Wordle will be free forever because you can right-click to save the whole game

theverge.com:

Wordle is the pandemic game we didn’t know we needed, so there’s understandably some fear that its brand-new owner, The New York Times, might eventually ruin it somehow.

But as technologist Aaron Rieke brilliantly explains in a Twitter thread, there’s little chance of that — because Wordle is a webpage, and webpages can be saved. (This particular webpage runs on client-side code, which helps considerably.) You could download a complete copy of the game right now that contains all the answers, cycles to the proper new puzzle each day, and still comes with the same “Share” button so you can share those all-important little squares with fellow players.

So you could save copy of the website right now, *unplug your computer from the internet,* and play Wordle every day for years. 2/x

I checked real quick on my Windows desktop, and sure enough, right-click > save as created a complete copy of Wordle on my desktop, just like any other webpage I might save for offline use. I double-clicked the icon to launch it in my web browser, and it loaded today’s word.

It doesn’t retain my previous progress, just like the web version doesn’t keep your streak intact when you move from playing Wordle in a desktop browser to playing Wordle on a phone — but you could theoretically start building a new one if you want, and I wouldn’t be surprised if someone figures out a way to import progress as well. (Several people have suggested to me that you can pull it from your browser using developer tools, since the game uses local storage for that as well.)

Where will you play Wordle next? It sounds like there may soon be plenty of options in addition to the one The New York Times suggested will “initially” be free. Because every web browser comes