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.
I had this issue too while questing, it took some tinkering to make a ‘nerfed profile’ where the overland enemies pose a bit of danger, wearing almost no armor, no blue/red CP skills, fairly low health, also using some of the new ‘scribing’ skills, they’re customizable but not very powerful, I use a npc companion too because it’s more fun gameplay overall, on average I don’t think people have enough time to mess around like this though, the overland feedback thread on their forum has like 200+ pages of people debating for and against raising overland difficulty lol