How to play a minecraft game regularly with random players around?

So whenever I go to any minecraft server I find a bunch of game modes and competitions and stuff, that's not what I want, what I want is to play the game exactly the way it is played in single player but with random players around me, is that possible? Like is that a thing in minecraft multiplayer?

You have to look for a Minecraft survival server but be warned, it's not as cool as it sounds. There's always loads of rules to follow etc