You may remember my little exclusive from the start of the year, about the £2.7 million spent by the Department for Transport on its online role playing game, Code of Everand. My FOI request also revealed that usage had basically flatlined since April 2010.
So it doesn’t come as a huge surprise to learn that Code of Everand was closed earlier this week:
Users trying to access the site – if there still are any? – will simply find their browser timing out; there’s been no attempt to bow out gracefully, by redirecting the URL to (for example) its Facebook page.
And for the record, nobody from Transport ever got in touch with me about it.
Responses
I’m really angry about it. Why did they bother to keep letting people sign on if they knew they were just going to close it down soon? As a newbie player who just happens to be an adult – I was happy and surprised that it wasn’t too kiddish despite the fact that game was knowingly “marketed” for kids. I didn’t even know about the fact that were closing down until somewhat recently, AFTER THE FACT of joining up and having already played…gotten into the game and fell in love with it. I think it was very stupid on their part to pull this on the players, especially the newcomers like me. And why shut it down? I can’t think of a good reason for them to shut down as this was a gem of a game. It could potentially be enjoyed by anyone open minded enough for it, regardless of age. The graphics weren’t bad, the game concept itself is unique and the “battle system” of traps and spells vs. swords and spells was refreshing too. Oh, and before I forget…I’m really surprised at how much money they spent on it too…I wouldn’t call it an expensive failure – (seeing that in my opinion that it’s their own fault for shutting down and not for a lack of fans/players) – but an expensive mistake, if they would have just kept it up and added some things to the site like a donation button then it would’ve been worth it. I don’t know why it had to cost so much though, was all the payments for art, coding, and space? Even so, really, seriously…did it need to be that expensive just to make and run the game? It makes me wonder how much these kinds of things really cost. I mean, I know things can get costly, but…I’m surprised on how much they spent on something that they weren’t planning to keep running. Anyway, if they had just kept it up and asked for donations from players, ect. I think things would’ve been fine. So disappointed. So angry. Ah, well, here’s hoping they’ll come to their senses and return someday and explain the cost and everything to us…Even if they don’t bring back the game…they should at least explain the cost and apologize to their newer players for shutting down the game. I know that’s probably too much to hope for and probably won’t happen but it’s what I’d like to see happen. And yes, I would donate money if they brought back the game and started asking for donations.
Kara, it appears they did not know that they were going to shut down, I was an admin of the first ever Code of Everand fansite and have featured it on my own sites before, and been close to some of the developers, and it was unexpected, truly. The site was for YOUNG kids, and this was basically created by Road Safety, adding a donation button would be morally wrong.
well as the first man said they didnt know they were going to shut down why cant they just update the server as he said it kept on crashing out and failing maybe if they updated it or even made this website go outside of the uk then you could of got more companys to sponser you so you could get more money to go national. this game was really good i spend all of my 2010 holiday stuck into this game and now its shut.
I can’t really believe they didn’t know it was being shut down. The traffic numbers (as I revealed on this website) were appalling, and it was costing £700k per year (over $1m), at a time when all UK government spending is being squeezed. It was never going to survive beyond the end of the financial year.