Pottermore
Encyclopedia
Pottermore is a website by J. K. Rowling
, developed by TH_NK and sponsored by Sony
. The website, according to Rowling, will serve as a permanent online home for the wizarding world
of Harry Potter
. The site will feature many of J.K. Rowling's notes, several pages of text that were not included in the novels, a service that will sell e-book
and audiobook versions of the seven Harry Potter
novels, as well as over 18,000 words of additional content. The additional content will include a large number of background details and settings. Registration for the limited beta release began on 31 July 2011 (the birthday of both Rowling and her character Harry Potter
) for the first one million fans to complete "The Magical Quill" challenge and register. Registration was originally intended to open to all in October 2011, but the Beta period has been extended and the new opening date is unknown.
. Users can move through the chapters and "follow" Harry as well as collect items such as potion ingredients, books and galleons (a wizard coin), many of which earn them house points once they are sorted. Among other things, users are able to visit Diagon Alley, learn spells, duel other users and create potions. Students from different houses compete with each other for the House Cup by gaining house points mainly through dueling and potion-making. This type of virtual reading experience has generated concern about the potential reaction of established online book retailers such as Amazon
. Pottermore is free to join. Buying audiobooks is not directly related to anything else on the site.
's Melissa Anelli
has been involved with the project since October 2009. On 15 June 2011, various Harry Potter fan sites including The Leaky Cauldron, MuggleNet
and HPANA
began to release geographical coordinates to letters that could be found on SecretStreetView.com, a website created by Rowling, integrating Google Maps
to reveal hidden letters that would spell out the title of her secret announcement. A webpage announcing the project first appeared in June 2011. The webpage linked to a custom interactive YouTube channel featuring a countdown. Owls gathered on various other Harry Potter pages linked to this countdown as well. Rowling revealed some details of the site via a YouTube video on 23 June 2011.
, Day 2 corresponding with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
and so on and so forth. Each day had a clue which corresponded with the related novel to which the user must solve the clue to enable their right to register before October. The website would pick the person's username randomly showing five names to choose from, for child safety. Only a certain number of people each day were allowed to "use" their Magic Quill clue for registration each day across seven days, to total to one million users at the end of the challenge (6 August 2011). While many accounts were created by fans during the early registration phase, many users created multiple accounts and sold them for high prices on eBay
, despite being warned by the Pottermore blog and being assured that the website would remain a free site. Some of these accounts were created by cyber criminals hoping to target Harry Potter fans. They posted promises of early previews to the site and early access to the site, leading people to unintentionally buy malicious software and allow people to hack their accounts.
The following table is an overview of the seven day challenge. Clues on days 1–3 were more difficult than the clues on days 4–7. For North Americans, the final clue was released on 5 August 2011 instead of 6 August. This was due to the fact that the clue was released at 1:00 am BST.
The site received positive reviews from users and the media during the beta period. They praised the "beautiful artwork" on the site as well as extra content revealed by Rowling. Bryan Young of The Huffington Post
has said that "to say that Pottermore is an immersive experience might be an understatement." He commented that the beta site still had a few problems, but also said that "the experience [was] smooth and utterly absorbing." Early users also said that the site did not bring back the feeling of excitement from when the books were released, but did add an "extra layer" to the reading experience, similar to the maps and additional content released for The Lord of the Rings
series.
Ebooks and audio books will be available in the Pottermore Store sometime in 2012.
gave their approval of the website and praised that the website was not just a marketing ploy to sell e-books and audiobooks, but a website that "will at least let you experience some of the fun of living in the world of Harry Potter."
Many fans, however, have expressed disappointment in how slowly confirmed beta testers were let in and the lack of information regarding the order they would let them in. The Beta site is noted to still have some problems, including how, due to maintenance, wizard duelling has been down for much of the beta period. Of the one million e-mails sent out, approximately one third of them have not yet been sorted into a house (based on the student count).
J. K. Rowling
Joanne "Jo" Rowling, OBE , better known as J. K. Rowling, is the British author of the Harry Potter fantasy series...
, developed by TH_NK and sponsored by Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
. The website, according to Rowling, will serve as a permanent online home for the wizarding world
Wizarding world
The fictional universe of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series of fantasy novels comprises two separate and distinct societies: the wizarding world and the Muggle world...
of Harry Potter
Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
. The site will feature many of J.K. Rowling's notes, several pages of text that were not included in the novels, a service that will sell e-book
E-book
An electronic book is a book-length publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, and produced on, published through, and readable on computers or other electronic devices. Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional printed book, e-books can also be born digital...
and audiobook versions of the seven Harry Potter
Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
novels, as well as over 18,000 words of additional content. The additional content will include a large number of background details and settings. Registration for the limited beta release began on 31 July 2011 (the birthday of both Rowling and her character Harry Potter
Harry Potter (character)
Harry James Potter is the title character and main protagonist of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. The majority of the books' plot covers seven years in the life of the orphan Potter who, on his eleventh birthday, learns he is a wizard...
