Pottermore leak

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

Pottermore, if the yahoo info below is true apparently it's a online game...why am I not surprised - IF it is a game, who wants to take a wild guess they want us to pay to play it.

http://blog.games.yahoo.com/blog/792-report-j-k-rowling-to-unveil-harry-potter-online-game

Comments

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info Karen. I'm curious to know what this thing is about, but not too excited, given the low opinion I have of the canon series as it ended up being.

I've spent so many years - four or five? - criticising Rowling's work and abilities so much I guess my lack of enthusiasm is understandable. Although I was still a bit surprised at my reaction. Oh, for the good old days back in 2003 - 2005, where everything was exciting and good and the series wasn't ruined!

Anyway, if this is a case of other people using Rowling's world, who knows, it might be good!?

Had to laugh at this bit:

Potter fansite The Leaky Cauldron is one of the few places that apparently has seen the project. Not surprisingly, they've taken an unbreakable vow of silence about the specifics, but have previously described it as "one of the most amazing, engaging and breathtaking additions to this fandom imaginable".

(Keep in mind, that's a fan site - so the Hogwarts Hype Express runs pretty fast there.)

Heh. Yes, exactly. Gushing sycophantism to the max on that site.

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

Heh. Yes, exactly. Gushing sycophantism to the max on that site.

I was kind of amazed that the author was willing to point it out, actually. It used to be that most HP articles I read were glowing reviews that seemed to expect the series to become children's classics.

And yeah, 2003-ish seems to be the series' peak. It was certainly when I was the most fannish.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

And yeah, 2003-ish seems to be the series' peak. It was certainly when I was the most fannish.

I miss those days. Even before book 6 came out it wasn't Rowling's actual work that entranced me; it was all of the fan fiction, all the *creativity*. And that's really died down since the series was completed.

The first few years after DH came out I got a lot of satisfaction collating all of Rowling's near infinite errors - it amazes me to this day; DH surely must have the record of being the world's most commercially successful literary failure?! - but one, one and a half years ago the discovery of new errors to discuss and mock petered to a dribble. deathtocapslock has been one of the few bright spots in my HP hobby since then; I came in with montavilla's review of DH (complete with 'DVD extras'!) and then sister magpie's critique of PoA (where I learned all about Jabootu scores!). Excellent humour as the dessert to a couple of years of serious Potter 'research' and investigation into DH's near infinite failures.

It was a weird feeling when this Pottermore thing came up. If it was going to be another Rowling effort ... well, I know the woman's capabilities now, she can't finish what she starts, she's a lousy author in several important respects. So it wouldn't be worth my reading. I've enjoyed pulling apart her seven books because I was deep into HP before she wrecked it all with her last two novels, but I didn't think I'd jump into something brand-new just for the (negative) motivation of poking fun at it.

Also, after all those years of condemning the woman's abilities, I was bemused to find that I was sort of *embarrassed* on her behalf. I put myself in her place and couldn't see myself daring to raise my head again in the literary world. Not after those last two books. It was a weird feeling. But it made me think the odds were against this Pottermore being anything more than other people licensing Rowling's world as a cash cow platform.

On the other hand, if others were going to be involved ... well, it would be like the fan fiction that I've enjoyed so much, maybe. People superior to Rowling in their abilities creating work with the characters and settings I like so much. So in that case it might be worthwhile investigating.

(Although any licensed/official HP derivation would no doubt be required to conform with canon's OBHWF romances, so that would be a stumbling block for my getting on board, depending on the nature of the work.)

Ah well. In a day or so we'll find out what it's all about for sure. It's already 'Thursday' where I am. :-)

[wolf-willow31.livejournal.com]

I think we'll be seeing more of this type of thing in the future, too. There will be desperate attempts to boost flagging interest in the franchise from time to time, after the last movie is over and done with.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

There will be desperate attempts to boost flagging interest in the franchise from time to time, after the last movie is over and done with.

YES. It's practically INEVITABLE in my opinion.

The HP bandwagon is such a colossal cash cow, I'm sure the people at the top just can't bear to let all of that consumer interest fade away. These are the people, after all, who chopped the last movie into two just to string it out. (Movie #8 is the shortest of the lot, I believe. I haven't seen DH #1 yet so I don't know how much of it was 'filler' (like the scenes from the novel on which it was based)).

I'm certain that a television series must surely be in the works. Maybe a cartoon or CGI series (something which will guarantee that Ginny Weasley will be rendered this time as a beautiful girl, matching her most important canon characteristic). One Hogwarts year per season. Keep the hooks in with the kids and ensnare a new generation.

And meanwhile, to keep people's interest going, things like this 'Pottermore' to keep all those customers busy, to maintain a profile for HP (and to bring in more cash).

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

Do you think that JKR will ever try to write something not HP-related? Of course, with all of the praise she has gotten, it isn't very likely to be good. I wonder if her criticism-immunity would hold over to a new series?

