How to Archive Your MMO Progress: Saving New World Memories Before Servers Go Offline

Save New World Memories Before Servers Go Offline: A Practical Preservation Playbook

Hook: If you’ve logged hundreds of hours in Aeternum, the January 31, 2027 shutdown of New World is a hammer over the anvil — one moment to immortalize your raids, houses, and guild stories before the servers close. This guide gives you a step-by-step plan to export screenshots, capture raid footage, preserve housing and guild history, and coordinate community-driven archiving with legal, practical, and tech-savvy tactics you can start today.

Why this matters now (2026 context)

Amazon announced that New World will be taken offline on January 31, 2027 and the title has been delisted. The development echoes a broader 2025–2026 trend: studios increasingly move older live games to maintenance mode or offline status as costs and priorities shift. Community responses — from offers by other studios to revive gone titles to crowdsourced preservation efforts — have made 2026 the year of active MMO archiving, not quiet resignation.

“Games should never die” — a sentiment echoed across the industry in 2026 as developers and players grapple with preservation and legal limits.

That means you have both an obligation and an opportunity: preserve what you can, legally and ethically, so Aeternum’s stories live on.

Quick Action Plan: Most important steps first

1. Capture high-quality screenshots of your character, gear, housing, and major events.
2. Record key raid runs and community events in lossless or high-quality formats.
3. Export and back up guild records, member lists, chat logs, and forum threads.
4. Document housing: layouts, items, owner, and in-game coordinates.
5. Coordinate community archives (Discord, Google Drive, Dropbox, Internet Archive, GitHub) and assign roles.

1) Screenshots — the fastest, most reliable memory preservers

Screenshots are your baseline archive. They’re quick, low-risk, and remain viewable indefinitely.

Where to start

• Turn off HUD when possible for clean shots (ability to hide UI varies by game: check New World settings).
• Use the highest resolution your system supports. If you play on a 4K monitor, capture at 4K.
• Capture multiple angles: portrait, full-body, close-ups of weapons/armor, and environmental panoramas.

Tools & methods

• Steam players: Press F12 (default) to take Steam screenshots; use the Steam screenshot manager to export originals. Check the Steam userdata screenshot folder to back up PNGs.
• Amazon Games launcher: Use Print Screen or a dedicated capture tool; then paste into an image editor and save originals.
• Hardware capture: NVIDIA (NVENC) and AMD drivers offer high-quality screenshot and replay capture features. Use drivers’ screenshot utilities when available.
• OBS (Open Broadcaster Software): If you want ultra-high-res stills, record a short 4K video clip and export individual frames as PNG. This is especially useful for dynamic scenes where timing matters.

Organization & metadata

File chaos kills preservation. Use a consistent naming and metadata strategy:

• Filename format: YYYYMMDD_Server_Character_Event_# (e.g., 20260112_Nighthaven_Aeva_RaidBoss1_01.png)
• Add an accompanying text file (or EXIF) for metadata: server, character role, event description, timestamps, and who’s in the shot.
• Use ExifTool to write human-readable tags into image metadata for long-term discoverability.

2) Recording raids and events — capture motion, voice, and context

Raids, sieges, and large battles are the moments players remember in motion. Don’t rely solely on others’ streams — record your own.

Recording settings that preserve quality

• Resolution: Record at native resolution; aim for 1080p60 minimum, 1440p or 4K if you have headroom.
• Codec: Use x264 (CRF 18–20) or NVENC with high bitrate. For archival masters, MKV with lossless audio is a good choice.
• Audio: Record separate tracks: game audio, voice (Discord/TeamSpeak), and your microphone. OBS supports separate audio tracks for later editing.
• Container: Record to MKV to avoid corruption mid-session. After the session, remux to MP4 for maximum compatibility.

Capture strategy

• Record from multiple POVs: coordinate within your guild to have at least two or three members recording simultaneously (tank, healer, raid leader).
• If possible, capture the commander/organizer perspective to record callouts and strategy.
• Keep a rolling buffer (Replay Buffer in OBS) for surprise moments so you don’t need to record for hours non-stop.
• Schedule dedicated archive runs: pick a day to run “preservation raids” specifically for archiving rather than loot goals.

