Save Your Stuff: A Player’s Checklist for Preparing for a Game Shutdown

Save Your Stuff: A Player’s Checklist for Preparing for a Game Shutdown

Hook: When an MMO announces a shutdown, the clock starts — and players who act quickly save memories, rare items, and community history. If New World’s 2026 closure taught us anything, it’s that a year can feel long — and painfully short — when a game you invested years into is scheduled to disappear. This guide gives a prioritized, practical shutdown checklist you can follow now: export data, capture screenshots and video, archive community content, handle trading and transactions, and plan next steps.

Why you should care right now

In late 2025 and early 2026 we’ve seen a wave of MMOs and live services either shutter or change business models. Studios, publishers and even governments are increasingly offering exportable account data due to user-rights rules and PR pressure — but not everyone does it automatically. When Amazon announced New World’s planned sunset in early 2026, players were given a timeline, but that grace period becomes valuable only if you use it. This article leads with what to do immediately, then walks through medium- and long-term preservation strategies.

Top-priority actions (Day 0–30): Grab the things that vanish first)

When the shutdown notice drops, take these immediate, high-impact steps. They’re fast, low-risk, and preserve the assets most likely to be lost.

1. Request your account data

   Check account settings and the publisher’s privacy center for a data export tool. Under GDPR/CCPA-style rules, many companies let you request a folder with account metadata, purchase history, chat logs and more. Submit a formal request right away — export times can be slow once many players start asking.

2. Take controlled screenshots

   Prioritize character screens, unique items, housing, city banners, achievement lists and high-value market listings. Use the game’s photomode when available; otherwise, hide the UI and capture at your display’s native resolution. Name files with this convention: Game_Server_Character_Item_Date_Time.png. Collect metadata: server/region, character name, item ID (if visible), and timestamp. Store a text file for each screenshot with that metadata.

3. Record short video clips

   Capture 30–90 second clips of major landmarks, raid kills, emotes and rare drops. Use OBS or your platform’s recorder. For PC, record at 60 fps and 10–20 Mbps for a good balance of quality and size. Short videos are more emotionally resonant and useful for community history than thousands of stills — consider lightweight capture kits like the PocketCam for field captures.

4. Export chat and trade receipts

   If the game logs chat or transaction history locally, copy those files. Otherwise, use copy/paste to dump key chats and trade receipts into plain text files. Include timestamps and the names of participants. If real money transactions occurred (marketplace purchases, premium shop receipts), download any email receipts or store transaction IDs from your platform (Steam, PSN, Xbox).

Medium-priority actions (30–180 days): Build durable backups and community archives

After the first sprint, spend time building structured archives and coordinating with your community. These steps take longer but preserve context and usability.

Back up locally and offsite (3-2-1 rule)

• Keep at least three copies of your important files: local drive, external drive, and cloud storage.
• Use cloud services with versioning (Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox) so you can recover overwritten files.
• Consider an inexpensive NAS or cold storage for larger archives (clips, raw screenshots).

Archive community spaces

Community history — Discord servers, Reddit threads, fan wikis, and forums — often disappears with the game’s ecosystem. Use these tools:

• DiscordChatExporter (community tool) to export message logs into JSON/CSV. Get admins’ permission first.
• Pushshift/Reddit data dumps or the Reddit API to archive subreddit threads and comments. Also use the Wayback Machine to snapshot important pages.
• HTTrack or wget for fan wikis and public forums — clone static content, then import into a local wiki or GitHub Pages hosted site.

Save long-form guides and tutorials

Export or copy-paste your favorite community guides and craft a single-source archive (Markdown is ideal). Add a TOC and metadata so future researchers can understand the context. See strategies for designing memory workflows to make archives more discoverable and useful long-term.

Preserve economy data and market snapshots

Market histories are fragile. If possible:

• Take screenshots of high-value listings and market orders with timestamps.
• Export market CSVs if the game offers them. Otherwise, crowdsource snapshots — coordinate with guildmates to capture regular intervals and compile a composite dataset. For approaches to preserving market and execution data, see this market data review.

Legal & ethical checks before you preserve

Not all preservation methods are legal or allowed. Before scraping or running community servers, read the game’s Terms of Service, EULA and publisher shutdown FAQ. Three important rules:

• Respect copyright and IP: publishing assets may be restricted.
• Avoid reverse engineering or breaking DRM — that can trigger legal action.
• Get explicit permission from server admins before exporting private chats or personal data.

“Games should never die” became a rallying cry in 2026, but preservation must balance passion with the publisher’s legal framework.

Advanced preservation: extracting models, maps, and mod data

For technically skilled players who want deeper preservation (3D models, map tiles, mod configs), proceed carefully:

• Search for community tools that explicitly support data extraction for archival purposes. Many projects exist, but they vary in legality.
• Document the tools and versions you used and upload a readme with your archive.
• Don’t distribute proprietary game files without permission. Instead, store them privately or share derived content (screenshots, videos, re-created assets) that don’t violate IP.

