2003 was a rough year for my family, it was the year I lost a father and my mother lost her husband. It was a year of great sadness and many changes but also many fond memories.

After my father’s passing my husband and I moved in with my mother for various reasons but most importantly to be with her during these trying times.

We also made good memories that year, my mother and I went to Disney’s Animal Kingdom one weekend and once we were in the park instead of doing rides or seeing the animal exhibits we discovered a bar in Africa called Dawa bar, we decided to stop for a drink and we ended up having not one but a few. We had such an amazing afternoon, just sitting by the bar, talking, remembering, and just enjoying being in each other’s company.

I have been to Animal Kingdom many times but that has always been one of my favorite memories of that park, it is one of a few memories of that sad year that I will always look back on fondly.

Another fond memory I had that year was when Final Fantasy XI was released in the US, I have always been a fan of Final Fantasy games even though it had been years since I played a game. I was so excited for this game not just because it was Final Fantasy but because it was a massively multiplayer online game, and it would be my first MMO ever.

I remember playing for hours on end, it brought me so much joy and I’ll admit I probably became a little addicted to it at the time. Some weekends I would play for hours on end as I joined a party and spent the day leveling up. Thankfully this was mostly during football season so my husband has his own vices to keep him occupied (Mainly watching football all day).

I have so many fond memories of playing that game on my PlayStation 2, I even had a special keyboard that hooked up to the PlayStation to enhance my gameplay. I honestly do not remember why I stopped playing, it was more likely a combination of trying to save some money (We were saving up for a house) and the release of other games that took my attention.

With time I forgot about it and the years passed by and then recently I thought about that game, Final Fantasy even released another MMO years later, Final Fantasy xiv which I never really liked and my thought went back to my first MMO.

In the last couple of weeks, I decided to give it a try again, the game is still around although only on PC now and I thought would it not be great to relive some of those fond memories that brought e so much joy in 2003.

So I downloaded the game, and struggled to get it to work, when I was finally able to log in the graphics were horrible. I was already thinking to myself “was the graphics always this bad and I just didn’t remember?”

I had to come to the realization that this was a 20-year-old game. A game that although still active was not going to have any more major upgrades or expansions. So it made sense that the graphics would not be great. I also came to one other big revelation, the gameplay and user interface were not user-friendly compared to other games that have been released since.

So although I had many fond memories of this game revisiting it might not be in my best interest. With all that said I still plan on giving it a try. I installed an HD Pack which greatly improved the graphics. Now I just need to figure out what I’ve missed in the last 10 years.

I figured I would at least give it the month as that is how long I have until the next month’s subscription renewal. If I can’t find any more joy or happiness in the game then I can cancel before the next time it charges. Regardless if I can find joy in it or not I will always have all of those fond memories of 2003.