For me its:
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Ultima Online
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Final Fantasy XI
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Ragnarok Online
UO was a game I just recently discovered and it's fantastic, best sandbox experience I've ever had in a game.
FFXI was another recent discovery. It took the formula from Everquest and made it better. The game is even less grindy today with the QOL changes.
RO was a big part of my teenage years. I love the look of the game, it reminds me of Final Fantasy Tactics. It's a great casual game to just pop into and grind out some levels or explore.
Anyone who has played Ultima would probably like Tibia. Very similar vibes but Tibia is a game well past its prime.
Honorable mention to Dragon Quest X
How is that? I know there's a small english speaking community that plays it but it's still never been localized right?
Correct. See my other reply for more general info on translation. I've pretty much been entirely solo since the game has been out for so long and recommend waiting for private servers to solve some pain points.
I keep wanting to try DQX or Dragon's Dogma online but assume the installation and translation process is a hassle. Frontier would be amazing to play too, but I don't know if that has an active translation.
DDON is making massive strides right now with both private server feature implementation progress and the English translation has good coverage and improving quality. Check back in like a month or so and I bet it'll be a rock solid experience.
Frontier is basically ready at this point for most people to check out and play. I'd either play on Renewal or Mezelounge. Many of the Meze people are the same group behind DDON and Meze has a classic server for an older experience.
DQX uses a mix of manual and realtime translation and is in the worst state of the 3 (as it's on real servers). Once it gets private servers I imagine custom clients will start better solving translation problems.
Sweet. Thank for the info!