Post-processing tips

• Trim and label clips with timestamps and event descriptions.
• Create short highlight reels (3–10 minutes) for easier sharing and long full-length masters for archives.
• Transcribe voice comms or save critical callouts as subtitles for accessibility and searchability; consider privacy-first approaches when publishing transcriptions (see privacy-first best practices).

3) Preserving player housing — the physical memories

Player housing is often the most personal in-game artifact. Furniture, decorations, rare trophies — they all tell a story.

Document every detail

• Do a room-by-room photo set: wide shot + 3–5 close-ups per room (furniture, trophies, unique items).
• Record a walkthrough video at a slow, steady pace for each house. Walkthroughs preserve layout and atmosphere.
• Note house ownership info: server, settlement, house name, owner(s), and purchase date if possible.

Export furniture and inventory details

Where the game allows, take screenshots of inventory menus showing item names and stats. If there are item tooltips, capture them with clear screenshots so the names and rarities are legible.

Create a housing registry

• Set up a shared spreadsheet (Google Sheets) or a GitHub repository with entries for each house: location, owner, photo album links, and video link.
• Encourage owners to add a short memory blurb about their home — who built it, why it's special, and any memorable events held there.

4) Guild histories — the social backbone of MMOs

Guilds are networks of people and stories. When servers close, chat channels, event calendars, member lists, and forums disappear quickly unless preserved.

Gather the records

• Take screenshots of guild roster pages, guild bank contents, rank charts, and in-game guild histories/ledger entries.
• Export Discord or external communications: most chat services allow data export or at least message copying for important channels (admins can export via server tools or bots).
• Save forum threads, recruitment posts, and pinned announcements. Use web archiving tools to snapshot public pages.

Oral histories and timelines

• Interview long-time members: record 20–60 minute oral histories about key guild events (founding, biggest wins/losses, famous raids). Consider packaging these like case studies (see a maker collective example here).
• Create a timeline: founding date, major sieges, alliances, notable recruits, and in-game milestones.
• Bundle screenshots, Discord logs, and interviews into a single archive file for long-term storage.

5) Local game files & logs — what you can safely back up

Many MMOs store client-side logs and cache files that contain timestamps, error logs, and sometimes useful gameplay traces. Preserve what’s legal and doesn’t violate the End User License Agreement (EULA).

What to back up

• Screenshot folders and saved videos from Steam or the Amazon Games launcher.
• Local chat logs, if accessible via in-game export or local text files.
• User configuration files: keybindings, HUD layout, and addon configuration (if you use permitted UI mods).

Where to look

Search for folders named “New World,” “Amazon Games,” or under Steam’s userdata directories. Common places on Windows include local AppData, ProgramData, and Steam user folders. If unsure, create a backup of the entire game directory and your user profile for safety.

Legal caution

Do not reverse-engineer servers, extract proprietary server code, or use exploits to access data you are not authorized to access. Community preservation should prioritize user-generated content and public forum materials.

6) Community-driven preservation — collective action scales

Preservation is a social project. Organize your guilds and servers to create shared archives that outlast individual efforts.

Quick structure for a community archive

1. Create a preservation Discord channel or dedicated server for coordination.
2. Set up shared cloud storage: Google Drive, Dropbox, or a paid long-term option like Backblaze B2.
3. Make an index: a public spreadsheet with links to albums, videos, and archived pages, plus contact info for contributors.
4. Use web archiving for public content and GitHub for files that need version control (scripts, metadata, lists).

Examples of community tasks

• Photo drives: one week where every guild member submits at least 10 screenshots.
• Raid capture roster: list who records what for each major event.
• Oral history schedule: volunteers to interview 2–3 veterans per week and upload audio/video.

7) Publishing and long-term storage

After you capture and organize, choose where to preserve publicly versus privately.

