RPG Maker forums are closing, nearly 15 years of knowledge and online culture are at risk of being wiped

The official RPG Maker forums are closing, and there's some good news and some bad news associated with that. The good news: Gotcha Gotcha Games is launching a new forum called RPG Maker Guild, which aims to "provide a welcoming space where RPG Maker creators can connect, share projects, exchange ideas, and continue growing the community together." But the bad news, revealed in a closure FAQ, is that the existing RPG Maker forums are not going to be archived, meaning that a massive amount of history—and useful data and information—is at risk of being lost.

I'm opposed to forum shutdowns as a matter of principle, and I'm still a little sore about EA closing the BioWare forums. But in this case the cultural loss is accompanied, and even outweighed, by the practical hit: As noted by Eurogamer, t...