Mabinogi has been and will be my main and favourite MMO for a long time to come.
It is essentially a life simulator that happens to have a combat system.

There are plenty of ways to customize your character and feel your character truly represents you: there are a variety of skills to advance, activities that will help you advance them, and many varied and beautiful places to see. There are also many wonderful people to meet, in the forms of other players, as well as NPCs.

There are major questlines that unlock new skills and advance the narrative, which plays with Celtic mythology in the ways that Norse mythology has been played with in the RPG arena for years. The game also has an interesting, quirky personality and sense of humour, which is especially expressed through the unique graphics. The environments and characters are expressed through a mixture of fascinating anime-like drawing and rendered objects. The game itself is wonderful and engaging and asks for you to spend many years there.

The narrative is actually an amazing experience if you stick with it. Many players skip the narrative and dialogue altogether, and are missing a fragmentary telling in line with its Celtic mythology, where the deeper you look, the more groundbreaking it gets.

The ranking of skills to become more powerful has been streamlined from the past. In general, there is no need to 'grind' or 'spam' certain quests, missions, or anything like that, though some players may choose to do so. In general, a typical Mabi sit-down consists of doing a variety of different activities that rank a variety of skills very slightly. Some people play this game in a very 'grindy' way, but there is no need to do that at all. The game has been out for 15 years, but as of about 5 years ago, it no longer expects long-term dedication. Ranks can now be knocked out in a few days.

Another aspect of the game that takes dedication and experience is the social aspect of the game, which many find overwhelming. What started off as my Mabinogi guild now consists of a gaming guild that is as close, or closer than, the average family, though we hail from all over the United States (and now also a few other places, too). Much of my 'gaming' time has now been spent socializing and organizing this gaming family.

The game had some issues that have mostly been resolved by the continuous development and care of the Korean dev teams and their NA counterparts, who have deeply rooted experiences on this game driving them to make it the game they wanted it to be when they started 10-20 years ago.

All-in-all, few games have changed the course of my life as much as Mabinogi. And that perfectly expresses its power as game, life simulator, and social platform.