After the books and after the movies, the Harry Potter series is undergoing a third incarnation. Pottermore is an interactive reading experience with a touch of a gaming aspect to it.
First, I’ve got to say kudos to those who took the risk to make it. Pottermore is a new thing. It’s not the Harry Potter version of Facebook, nor is it a Harry Potter MMORPG, nor a Harry Potter-fied anything. This is new, and it is an interesting experiment. That said, I can’t see it working again with a different series. Too much of Pottermore is coasting on the popularity of the books/movies, and in my opinion, this type of website would not have been worth it for another series. I believe that Harry Potter lends itself to an immersive experience because of the incredibly detailed worldbuilding JK Rowling has done. Equally popular stories with less worldbuilding, such as “Twilight” or “The DaVinci Code,” would have fallen flat in this format.
Takeaway: You can only rely on hype if you’ve already got something that’s earned its hype. You can only invite the audience into your world if you've made an impressive world for them.
Due to the popularity of the Harry Potter series, Pottermore essentially marketed itself. It got to the point where people didn’t understand what Pottermore was, but they still wanted to join just because it was about Harry Potter.* I don’t see a problem with this. If a series earns a massive fanbase, then they’ve earned their right to ride that power a little. While I was a little disappointed upon seeing/playing/reading Pottermore for myself,** I take heart in the fact that they captialized on their popularity by taking a risk on an experimental format instead of, say, printing a bunch of T-shirts and pencil cases and calling it a day. If you can build a series to Harry Potter proportions, and I hope you do, that gives you room to experiment. Take advantage of that.
Takeaway: Trying something new sparks people’s interest.
The publicity around the Pottermore beta was built up quite well. It started with a YouTube page of Harry Potter-eque owls surrounding a weeks-long countdown. This was enough to get people hooked. I made sure I’d be looking when the countdown reached zero, and when the owls faded away to reveal a video of JK Rowling announcing this thing called Pottermore, that was all it took. Immediately, I went to tweet this news, only to see that all my Potterhead friends had been keeping an eye on the owls as well. We’d all been waiting weeks for JK Rowling’s next project, but if a random stranger tried a similar buildup, I’d be skeptical. If you’re trying to build people’s expectations but you have yet to prove yourself, stick to shorter wait times. An unknown who builds up suspense for weeks just seems like they’re dawdling.
Takeaway: The more that people love and trust the property, the longer they’ll be willing to wait for it. The newer you are, the sooner you need to deliver.
To be a Pottermore beta tester was made out to be a thing of glory. Objectively, I wondered why I wanted to partake in a website when it wasn’t really ready yet. I suppose it was for the same reason that people wanted to pay Tom Sawyer for the honour of painting the fence. In order to get into Pottermore early, you had to be on the Pottermore site at a particular time to see a clue. The clue would ask you to multiply a given number by a number from one of the books. For example, you’d have to know ahead of time (or look up very quickly) how many points Slytherin was leading by in a particular game of Quidditch. This technique may work for new and/or independent series. Unlike the Pottermore website itself, which relies on existing popularity, games and puzzle-solving are engaging on their own.
Takeaway: Give people something to have fun with right away, and give them something to be proud of when they join your fanbase.
And having solved Pottermore’s puzzle, I was accepted into the beta mode. If you were not among the lucky million people granted early access, rest assured, you didn’t miss a lot. It was VERY glitchy, and the options for giving feedback were limited. There was no text field in which to specify problems. Rather, each page was given a few statements (such as “I like this page” or “There’s a lot to do on this page”) and beta testers could only respond with a 1-5 rating. Given the number of users, I doubt the Pottermore team would have time to read individuals’ written responses. However, the 1-5 ratings for vague questions doesn’t seem useful.
Takeaway: If you’re going to use beta testers, it is better to have a few and listen to all their concerns.
Pottermore promised two things. One was additional information, upon which it didn’t really deliver. Of the never-before-seen text, only a small amount was really all that interesting. We got a few insights to JKR’s creative process, which were fun, but very limited. It was more like a fortune cookie than a director’s commentary. The way that Pottermore was promoted, it sounded like we’d be getting Harry Potter worldbuilding bibles, but this wasn’t the case. For example, when you get to the part about Rowena Ravenclaw, we “learn” that she was one of the founders of Hogwarts and that Ravenclaw house is named after her. That’s not new, nor is it even copious enough to include as a selling point. On the other hand, Professor McGonigall’s backstory was wonderful, and I would have liked to see more characters explained at that level of detail.
