8BitMMO vs Salem
8BitMMO
8BitMMO is quite a different sort of 2D MMORPG mainly because it is a giant sandbox set in a persistent streaming world and partly because of its eye-catching retro look. Being a sandbox game, you can literally build anything you like be it your own city or a magnificent castle; a simple humble home or an expressive voxel art. You can even build dungeons for other players to raid in! To make things more interesting, the game also has a fun zombie mode in addition to the plethora of hats, clothings and other accessories to customize your character with, and the tons of enemies you can battle against alone or with a group of friends. You don't need to worry about griefers as well, since the game has a robust anti-griefing system in place to prevent the same, bad thing that had happened to you in Minecraft's multiplayer game to occur again.8BitMMO is completely free-to-play and is still under active development by its one full-time developer (hats off to you my friend), so if you'd like to show your support, be sure to buy some of the stuff in the game's in-game shop or simply submit your feedback and ideas. Either way would help!
Salem
Salem is an old-school and somewhat obscure (but fun) sandbox MMORPG that unlike Wurm Online has a stronger emphasis on its in-depth crafting system and survival aspect rather than building.Similar to Wurm Online though, Salem is not a voxel-based game, but you are still able to mold the game environment through resource gathering, mining and digging in a way that reminds me of the currently-shelved MMORPG, EverQuest Next: Landmark. Of course, although not exactly the focus of the game, you can still build your homestead and the process is quite similar to Wurm Online except that it occurs at a much higher speed.
Not to mention, the game world in Salem is simply humongous to the point where it feels like an actual world. Salem also borrowed some features from ArcheAge where open-world PvP is the norm, so you'll need to be vigilant at all times, but players who kill and steal for no reason will be labelled as criminals and can be punished.
However, as good as it is despite being an indie MMO and all, Salem does have its fair share of flaws due to its low development budget. So, we'd recommend you to take a look at Salem without carrying along any high expectations. It's a pretty good MMORPG like Minecraft, but if you're expecting a Minecraft clone, you may end up disappointing yourself.