Pottermore

[Captian Blimey John]

I say. A Harry Potter MMO? Kudos to Rowling for being able to continue capitalizing on the series, but I'm not thinking of playing it until I see some gameplay.

[Marry The Night]

Originally Posted by Captian Blimey John

I say. A Harry Potter MMO? Kudos to Rowling for being able to continue capitalizing on the series, but I'm not thinking of playing it until I see some gameplay.

Not an MMO; it's kind of like a companion to the Harry Potter books. You get to read parts of chapters (or even full chapters, not sure yet) from the books and find bits of background information. There will be simple games, like potion brewing, but that's all we really know for now.

[akamystic]

Could you imagine a Harry Potter MMO? Whoa........

[Marry The Night]

For anyone who hasn't gotten in yet: the clue for Day 6 will be released between 1:30pm and 4.00pm BST tomorrow, and the final clue (Day 7) will be released between 12:30am and 3:00am BST on Saturday, August 6th. That's 8:30 AM EDT to 11:00 AM EDT for Day 6, and 7:30 PM EDT to 10:00 PM EDT for Day 7. Good luck!

Removed

Edit #2: Pottermore was previewed at LeakyCon; here's some (quite detailed) information on Pottermore. It's pretty long, so I'm putting this in a spoilertab too.

Spoiler for Pottermore Info:

"It all starts with your registration. You fill out some information to begin, and the next page will tell you if you are indeed magical. It will then let you choose from 5 different usernames. They don’t allow you to make up your own username for child safety reasons. You then get sorted into your house by some dirty old hat. There is a large pool of questions that Rowling, herself, wrote, that will determine your house. Once you are sorted into either Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, or Slytherin, you will get a good page or two of brand new information about the history of your house.

Your homepage branches out into the seven books and includes décor befitting of your house. When you begin a book, it shows each chapter as a dot on that branch. While you are reading the book, there are interactive illustrations and animations that go along with the story. Each illustration was painstakingly designed directly from the books with every detail ever mentioned in them. They then had to be approved by Rowling and touched up until they were just how she had imagined them.

As you read, you “discover” new content. We got a sneak-peek at the history of Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia. The page that we saw explained how they were named, and also how they met and fell in love, etc. We also saw a bit of background on Professor McGonagall, which involved a somewhat tragic childhood and a muggle…

Going through the books in this way, you can also turn on lights, collect items and objects, and you also have money. You have a virtual bank account in Gringotts. You need this money because you will need to buy all of your schoolbooks and supplies from Diagon Alley. You can buy your own pet to take to school, but the first thing to get is of course, your wand. In Ollivander’s, you will be chosen by one of a possible 33,000 different wand combinations, after all, “the wand chooses the wizard.”

You then arrive at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry. In your menu you will find your Favorites, Friends, Illustrations, Spells, Potions and Trunk. Your house common room is a sort of chat room, and also has your points for wizard dueling among a few other things. The Great Hall is nearly the same as the common rooms, but it also includes all of the house points and updates from everyone. While you can invite friends to share this experience with you, POTTERMORE is not trying to be [the censored social site], and I don’t think it will ever be near as obnoxious.

For the first time, you will be able to purchase e-books and the digital audio book versions of the series. It looks like the e-books are styled after the new Bloomsbury Signature collection of Harry Potter.

There will be no fan-fiction on this site.

“It is not an encyclopedia, although much of the content is encyclopedic in nature,” whatever that’s supposed to mean.. It will be launched in English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish, with Japanese soon to come. It will begin a beta phase on July 31st to a lucky one million, and the official launch will be in October. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone will be the only book available in October, with Chamber of Secrets to come early 2012. You can enter your email on www.pottermore.com to receive updates and learn how to qualify for beta testing.

J.K. Rowling wants the readers to know that she will be updating and contributing to her newest baby, POTTERMORE, for as long as she has breath, more or less. Most importantly, POTTERMORE will be FREE forever."

[jason davy]

Most frustrating thing ever. I know the clues are only up for less than half an hour and they have all been up at terrible times for me- but today I just happened to check the site at work at the right time, solved the clue (no. 12 Grimmauld Place multiplied by 21) and tried to add it after the web address...in Explorer it redirected me to the Scholastic site and in Safari it said the address couldn't be found. Is this a junky work computer problem or has anyone else experienced something similar?? By the time I quit fooling with it and phoned a friend to register for me from home, registration was closed. Bah humbug.

[Crestshot]

It was confusing to me at first as well, but you had to find the quill on the scholastic site. With each clue, the user has been redirected to a different site; one night it was Sony, the next the Warner Bros. website, etc. Just a hint for if you try it again tomorrow.

[jason davy]

So you have to browse around on the site it directs you to in order to find the quill and THEN it lets you register? Wish they had made that more clear. Thanks Crestshot. Maybe I'll be able to try it again Saturday.

[Marry The Night]

Yes, from what I've heard, this has happened with yesterday's site as well. All I can say is, try for tomorrow's clue or the last clue. The clue for Day 6 (tomorrow) will be posted between 8:30 AM EDT to 11:00 AM EDT, and the clue for Day 7 will be posted between 7:30 PM EDT to 10:00 PM EDT -- turns out that's today, not Saturday. Sorry!

[Marry The Night]

(Pretty sure it's safe to double-post; it's been more than 24 hours since my last post...)

Early access to Pottermore is now closed -- Welcome emails start going out tonight!

[Chris Ironhawk]

You can expect me to overload Yahoo's servers by refreshing my email inbox like a mad man tonight! :P

[Chalupa]

Aww i missed early access.... I'll register on opening day i guess, it sounds fun!

[Marry The Night]

Originally Posted by chalupa

Aww i missed early access.... I'll register on opening day i guess, it sounds fun!

The site has gone back to normal (pre-Magical Quill challenge) now; you can register your email and you'll get an email when Pottermore opens to the public. Curious, though -- the sign in button is gone. And when I enter the URL to the sign in page, it says that the page has "vanished." Hmm...

[akamystic]

I got in early and activated my account. However, now waiting once again for another email allowing access to the site. Hopefully soon.....or what was the point of signing up early? ?? Unless it was just for hype.....

[Crestshot]

After lurking around some other places, I inferred that Pottermore WAS supposed to be sending out the welcome letters right after the Magic Quill ended. However, due to the London Riots, which just so happen to be in the area of the home base, they were unable to do so. Now rumor has it that the welcome emails are going out from August 15th on.

[akamystic]

I just received the below email:

You have been selected for early entry into Pottermore!

We’re really excited to confirm that you are one of the lucky people selected for early entry into Pottermore, ahead of when it is open-to-all in October, to help us add finishing touches!

We will activate your account between mid-August and the end of September, so keep checking your inbox for our Welcome email.

When this arrives you will be able to enter Pottermore. In the meantime, you can check the Pottermore Insider for all the latest news, updates and announcements.

We look forward to welcoming you to Pottermore.