Tag Archives: Pottermore

A Look Into Pottermore

Seeing as the launch of Pottermore has been delayed and there’s still a lot of interest in how to register, I figured I’d show people what the Pottermore experience comprises – or at least part of it.

Once you log into your pottermore account, you are greeted by a welcome page.

This welcome page then takes you to your gateway, from which you will have full control over your account, as features get added the more you progress into the story.

 

Then you start your Pottermore journey via chapter one of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s/Sorcerer’s Stone. The chapter is retold in a new interactive way to make it interesting for those who have read the books.

 

 

As the story moves on, you will receive your letter and be taken to Diagon Alley, with an extensive shopping list (including a wand):

 

Once your wand has been selected, you will be taken to Hogwarts to be sorted. The sorting consists of a series of questions with a variable number of answers. The questions will vary from one user to another and I have decided not to include the questions I was asked.

 

Ravenclaw pride!

The most interesting part about Pottermore is undoubtedly the new material sprinkled here and there by J.K. Rowling. Here’s a taste of what awaits you:

 

These are probably the least interesting new material in Pottermore. There’s a whole backstory on Minerva McGonagall, a very fascinating read to say the least.

On the overall, if you are a Harry Potter fan, you will have fun exploring Pottermore. You will also be able to brew potions, compete against other players in duels, thereby gaining (or losing) housepoints, as you help your house win the house cup.

The site needs fixing here and there, notably the addition of music, but on the overall it’s a very interesting experience. You won’t get off your computer until you’ve finished whatever book you were in – it’s a fast process to get through chapters and the new material is easy to find.

Until Pottermore becomes available for everyone, I hope this has satisfied your craving, somewhat.

 

Edit: Many pictures were removed upon request.

Pottermore Registration

[EDIT] I have successfully registered in Pottermore. 

For an early look into Pottermore, click here.

I have yet to gain access to the Pottermore registration interface (blame it on Sunday oversleeping) but I figured I’d post about the process to facilitate it for those who, like me, will attempt to gain access in the next six days.

When you access the Pottermore website, you will find a riddle for you to answer. Today’s riddle (or clue as it was named) was: How many breeds of owl are featured on the Eeylops Owl Emporium sign? Multiply this number by 49.

Once you get the answer, which in this case was 245, you have to use it to access a new webpage that will give you access to the magic quill.

To access this new webpage, you need to write down your answer at its end, meaning: http://quill.pottermore.com/245 (tomorrow’s answer will be different, so the addition naturally changes as well).

Once the new page loads, you’ll have to locate the Magic Quill, which for those of you who don’t know, is sort of a book where the names of every wizard and witch is written so they can be invited to Hogwarts once they turn eleven.

Once you locate the Magic Quill, you will be invited to start your journey – literally.

Once you “start your journey,” you go through a series of registration steps where you have to fill out your name, email, age, country of residence, etc…

If the person wanting to register is below 13 years of age, they only need to provide a first name and their guardian/parent’s email address.

Once the data input is done, you are presented with a list of famous magical people, including your name.

Then you’ll get to choose a username, which is not a free process apparently: they give you a selection of five usernames to choose from. Hopefully you’ll get to change that later on, but I doubt it.

Then, after selecting your username, a confirmation email is sent to you in order to activate your registration.

When done, you will be prompted with a new page telling you that you will receive the email telling you that you can test Pottermore in the coming few weeks.

Good luck everyone.

Pottermore Revealed

JK Rowling has just revealed on Pottermore’s website what the thing is all about.

She said: “I wanted to give something back to the fans that have followed Harry so devotedly over the years. Pottermore is a way for the creativity to live on and a way for me to be creative on a platform that did not exist when I started writing the books.”

It is a free website that builds an online experience based on reading the Harry Potter books. People can register for the challenge starting today and one million users will be selected by July 31st (which happens to be both JK Rowling and Harry Potter’s birthday), after they successfully complete the challenge, for early testing of the website, with full public availability in October.

Registration is currently down on the Pottermore website, which you can access here, probably due to an overload of Potterheads trying to get their emails through.

The announcement came via JK Rowling’s youtube page, through a video, in which she said:

Thirteen years after the first Harry Potter book was published, I’m still astonished and delighted by the response the stories met. Even though the seventh book and the eighth movie have now been completed, I’m still receiving hundreds of letters every week and Harry’s fans remain as enthusiastic and inventive as ever. So I’d like to take this opportunity to say thank you, because no author could have asked for a more wonderful, diverse and loyal readership.

I’m thrilled to say that I’m now in a position to give you something unique. An online reading experience unlike any other: it’s called Pottermore. It’s the same story, with a few crucial additions. The most important one is you.

Just as the experience of reading requires that the imaginations of the author and reader work together to create the story, so Pottermore will be built, in part, by you, the reader. The digital generation will be able to enjoy a safe, unique, online reading experience built around the Harry Potter books. Pottermore will be the place where fans of any age can share, participate in and rediscover the stories. It will also be the exclusive place to purchase digital audiobooks and, for the first time, e-books of the Harry Potter stories.

I will be joining in too because I will be sharing additional information I’ve been hoarding for years about the world of Harry Potter. Pottermore is open to everyone from October but a lucky few can enter early and help shape the experience. Simply follow the owl. Good luck.

The project will allow readers to answer their own questions, get sorted in Hogwarts houses, play games, add comments, drawings, etc…

The project has also been carefully planned to be spoiler-free. For the time-being, the world of Pottermore will be restricted to the first book: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (or Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone for the US version), with the story unveiled over a two-year course, for new readers. It will enable them to live each impact moment of the books.

The new material by JK Rowling is said to be around 18000 words so far. The e-books will be DRM free, meaning they can be viewed across platforms without the need to purchase them again, but they will be watermarked with the buyer’s info. While this doesn’t prevent copyright theft, the file can be retraced to the original buyer.

“This was about the give-back,” she said. “The technology now existed to do something outside the books and the films for existing fans.”

And the attempt to register starts… now!

Pottermore

Anything involving Harry Potter and JK Rowling has the power to take me back to when I was a giddy fifteen year old waiting on Harry Potter’s latest installment.

Well, it looks like our favorite author is back with something related to the epic series: Pottermore.

No one has any idea what it’s about. Everything is wrapped up in a thick shroud of secrecy, in pure Rowling fashion. But Pottermore has a website that you can visit. There’s basically nothing there but it’s still something, right?

There’s also a YouTube page which sets the countdown as of now to 6 days and 18 hours until the revelation of what Pottermore is.

Moreover, Pottermore’s twitter account revealed the following coordinates:  51.530377,-0.123259, which when plugged into this website: Secret Street View, take you to a clue regarding Pottermore. Hint: zoom into the street to find out what the clue is.

Are you excited Potterheads? I know I am. And most importantly, does anyone know what Pottermore might be?

I, for one, think it might be something related to the Harry Potter encyclopedia JK Rowling announced she wanted to write.