DayZ comes to mind. I love the game but it kind of just throws you in and says , "Hey there. Survive."
fl1ghtless
Wow. It sounds like you have been hitting it hard. May your work be fruitful and trips to the hardware store minimal.
I have my guest bath torn down to studs. A new cast iron tub went in. I had to replace a few termite-eaten studs from who knows when. The house is 60 years old. I'm working on putting it all back together now. New insulation, then drywall and backer board. Then, moving on to the shower tile. Also, I have to schedule a new stone top for the vanity and get a new sink and faucet. Then, texture and paint all the walls and finally replace all the floor tile in the area. I started a week ago, but it's all moving quickly. If I can keep up the momentum, maybe I will be finished in a month.
GameSpy. Finding a server you clicked with. Meeting the other players that frequented there. Joining clans and chatting it up on the forums. So much creativity flowed making banners or avatars the showed off your stats from the server and such.
Presearch. I run a node and get paid for running it. The searches are solid as well.
Not for daily use but I run 3 Ubuntu servers here hosting various types of services.
I deleted my 10 year old account and haven't looked back. It was all useless karma after all.
I find peace and beauty in the wilderness of DayZ