) for the first one million fans to complete "The Magical Quill" challenge and register. Registration was originally intended to open to all in October 2011, but the Beta period has been extended and the new opening date is unknown.
Features
Users are able to participate in interactive reading experiences or "moments" beginning with the first book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's StoneHarry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is the first novel in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling and featuring Harry Potter, a young wizard...
. Users can move through the chapters and "follow" Harry as well as collect items such as potion ingredients, books and galleons (a wizard coin), many of which earn them house points once they are sorted. Among other things, users are able to visit Diagon Alley, learn spells, duel other users and create potions. Students from different houses compete with each other for the House Cup by gaining house points mainly through dueling and potion-making. This type of virtual reading experience has generated concern about the potential reaction of established online book retailers such as Amazon
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
. Pottermore is free to join. Buying audiobooks is not directly related to anything else on the site.
Potions making
Pottermore gives users an opportunity to make their own potions in three different cauldrons (although only one can be used at a time) made of pewter, brass and copper, each making potions of increasing speed, with pewter the slowest and copper the fastest (still being implemented). Pewter cauldrons cost 15 galleons, brass cauldrons cost 21 galleons and copper cauldrons cost 25 galleons. With ingredients bought in Diagon Alley, users can make six different potions, each of which rewards house points if completed, or does not if the potion fails. The potion can fail by adding the wrong amount of an ingredient, leaving it to brew for too long, not keeping the temperature within the range, crushing things too finely or not finely enough and causing the cauldron to explode. The potions that can be made in the first book are Antidote to Common Poisons, Cure for Boils, Forgetfulness Potion, Herbicide, Sleeping Draught and Wideye or Awakening Potion.Wizard's Duel
Each member of Pottermore will have the ability to duel with fellow "students". Each pupil can choose a spell to use against the other student, and may win or lose the duel, depending on the rating given. This is another opportunity to earn house points. However, the Wizard's Duel was shut down shortly after the site opened and has not been open for use since.History
Pottermore had been in development for two years since its incorporation in April 2009. The Leaky CauldronThe Leaky Cauldron (website)
The Leaky Cauldron, also called Leaky, TLC, or Leaky News, is a Harry Potter fansite and blog. The site features news, image and video galleries, downloadable widgets, a chat room and discussion forum, and an essay project called Scribbulus, among other offerings...
's Melissa Anelli
Melissa Anelli
Melissa Anelli is an American author. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Harry, A History, which chronicles the Harry Potter phenomenon with exclusive interview material and a foreword written by Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling...
has been involved with the project since October 2009. On 15 June 2011, various Harry Potter fan sites including The Leaky Cauldron, MuggleNet
MuggleNet
MuggleNet is a Harry Potter fansite founded by Emerson Spartz. The site is composed of news, editorials and synopses of the Harry Potter books and films, an encyclopedia of the books, an IRC network, in which the fans of Harry Potter can discuss predictions and share thoughts, a discussion forum,...
and HPANA
HPANA
The Harry Potter Automatic News Aggregator, or HPANA, as it is better known, is a Harry Potter fansite created in 2002 to monitor news on the Internet about J. K. Rowling's series of novels about the eponymous wizard.-History:...
began to release geographical coordinates to letters that could be found on SecretStreetView.com, a website created by Rowling, integrating Google Maps
Google Maps
Google Maps is a web mapping service application and technology provided by Google, free , that powers many map-based services, including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, Google Transit, and maps embedded on third-party websites via the Google Maps API...
to reveal hidden letters that would spell out the title of her secret announcement. A webpage announcing the project first appeared in June 2011. The webpage linked to a custom interactive YouTube channel featuring a countdown. Owls gathered on various other Harry Potter pages linked to this countdown as well. Rowling revealed some details of the site via a YouTube video on 23 June 2011.
Early registration: The Magical Quill challenge
The website was launched on 31 July 2011, with an overwhelming number of people trying to access the site. The site subsequently had a page refresher and those who could get into Pottermore were informed of "The Magical Quill" challenge which would allow users who completed the challenge to complete the "early" registration for the site. The challenge continued for 7 days, with each day corresponding to a certain book in the series; with Day 1 corresponding to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's StoneHarry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is the first novel in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling and featuring Harry Potter, a young wizard...
