So the issue here is you are not looking for a game you are looking for the white picket fence experience that comes around at the start of something.

For me the game was WoW back in the day. I am still in touch with most of the people I played with and they are all awesome but few of us actually play games any more. And even when I go back to WoW now it just isn't the same. I never miss the game, I miss the people.

Anyway, point is any MMO can give you that if you get in with the right folk. WoW, FF XIV, EvE Online. They all have active communities the trick s finding those you fit in with. Don't be afraid to guild hop and move around, find the crew you fit in to and do what you can to do things together and get around the current need everyone seems to have to play solo in multiplayer games. I am probably just old and crotchety but I'm not sure it will ever be what it was, the landscape has just evolved.

Best bet would be to get in on the ground floor of whatever the next big MMO or multiplayer experience will be, that is where it will happen again.