MMORPG's

Twitch Plays Pokemon was a pretty good MMORPG.

Guild Wars 2. There were several sales, might be one again.

Archeage or Elders Scroll Online D:
I would sugest Guild Wars 2, but you need the exp (purchase) to experience a decent game D:

Really, the only MMO I enjoyed was The Secret World. Once purchased, you are free to play it as much as you want. You can pay for a subscription, which allows discounts on items sold in the cash shop (expansions, cosmetics, etc) but it isn't required to play.

It also has a 72 hour trial available, if you bug someone who owns the game for a trial code. Just can't post it here, if the trial user buys the game, it gives credit to the original user, so would be breaking rules.

Wurm Online ftw

I enjoyed dungeons and dragons online briefly. Many areas are locked to free players, but there ia still plenty of... decent story. I thaught the DM voice overs were well done. Also it was set I in Eberon, a steampunkesc d&d setting that I enjoyed learning about when I played it.

Warframe, TERA, Path of Exile?

I still play RuneScape, but it's not what it used to be. The game is much easier now and death isn't penalized very heavily anymore.

I haven't played a MMO since the heyday of Everquest, but I've always thought Path of Exile, The Secret World, and both Guild Wars games sounded very promising. There's no chance I'd do a subscription model game, but I'd consider one that's a good Free-to-Play or Buy-to-Play model.

Path of Exile
TERA
Aion

Firefall, starting playing and have all my friends playing now... Free to play and doesn't feel pay to win. more sci fi than fantasy but I enjoyed WoW and I enjoy Firefall...

Is not neccesary Pay to play WoW, look for any Private Server.

It would help if you explained more about what you enjoy about MMOs and what you'd like to do in one. We can all recommend our favourites, but the more detail you provide about what you want the more informative responses you can expect.

The only MMO-RPG that I played and actually stuck with for awhile was Rohan:Blood Feud. I played it for maybe 5 years. But it eventually got fucked up when it got bought over and turned into a pay to win game.

While not exactly a WoW-like MMORPG, Path of Exile is both Free and takes death seriously in a way that few games still do these days.

... In fact, that's about the only one that springs to mind.

I'm kinda hooked on Neverwinter. Lots of updates, and UGC being made to keep you busy between content updates.

What do you mean by death penalty? execution? deleting char forever?

Not necessarily "modern", but I was overly addicted to Tibia for the majority of my life. It was a blast. Probably would be considered an old school MMO, but it is FTP with the addition of a subscription if you would like the benefits.

Rift is a great WoW clone. Tera isn't that bad. GW2 and ESO are B2P and ESO after like update 3 or 4 made the game decent, but with the crime system update it feels like a ES game. Worth the money and super cheap on G2A.

mortal online is a good one.
but it's from 2010

pls no MMOs are heavily casual play for me. I can't really suggest any that have a death penalty and I honestly haven't played any in a while. Maplestory un-shitified- verison would be my version. I think you can still find some classic private servers but it seems to be a registration process for private servers. Usually you need to 'know' someone or you wait a while.

I've played a handful. Out of the ones I've played, there are two that I would recommend:
Guild Wars 2: It does not "eat" time like most other MMORPGs. The core gameplay is somewhat close to WoW (same basic structure), but it's a bit more active. Also, the game lacks the "Holy trinity" (tank/healer/damage dealer), so finding parties is far less of a hassle, as any class combination will work. That's not to say that you don't work together, because you do, it's just that you have more party buffs and such.

The Secret World: Not a fantasy game, but it has the best quest design I've ever seen in an MMO. In fact, the major quests (there are quite a few of those) are better than those in most single player CRPGs.

Both of these lack monthly fees (you just need to buy the game and then you can play it until the servers shut down), but they don't punish you all that much for dying. Are you looking for a game where you lose a large chunk of EXP and/or your gear if you die? If so, I guess something like Lineage 2, EverQuest or Ultima Online would work better for you.