There is also MH Rise which is a faster paced version imo and also a bit easier... Imo. It's much more fluid with movement and it's probably the games biggest leg up over world. It also has better solo play and you can build teams of sorts with NPCs in the expansion. I think you can now do that in the base game too but not entirely sure I never played through the main game a second go.

Also Multiplayer in these games has two different forms.

So first is the group sessions in World, MP sessions can have up to 16 members, in Rise it's 4. You post quests the same as in Solo but the people in your suspension can also see and join if you make the quest to allow for other to join. A hunt can only have 4 players and everyone can post their own quests and anyone can join any open quest. It's more fun in world because you can feel like part of a big guild just doing you thing. You can also open the quest up so that others from the server as a whole can join in once you depart which is where the second form of MP comes in.

So let's say you don't want a session but would like to play with others for a hunt or two. You can join in process quests that are open to that or open you quest to do the same. In World this is done with a "SOS flare" which you fire at any point during the quest. You fire the flare. The game is opened to anyone on the server looking for quests. They can see your party and join you for that single quest then you go back to town afterwards and never see them again (you can friend ppl too). You also have control over who joins. You can set it to auto allow ppl to join or make it so that you have to accept them first.

In Rise the only big difference is you have to decide before you leave on the quest if you want it to be open to randoms.

I'm both modes you are free to kick other played from your group or leave groups without penalty. I rarely have left groups. About as rarely as I have had to kick.

Rise also has fewer western players imo and thus fewer elitist types. Not that world was all that bad but if I had to pick which had fewer it's Rise.

As far as the community is concerned the end players are two version of one thing. Fashion hunters. You either want to look cool as heck fighting giant dinosaurs or you want to look as silly as possible. I go for the latter. If I can't make giant monsters run in terror of my oiled up, nearly naked, buff rubber chicken head wearing hunter, then what even is the point?