If you want to scratch a similar itch, and have not already, try Guild Wars 2.

It does have microtransactions, but only because they have no subscription fee and they are mostly cosmetic with a few rare exceptions.

It also has no FOMO except cosmetics from certain festivals, which you can also buy in the next year.

It is still the best MMO on the market IMHO, because it values your time and money compared to other games in the genre.

Guild wars 2 has so much variety i would not know where to start. Would just search it on youtube and find the fitting mood i guess.

That people still pay monthly for save games has always been wild for me.

Guild Wars 2 as well. :)

It is not a bad game but guild wars 2 is much more fun to me if you want to compare MMOs altogether.

Try guild wars 2.

You can play without completly downloading it.

Its f2p and you can explore all together, since every starting map gets unlocked no matter what race you pick at the start.

It is also very easy to learn and you can even outlevel each other if anyone wanna keep playing in private, since you get levelcapped depending what map you are in.

Brilliant game design all around and still one of the best multiplayer games out there IMHO.

Weird how no one recommended Mastodon yet.

You can switch your profile to public and follow some nice people and hashtags, if anyone wants to check your vibe. All with you real name. It has become the good version of twitter for me and at least in europe many people are starting to use it.

Dont buy games from AAA publishers and you mostly have steam or GOG.

Better yet. Buy them from Itch.io directly, since indies are better anyway.

There are sadly more companies with rapists in them than those two. It got swept under the rug faster.

They should be enraged about the rape apologists who are in charge of the company. But consumers forget fast when the shiny new thing is out.

Start thinking with Portals by getting a Portal Gun.

Love to see this article by steve. If you like that sort of humor check out RegularFeatures. He is one of the people appearing in that comedy podcast.

Please try guild wars 2 with your wife if you have not already. It is brilliant with a partner.

Guild wars 2 has one of the best artstyles of any game IMO. Also very nice to just explore the world and the core game is free 2 play with a generous way to buy and keep forever without sub or mtx.