, Day 2 corresponding with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the second novel in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling. The plot follows Harry's second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, during which a series of messages on the walls on the school's corridors warn that the "Chamber of...
and so on and so forth. Each day had a clue which corresponded with the related novel to which the user must solve the clue to enable their right to register before October. The website would pick the person's username randomly showing five names to choose from, for child safety. Only a certain number of people each day were allowed to "use" their Magic Quill clue for registration each day across seven days, to total to one million users at the end of the challenge (6 August 2011). While many accounts were created by fans during the early registration phase, many users created multiple accounts and sold them for high prices on eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
, despite being warned by the Pottermore blog and being assured that the website would remain a free site. Some of these accounts were created by cyber criminals hoping to target Harry Potter fans. They posted promises of early previews to the site and early access to the site, leading people to unintentionally buy malicious software and allow people to hack their accounts.
The following table is an overview of the seven day challenge. Clues on days 1–3 were more difficult than the clues on days 4–7. For North Americans, the final clue was released on 5 August 2011 instead of 6 August. This was due to the fact that the clue was released at 1:00 am BST.
| Date | Time | | Clue | Answer | | Page | | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 July | 9:00 am BST | "How many owls are on the Eeylops Owl Emporium sign? Multiply by 49." | 245 | Sony's US homepage | |
| 1 August | 10:00 am BST | "What is the number of the chapter in which Professor McGonagall cancels the Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff? Multiply this number by 42." | 588 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 is a 2011 epic fantasy film directed by David Yates and the second of two films based on the novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. It is the eighth and final instalment in the Harry Potter film series, written by Steve Kloves and produced by David... site hidden in the photos of the film. |
|
| 2 August | 11:00 am BST | "In the Gryffindor versus Slytherin Quidditch match, in Harry's third year, how many points is Gryffindor leading by before Harry catches the Golden Snitch? Multiply this number by 35." | 2100 | Online article on The Guardian The Guardian The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format... s website |
|
| 3 August | 3:30 pm BST | "How many students take part in the Triwizard Tournament during Harry's fourth year? Multiply this number by 28." | 112 | Sony Harry Potter page, later skipped due to issues | |
| 4 August | 6:00 pm BST | "What is the house number of the Headquarters for The Order of the Phoenix in Grimmauld Place? Multiply this number by 21." | 252 | Scholastic's Harry Potter page in an ad space at the top of the page. | |
| 5 August | 2:00 pm BST | "How many chapters are there in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince? Multiply this number by 14." | 420 | The Wizarding World of Harry Potter's website | |
| 6 August | 1:00 am BST | "How many Deathly Hallows are there? Multiply this number by 7." | 21 | Warner Brothers' Parseltongue Translator |
Beta period/early access
On 10 August, Pottermore started sending a "congratulations" email to registered users, confirming that they would get early entry and that the beta period would begin once the sign-in button had reappeared on the website. On 15 August 2011, the sign-in button reappeared on the website, welcome emails were sent out and the beta period began. A "very small number" of users were invited to begin use of Pottermore on the first day, with more users subsequently being invited until 27 September, when the final invitation emails were sent.The site received positive reviews from users and the media during the beta period. They praised the "beautiful artwork" on the site as well as extra content revealed by Rowling. Bryan Young of The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
has said that "to say that Pottermore is an immersive experience might be an understatement." He commented that the beta site still had a few problems, but also said that "the experience [was] smooth and utterly absorbing." Early users also said that the site did not bring back the feeling of excitement from when the books were released, but did add an "extra layer" to the reading experience, similar to the maps and additional content released for The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
series.
Public launch
Pottermore registration was planned to open to the general public at the end of October 2011. However, on 28 October 2011, the Beta period was extended, and no date has been announced for general registration to open.Ebooks and audio books will be available in the Pottermore Store sometime in 2012.
Reception
The website has attracted Harry Potter fans of all ages. Fans of the series responded well to the overall experience and quality of the website, considering the website to be a "magical portal," amazed at the detail and "thrilled" with the images "coming to life" before their very eyes. Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
gave their approval of the website and praised that the website was not just a marketing ploy to sell e-books and audiobooks, but a website that "will at least let you experience some of the fun of living in the world of Harry Potter."
Many fans, however, have expressed disappointment in how slowly confirmed beta testers were let in and the lack of information regarding the order they would let them in. The Beta site is noted to still have some problems, including how, due to maintenance, wizard duelling has been down for much of the beta period. Of the one million e-mails sent out, approximately one third of them have not yet been sorted into a house (based on the student count).