# World of Warcraft 67 Hacker News commenters recommended World of Warcraft and 65 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 20 years (5 owners). **Verdict:** Long-running massively multiplayer game that people recommend for its social guilds, classic versions and raiding; critics say newer expansions became grindy and bloated. ## Why people recommend it - Classic and vanilla versions revive it (5 comments): "The revitalization of old games via the "classic" release model has demonstrated that simply undoing the MBA damage is an extremely viable option." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50138858)) "Vanilla WoW really did have a different design ethos than the later expansions did, and some people prefer that experience." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47264392)) "Classic WoW wasn't perfect, but it was amazing, and it's NOT all just nostalgia-glasses." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47265809)) - Long-running and still popular (4 comments): "Imagine creating something people still like to pay for after over 20 years. Incredible!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49470881)) "WoW was a fabulous success from day 1 and it was a live service game." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48813445)) "WoW is still the most played MMO on the planet, even after 20 years." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47836510)) - Guild and social community (4 comments): "For many, it's an online third space. Cooperating to overcome shared challenges reinforces social ties." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49493012)) "Helped a lot during the few years of physical separation to stay in touch" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47745481)) "chatting with your guild members in World of Warcraft is social media" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49776187)) - Satisfying progression and PvP (3 comments): "The payoff of working on a dungeon for a month and finally clearing a boss was so satisfying." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49494872)) "the gameplay was legitimately good. PvP was compelling, raiding was compelling" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49493724)) "WoW forever is also looking compelling with its PvP ruleset and unified realm architecture" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50114648)) ## What people warn about - Grindy modern expansions and gear treadmill (4 comments): "The later ones kept bolting on systems until playing felt like managing a spreadsheet." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47268269)) "WoW has become quite soulless after the changes where everyone gets the same end game equipment but you have to grind upgrade currency to improve it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48821784)) "WoW puts 95% of the game at max level requiring players to invest dozens of hours just for table stakes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49636599)) - Constant feature changes diluted design (4 comments): ""retail" WoW basically evolved by Blizzard adding features in response to player feedback where each step when viewed individually seemed reasonable" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47266132)) "the modern game has become so unrecognizable that it's basically WoW 2.0, you ruined it with the modern systems" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47263425)) "Blizzard continuously trying to make it appeal to other types of players is what kept killing it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47265190)) - Quality slipped after feedback ignored (2 comments): "People say they fired the entire QA department since a few years back and since then the quality has just gone down." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47947270)) "They really don't have a culture of listening to player feedback, and it drags their games down." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47264578)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [EVE Online](https://hackerapproved.com/p/eve-online.md): 52 recommend - [Ultima Online](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ultima-online.md): 44 recommend - [RuneScape](https://hackerapproved.com/p/runescape.md): 35 recommend - [Old School RuneScape](https://hackerapproved.com/p/old-school-runescape.md): 22 recommend - [Aardwolf MUD](https://hackerapproved.com/p/aardwolf-mud.md): 15 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "World of Warcraft", https://hackerapproved.com/p/world-of-warcraft/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).