After many, many weeks of waiting, the first welcome emails for JK Rowling’s new and interactive Harry Potter online experience Pottermore have been dropping into inboxes worldwide this afternoon, and I was among the lucky few to receive one.
Naturally I won’t be revealing anything of importance here, (users who have not yet received welcome emails and who wish to avoid spoilers are advised to avoid many Harry Potter and social networking sites as many users are posting screen-grabs from within Pottermore) but the experience is a beautiful and fulfilling one for Potter fans. The environments I have seen so far are stunning in both beauty and detail, menus are well thought out and fit into the Potter-verse perfectly. Navigation takes a very short learning curve before you are finding your way around easily. The new information penned by Rowling has so far been interesting and insightful with backstories for characters and new revelations about the locations. So far there has been relatively little interaction with the site excluding clicking around to move about and pick up the odd item, however as I am currently only in chapter five (Diagon Alley), I’m sure this will increase significantly – this chapter and the entrance into the wizarding world has in itself marked a large increase in the interactivity with some tasks to complete before moving on.
Right now I am finding the experience rather lonely as my friends list remains empty; I am sure that once more people enter and those numbers start to creep up, that a new factor will be added to this already enjoyable experience as I begin to collect house points and interact with fellow Hogwarts students. The fact that the game is in beta has not been that noticeable however there are in my mind one or two minor things that could be improved, the beta feedback form is present on each page but doesn't allow for detailed feedback which is a slight disappointment in itself.
There is still a long way to go within Pottermore, it is a journey that will take many, many months to complete – a blessing to those already missing the Potter universe since the completion of the film series. Pottermore is unlikely to win any new fans to the franchise but for those of us already deeply entwined in Harry’s life, it seems like a good way to keep the magic going.
