. Another favorite of mine was Dragon Tactics, a mini-game in which you used strategy and battle waves to defeat enemies, similar to a tabletop game. The best part was when your player character and dragon could fight alongside beloved canon characters. I also adored all the wardrobe choices and character designs to collect.
I debated whether or not I should spend my grown-up money (a few pennies I got from being a writing tutor) on the monthly membership which would grant me more gems, exclusive dragons, and all expansion packs. But it was the best choice I could have made- a year after I got my membership and played through every bit of gameplay, they announced that the server was officially sundowning- the world in which we could train dragons was coming to an end.
It was the end of a calm Thawfest season in the Spring when the SoD Instagram announced they were closing the server- not only were they no longer providing game updates, but the server would disappear forever. I could no longer log in to simply fly from island to island, or play old races I’d already conquered. I took the time to log on and take some final pictures, and I found some parting gifts from the friends of Berk- each player’s own nightfury, to take a flight on Toothless one last time.
There are a few fan projects that will try to emulate the world of School of Dragons, but the end of this era was monumental to me. With the resurgence of the franchise due to the love action adaptations and Epic universe installation, maybe we will have an open world RPG in the world of Dragons again soon. Until then, I look back fondly upon my adventures on Berk, and will continue to enjoy the magic of the series.