Public archives

• Internet Archive: Excellent for public uploads (video, images, documents) with robust metadata and long-term retention.
• YouTube/Vimeo: Good for discoverability. Use unlisted or public uploads with detailed descriptions and timestamps.
• Community wikis: A wiki (Fandom, MediaWiki) can host timelines, roster lists, and housing registries for collaborative editing. (See practical community monetization and photo-drop workflows here.)

Private & redundant storage

• Multiple backups: local (external SSD), cloud (Google Drive/OneDrive), and cold storage (external HDD in a secure location).
• Use checksums (SHA-256) to verify file integrity across copies. Store checksums in a separate indexed file — see approaches from data catalog work (data catalog best practices).

8) Metadata, discoverability, and accessibility

Raw files are only as useful as the information attached to them. Good metadata lets future historians know what they’re looking at.

Metadata checklist

• Title, date, server, character, event type, short description.
• Contributor name and contact (optional), license or permissions for sharing.
• Tags/keywords: include targeted keywords like New World shutdown, MMO preservation, guild history.

9) Legal and ethical considerations

Preserving memories is noble, but understanding the limits is essential:

• Respect the game EULA: do not distribute proprietary assets (server code, protected client-side resources) unless explicit permission is granted.
• Get consent before publishing other players’ vocal comms or personal data.
• Report any suspected copyright or EULA violations to coordinators rather than taking unilateral action.

10) Future-proofing: what to expect and how to plan

2026 trends show increased use of AI for reconstruction, community-run shards, and university-led game preservation programs. While community-run private servers or emulators can keep a game running, they often sit in legal gray areas. Focus on preserving user-generated content and public records while industry conversations continue.

Emerging tools and methods to watch

• AI-based image upscalers and restoration tools for older screenshots and videos.
• Automatic transcription services for voice logs to create searchable text archives.
• Collaborative timeline builders and oral history repositories run by academic partners.

Case study: How a guild preserved a siege (playbook you can copy)

In late 2025, a guild preparing for New World’s sunset coordinated the following actions over a two-week window. Use this as a template:

1. Assigned roles: two recorders for raid, three photographers for base/housing, one archivist for uploads, two interviewers for oral history.
2. Held “archive-only” siege: after the competitive run, they repeated the siege at lower stakes to capture unobstructed footage and walkthroughs.
3. Collected artifacts: screenshots of loot, guild bank inventories, roster snapshots, and the final raid video. All files were uploaded, tagged, and checksummed within 48 hours.
4. Published a 20-minute highlight reel on YouTube and the full master to Internet Archive, then created a public wiki page with links and a narrative timeline.

Actionable checklist — 30-day sprint

If you only have a month, run this sprint. It’s prioritized for impact.

1. Week 1: Bulk screenshot capture (character, gear, housing). Create folder structure and metadata template.
2. Week 2: Record one major raid and at least two housing walkthroughs. Start oral history interviews (see maker collective example case study).
3. Week 3: Gather guild docs, export Discord history, capture forum threads, and archive public pages with web archiving.
4. Week 4: Upload to Internet Archive, create indexes, verify checksums (see data catalog guidance), and share the archive link with your community.

Final notes & encouragement

When a game like New World is sunset, the loss is emotional and cultural. But players have agency: screenshots, recordings, oral histories, and coordinated community archives turn ephemeral play into permanent history. The effort you put in today preserves not just pixels, but friendships and stories.

Practical takeaway: start with a single screenshot folder and one recorded raid this weekend. Use our 30-day sprint to build momentum.

Call to action

Don’t let Aeternum fade quietly. Join the community preservation effort now: organize a photo drive, volunteer to record an upcoming raid, or create a public archive entry. Upload your masters to the Internet Archive, tag them with New World shutdown and MMO preservation, and link them back to your guild wiki. Share your archive link with the NewGames.store community preservation hub so veteran stories remain discoverable for years to come.

Together, we’ll give New World the sendoff it deserves — and a place in gaming history.

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