Pottermore is Open!

Pottermore is officially open to the public! Some of you are going “ZOMG YES!!” and some of you are probably going, “What’s Pottermore???”

Basically, you can live the Harry Potter books by getting sorted into a house with questions by J.K. Rowling herself, brew potions, buy a wand, shop in Diagon Alley, and read exclusive content from J.K. Rowling.  There are “interactive moments” of pictures depicting scenes in the book that have gorgeous art where you can find and collect hidden objects.  Here’s what an interactive moment looks like:

 

Also, for the first time ever you can buy the Harry Potter ebooks from Pottermore.

Pottermore was first announced in June 2011.  There was a challenge to become a Beta user from July 31-August 6, 2011.  I was lucky enough to become a Beta user and I even blogged about how I did it.  Pottermore was supposed to open to everyone in October 2011 after a one month Beta period, but the Beta period was extended six months because there were a lot of glitches on the site.

For example:

• Wizard dueling worked for one day before users crashed it. It wasn’t fixed for months.
• There was originally no sound (which many users complained about).
• Brewing potions used to take hours.  Plus, the potions section was glitchy not to mention that there were several annoying features (all of which they’ve thankfully changed now) that reduced the fun of the House Cup competition like: 3 points were awarded no matter how difficult the potion, if you failed the potion you got 1 point for “trying” and many beta users racked up points this way, you could cheat the 3 hour brewing time by changing the time on your computer which got nicknamed the “Time Turner” cheat, and there were three different cauldrons to choose from though it didn’t effect the brewing time at all (so why have 3….??)
• The site was often unavailable and people would often see this screen that was nicknamed “The Purple Screen of Death.”

My friend Aylee wrote a great review of Pottermore on October 31, 2011 and it pretty much covers what I felt about the site at the time.

I completed the Beta challenge on August 1, 2011 but I didn’t gain access to the site until September 5, 2011.  I was so excited when I finally got access that I flew through the site in about 2 hours.  I had some fun brewing potions for the first few weeks (because after you do all the moments, there’s really nothing left to do than earn points by brewing potions or casting spells with your friends [which was broken at the time…]), but honestly I haven’t been on the site in months.  Still, they’ve made a lot of improvements to the site since the Beta period.

Here’s what I like about Pottermore:

• There is sound now and it makes it so much more interactive and fun.
• Wizard Dueling and Potions have all their kinks worked out.
• I’m really excited to read the Harry Potter ebooks and follow along with the site while I’m doing it.
• The extra content is amazing.  J.K. Rowling talks about why she picked names for things and other fun stories.
• It’s beyond exciting to take the personality quizzes to buy your wand and then get sorted into your house.

If you want more details on the Beta period and what has changed since then, ElmBlade kept an awesome and detailed blog about the whole experience.  Check out ElmBlade’s blog here.

I blogged a lot about Pottermore last year.  You can browse all my posts here.

As part of my Harry Potter Reading Challenge, I intend to read book 1 while I go along with the Pottermore website.  I’m really excited to get back on it again!

Are you going to sign up for Pottermore? Leave your username and I’ll friend you! Or you can add me: SeerCentaur37.