as for catering to noobs, WoW has become very casual friendly as it has evolved. if you two decide you want to pay for a game and then pay a monthly sub for WoW, i would at least recommend one of you makes an account, and then uses the refer a friend advantage for the other. that way you will got a lot of bonus xp when you play together.
As a side note - I'd actually say that WoW has always been a game that has been easier than it's competition. Even vanilla WoW. And, that's one of the (many) reasons it's been so successful. But, yes, it has gotten easier over time, to the point the game was pretty trivial before the last expansion. I haven't played it since the before the last expansion though, I can only assume it's gotten even easier. Still the most popular mmo around, even if it's bleeding subs. And, will be some time yet before it's dethroned (if ever). So, if you don't mind paying for the game, and a subscription, it's probably the go to game.
As for other pay to play games, Final Fantasy 14 A Realm Reborn is the best of the lot, imo. Probably not even close. Wildstar, which is a newly released game, would be a solid choice (although it probably isn't as noob friendly). I wasn't all that impressed with the combat, really. I did enjoy the humor enough to actually warrant purchasing it after the open beta. I haven't yet, but I haven't ruled it out completely. And, then there is The Elder Scrolls. Decent game, although it didn't hold my interest for that long, really.
Then, you have the free to play games. Some you actually have to purchase the game itself. Some are free to download. None have monthly subscription fees. Games like Guild Wars 2 and Star Wars The Old Republic (although, last i checked, the free version of this one was so gimped out, I'd much rather just subscribe to it. Perhaps that's changed). Also, The Secret World, and Tera.
I've never played Rift Wars, so I won't comment on it, other than to say the only time I went to take a look at it, didn't seem like something I'd like.
Strangely enough, the one game that I can't ever escape from permanently, is Aion. It's free to download, and free to play. When it first came out, it had alot of problems, especially as a US release (less for the original market of Korea, where they are much more tolerant of level grinds). But, most of the original problems with the game have been corrected, and it's quite solid now.
The level up experience is quite smooth now, with the nasty Korean grind now gone completely. You don't have to worry about forced pvp while leveling up, unless you want to deal with it. Leveling up to max doesn't require pay to win, you can hit max level easily without spending a dime (I'm guessing at max level, it's probably a different story entirely, but since I have no interest in anything at max level, in any game, even that I can't say for sure). It still has one of the best character creators in any mmo, to this day, and the game is 5 years old, or more. You can literally make make a character look like anything you want.
If I had 1 complaint about Aion, it would be about the gold farmers. The spammers selling gold in the chat channels are easy enough to deal with, right click, block. But, the bot farmers are another thing entirely. Mostly the problem starts in the late 30 zones. You can enter certain zones, to start questing, and there won't be a mob alive, in any direction. Just masses of bot farmers, as far as the eye can see. It seems like it hasn't been nearly as bad lately. And, usually if you're willing to look around enough, you can generally find SOMEWHERE to kill your quest mobs that aren't completely overrun. But, if I have to search around for 20 minutes just to find a pack of quest mobs that aren't insta killed by 50 gold farming bots...there is a real problem. And, the people running the game don't seem to be interested in fixing the problem, at all.
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