Takeaway: Make sure your product lives up to the expectations you’ve asked your audience to have for it.
The other thing that Pottermore promised was customization. This is what most of the people I spoke to were looking forwards to: the Hogwarts experience. When a richly detailed fantasy world like Harry Potter’s opens a crack in your dreary muggle life, how can you resist? My friends, me, and other Potterheads I surveyed were excited mostly about being sorted. Here is where Pottermore really delivered. When you get to the chapter where Harry first goes to Diagon Alley, you step into the role of a Hogwarts first year and get to go shopping there yourself. At the end of this shopping trip, you go to Ollivander’s wand shop, where you answer a personality quiz to determine what wand is to be specially yours. The wand type has four variables: wood type, core material, length, and pliability, and there are explanations for what all these different things mean. Just about everyone I know is quite pleased with their wand, and why not? It’s custom-made for you, and you get to learn all about what it means. It’s got the same appeal to it as astrology, kind of, but as if astrology had hundreds of different signs so you were part of a REALLY exclusive club. Any wand seems objectively good, and yours is special because it’s just for you. Compare this to the Sorting, whose results surprise most people. The houses of Hogwarts are already imbued with meaning, and most Potterheads already identify with one of them. The process of the sorting is a personality quiz, much like how you get your wand. However, many people are shocked by their house placement. I do not know anyone who got the house they wanted. Comments on Pottermore showed that many people believed they should get to choose their house or contest the hat. Personally, I like the finality of it. It makes me think I’m taking part in something “real” as opposed to something you can customize like a five-dollar latte. Then again, I was placed in Gryffindor, which would have been my third guess as to where I belong. I also have an unconfirmed assumption that many people gave up on Pottermore after being sorted into uncool Hufflepuff, as that might explain why the badgers are performing so poorly in the race for the House Cup. Many of those Hufflepuff students could be empty accounts, abandoned by self-proclaimed Slytherins and Gryffindors. I’m not saying it’s bad for you, the creator, to be strict about your canon, but be aware of how some fans will react.
Takeaway: When customizing the experience to the individual, be aware of what is already established in canon and how the fans may respond.
Finally, something I really appreciated about the art of Pottermore is that it doesn’t conflict with the original books. I didn’t care to see the movies because I enjoyed the books so much that I didn’t want someone else’s vision to replace my own imagined version of Harry’s world. Each part of the "Philosopher’s Stone" is illustrated*** but thankfully, the characters are not designed
to look like the actors from the movies. More often than not, the characters are seen only from behind or at a distance, so Pottermore avoids shoving it in the reader’s face what everyone is “supposed” to look like. I appreciate this, and I hope this technique is used in illustrating the rest of the books.
Takeaway: Once you’ve established your canon, be aware of what you left to the audience’s imagination and make sure you don’t step on it later.
Overall, the Pottermore experience is enjoyable, although only to people who are already fans of the series. It assumes you already know about the Harry Potter world. It doesn’t add anything new, really, either. Pottermore is kind of just… more Potter. Don’t go to it expecting a movie or a game. It’s just… Pottermore. There are a few technical drawbacks right now, but I believe that is because it is still in beta. For example, brewing potions is very glitchy, and right now that is the only way to earn house points because Wizard’s Duel (another minigame) has been unavailable since the start. Also, their poor servers are overloaded nearly all the time. If anything is going to make Pottermore fail, it’s that users are constantly being booted from the overloaded site. Other than that, it’s got a nice little community growing and a good overall focus (you read the story, then you help your house compete for the House Cup). If I can see one thing that will help make Pottermore into a lasting fan community, it’s getting a better way to communicate. They need either a chatroom or a forum, and right now, they have an award compromise between the two. There are five strange, Twitter-like comment streams being implemented (one in the Great Hall for all the users, and one in each of the houses that are just for members of their respective house). While I like the idea of having a main chat for all and then exclusive ones specific to each house, I don’t like that messages appear delayed, disjointed, and always public as there is no direct messaging. Where’s Hedwig when you need her?
Takeaway: If nothing else, facilitate a positive experience for your fans.
According to Pottermore Insider, the site will open to all sometime in October. My name is UnicornFlight174 and I hope to see you there.
*I am included in this group.
**I was expecting something more like a game.
***beautifully, I might add.
-Tamara Hecht