(NEXSTAR) - News that the whimsical online game Wordle had been bought by The New York Times Company for seven figures earlier this week left many wondering if the free game would indeed remain free.
While the Times said Wordle will be free to play "at the time it moves to The New York Times," fans are concerned the game could, at some point, be stuck behind a paywall like some of the newspaper's other games. If you aren't attached to the game enough to pay for it, you're in luck: Users have found a way to access hundreds of days worth of Wordle.
Josh Wardle, a Brooklyn software engineer and the game's creator, made the game a webpage, meaning Wordle can be saved like any other webpage.
Because you can save the webpage, you could save all of the roughly 2,500 Wordle games and their solutions right now. It would also cycle to the right puzzle each day and provide a "Share" button that would let you show off your score to your friends.
You don't have to be tech-savvy to save Wordle forever, either. As both Vice and The Verge explain, you first need to go to the Wordle website. Then right-click on the page, select save as, and save it as an HTML in its own folder (you may want to even name the folder "Wordle" if you're super organized).
Then you'll need to save two more webpages: the manifest and the engine that runs the whole thing. You'll save them as the exact file type that they already are into the same Wordle folder.
Once you have all three elements saved in the same folder, you'll be able to open the Wordle page you saved as a new webpage with a unique URL. Here's an example:
While this will still allow you to play a new game each day, your streaks may not save. Sharing your green and yellow squares after completing the puzzle can also be strange at times, according to Vice, with the cubes becoming gibberish.
If you used to watch Lingo on the Game Show Network, then Wordle will seem largely familiar. It is a free online game that challenges players each day to identify a five-letter word in six tries or less.
In early November, around 90 people were playing Wordle, according to The Times. Now, almost two months later, millions are playing the game daily.
It's unclear when Wordle will move over to The New York Times Company but both the company and Wardle have stated that it will at least initially be free to play. Additionally, gameplay won't be changing.
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