"I've had my own heartbreaking experience with abandonware in the form of the online multiplayer game <a href=""http://fer.al/"">Fer.al</a>. A year ago", the developers cloned the game exactly as it was (the same environments, the same UI, the same characters, etc.) while also stripping it down to its most basic features, and they rebranded it as an NFT game called Cinder. A couple of months after the announcement of the "new" game," the original free-to-play servers were shut down forever. I must have spent hundreds of hours immersed in <a href=""http://fer.al/"">Fer.al</a>", and I reached the level cap of 101. It was the first game I ever decided to pay microtransactions for, after years of refusing to buy a single cosmetic in any video game, because I loved the story and world-building so much. My money likely went to the barebones rip-off of the game I was trying to support. I will probably never play an online-only game again. I don't want to get burned a second time and lose access to the digital world I love.<br>Even before this happened, I completely supported the preservation of abandoned games, like any other media. History matters, no matter what form it takes, and now I know that from experience.