Handling rare items, trading, and in-game economies

When shutdown is announced, players panic-sell or hoard — both cause losses. Here’s a practical approach:

1. Document ownership:

   For valuable or sentimental items, take close-up screenshots showing item tooltips, modifiers and unique IDs (if present). Take a short video rotating the item or showing it in use. Save these with metadata files describing how it was obtained.

2. Liquidate only when it helps preservation:

   If you want to keep the essence of an item, consider trading it to a trusted friend or guildmate who intends to preserve it. Record the transaction with screenshots, timestamps and witness chat logs.

3. Refunds and cash purchases:

   For store purchases, check the publisher’s refund policy post-announcement. Many companies offer refunds or vouchers, especially when services end. Document payment receipts and contact support early if you want a refund or compensation.

Community coordination: organizing large-scale preservation

Individual efforts are good; community projects scale better. Steps to organize a community archive:

• Form an archive team in Discord or a dedicated forum thread and nominate leads for screenshots, lore, market data, screenshots, video, and technical extraction. Community projects often use micro-recognition systems; see this community playbook for building contributor incentives.
• Set up a shared cloud folder with clear naming conventions and an index file for contributors.
• Schedule capture days: coordinate times to capture major raid encounters, city snapshots, and market economies to avoid duplication and ensure coverage across server regions.
• Partner with existing preservation projects like ArchiveTeam or local university digital archiving programs — they bring infrastructure and legitimacy.

Technical checklist: formats, naming, and metadata

Consistent formats and naming make archives usable long-term.

• Images: PNG for screenshots, filenames like NewWorld_EU1_Angela_Amber_House_2026-03-02_18-05.png.
• Videos: MP4 (H.264) or MKV, include a text file with capture settings and in-game context. If you need capture hardware or recorder reviews, check this field review of recorders.
• Text dumps: Plain UTF-8 text or Markdown. Include timestamps in ISO 8601 (2026-01-18T14:05:00Z).
• Backups: Tag each file with source server, region, and contributor contact info for provenance.

When the lights go out: final-day checklist

As the shutdown approaches (final week and final day), consolidate everything and create a public-facing snapshot:

1. Make a final, full backup and verify file integrity (use checksums — SHA256).
2. Create a curated highlight reel (5–10 minutes) with your best screenshots and clips and upload to YouTube or an archive host.
3. Publish the community archive index and mirror critical files on Archive.org or another long-term host.
4. Post a clear preservation FAQ explaining what you preserved, what you didn’t, and legal caveats.

After the shutdown: next steps for preservation and personal closure

Shutdown isn’t the end of preservation — it’s the beginning. After servers close:

• Keep archives accessible and mirrored. Maintain at least one public, read-only copy for historians and fans.
• Turn your personal memories into shareable content: montage videos, essays, or oral histories. These are often the most valuable cultural artifacts.
• Consider contributing to community-run server projects if they exist and are legal. Join discussions about what preservation means for this title.
• Explore similar games or spiritual successors. Many ex-New World players in 2026 are migrating to other open-world MMOs and indie projects that adopt community-driven content preservation strategies.

Practical examples & quick commands

Quick, practical commands useful for small-scale archiving:

• Mirror a wiki with wget: wget -r -np -k https://fan-wiki.example.org/ (check site rules first).
• Take a Windows screenshot without UI: press PrtScn or use Win+G for Xbox Game Bar captures.
• OBS studio: Record at 1920x1080, 60 fps, 12,000–20,000 kbps bitrate for high-quality clips.

Why this matters in 2026

Shutdowns are more common in 2026 than fans hoped. Consolidation of studios, shifts to live-op mobile, and the cost of maintaining legacy servers make closures likely to continue. But the preservation movement grew in late 2025 and early 2026: publishers are more willing to provide account exports, and communities are better organized. By following a practical preservation workflow, you ensure your time and emotional investment aren’t lost when the servers go dark.

Final, prioritized shutdown checklist (printable)

1. Request account export from publisher/support (immediately).
2. Take character, housing, achievement and market screenshots (first 48 hours).
3. Record short videos of landmarks, raids and rare items (first week).
4. Export chat/trade logs and financial transaction receipts (first 2 weeks).
5. Start community archive: assign roles, set shared folder, name conventions (first month).
6. Back up to local + external drive + cloud (ongoing).
7. Verify checksums and mirror to a public archive (final week).
8. Publish highlight reel and an archive index (after shutdown).

Closing thoughts and call to action

Game shutdowns sting, but they don’t have to erase your legacy. Use this checklist as your survival kit: prioritize exports, document thoroughly, coordinate with your community—and stay within legal boundaries. If New World’s 2026 shutdown showed anything, it’s that players can preserve more than pixels: they can save culture, friendships, and stories.

Take action now: Start by requesting your account data and taking 20 critical screenshots today. Share this checklist with your guild and set a capture day. If you want a printable PDF or a folder template for your community, click through to download our free preservation pack and join thegames.pro preservation channel to coordinate archives and find trusted tools.

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