For those who have asked: I have been outside The Sims 4 space, investing time in Palia.
Palia is a free-to-play cozy fantasy life simulator that takes the social and relationship elements of games like Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley and puts them into a shared multiplayer world.
The basic premise: you are a human who has mysteriously reappeared in a world where humans disappeared thousands of years ago. You arrive in the village of Kilima and gradually build a life while uncovering what happened to humanity.
^ Reth is babygirl and soup daddy, and I won't allow you to convince me otherwise.
Gameplay revolves around things like:
Fishing
Farming
Hunting
Bug catching
Mining
Foraging
Cooking
Crafting
Building and decorating your house*
Exploring
Completing quests
Developing friendships and romances with NPCs
Collecting various items and creatures
There is also multiplayer, but it isn't really an MMO in the World of Warcraft sense. There are other players around you; you can play with friends, and you can cooperate on activities, but there's no class system, PvP, raid treadmill, or constant combat. Palia's developers explicitly designed the gathering, crafting, housing, and social systems - the things that are usually secondary activities in an MMO - to be the main game.
The easiest comparison is probably:
Animal Crossing + Stardew Valley + MMO + fantasy mystery + a little Breath of the Wild-style exploration.
It is currently available for free on PC/Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, with cross-play and cross-progression support.