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

Maybe a cartoon or CGI series

I actually think that a decent Japanese anime company would do a much better job with the story than WB has, or any adaptation involving fleshware actors.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

I just read an article that said it def was NOT a game.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/06/pottermore-information-leaked-day-ahead-of-official-announcement.html

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

The leaked memo, which according to the Independent was leaked to every newspaper in the country, outlines the public relations strategy of the project.

interesting, so the link says the leak was sent to every newspaper.

That sounds really suspitious. It sounds a bit like a purposeful link from Rowlings side of the table.

All this heming and hawing is just to get people worked up and talking about it.

Basicly they made an announcment to tell us they were making an announcement. If it's true then it sounds like they're purposefully giving out false information.

Talk about leading a horse to water, they've literally put a bridle on every HP fan and are yanking them around to get them to drink.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

That sounds really suspitious. It sounds a bit like a purposeful link from Rowlings side of the table.

What is even more suspicious is, when checking your link below and watching the included Rowling video, is that it seems that the "select few" who will be allowed onto the site come July 31 are ONE MILLION in number, and it's obvious that they're being used as beta testers...

Which means that whatever debuts on July 31 will probably NOT be what is finally seen by the general public when they're allowed into the site in October.

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

Talk about leading a horse to water, they've literally put a bridle on every HP fan and are yanking them around to get them to drink.

I wonder how many fans have figured this out? Surely some of them are smart enough to see a reach for their wallet like that.

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

Here we go people...you can buy the book in ebook format now! (LOL!) - and it sounds a bit like she's doing a social network site to - so it's kind of the facebook for potter poeple I guess?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/jk-rowling-pottermore-announcement-fizzles-ebooks-launched-but-no-sequel/article2072158/

Copy from the article above

The seven Harry Potter novels will for the first time be available in ebook form in October, author J.K. Rowling said on Thursday at the launch of a new interactive online website Pottermore (www.pottermore.com) that will allow readers to navigate through the boy wizard stories.

Ms. Rowling also has written new Potter material for the interactive site, the mega-bestselling author says it includes “information I have been hoarding” about the books' characters and settings.

So, it's basicly going to sorta be like...um...her online encyclopidia??


More quotin'

The site immerses users in the boy wizard's world, combining elements of computer game, social network and online store. The site goes live for select members July 31, and will open to the general public in October.

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

And to add to this (since I posted to quickly) There is a video at the bottom but right now I can't watch it due to dialup collection here at home.

[oryx_leucoryx]

iand it sounds a bit like she's doing a social network site to - so it's kind of the facebook for potter poeple I guess

Can we please follow Severus?

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

The site immerses users in the boy wizard's world, combining elements of computer game, social network and online store. The site goes live for select members July 31, and will open to the general public in October.

Yeah, that's what I posted last week from some fan site that had a few screenshots of the Pottermore site; they posted last week that it was going to be a "social media" site that also had games, fan fiction, and the ability to download the books in "e-read format"...

Seems to me that it's a little late in the game to be trying to gen any substantial interest in a Harry Potter social networking site, and since there's so many fan fiction sites that have been around for years, seems to me that THAT train left the station long ago, too! :-o

And just who are these "select members" who get early access, and how were they awarded such elevated status? And why do they think anyone will give a damn about the site by October? I could have seen launching it to coincide with the movie coming out in July, but all that hype will have died by October...

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

So, it's basicly going to sorta be like...um...her online encyclopidia??

If i were Steve Vander Ark, I'd insert a few intentional errors into the Lexicon - just to show what sources the encyclopedia will use.

[the-bitter-word.livejournal.com]

I did a little poking around.

Here's an article (http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/06/jk-rowlings-new-pottermore-site-will-change-digital-publishing/240927/) on how the ebooks cut out the middleman and give all the profits to Herself. Gotta hand it to her.

I guess the ebooks will offer some kind of enhanced reading experience, because heaven knows, reading text alone is just too much work -- this from an author whose books are credited with encouraging kids to read.

There are audiobooks. I love to have a story read to me, but the audiobooks that are already available are too expensive for me.

As for social networking, I wonder if the site knows what they are getting into with fan attacks and tedious trolls, which persist on even seemingly harmless sites. I wonder if Pottermore has a plan to deal with this conflict, especially if it involves non-sanctioned ships. The site promises a "safe online experience." It will be interesting to see how this is set up and enforced.

Treasure hunt aspect. (http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/uk/treasure-hunt-for-potter-fans-16015198.html)

This (http://mashable.com/2011/06/23/pottermore-2/) has a link to images in the comments.

Then there is the extra material (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/23/pottermore-website-jk-rowling-harry-potter) she had on hand or will write (this article is very detailed), which "already stretches to 18,000 words about the novels' characters, places and objects, with more to come." I foresee Dumbledore-like annotations more than an encyclopedia. Whatever it is, it's canon now!

There's an interesting thing about sorting into Houses and how extra material is filtered to you by this process. This is unsettling to me, actually, but I like having access to information.

I don't know if I can bear to look. I am pretty sure I can't bear to pay to look.

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

Yea, I'm certainly not going to pay for it. So if it is REALLY free then I'll look...but if they think they're going to milk cash out of me their nuts.

The only thing I'm willing to buy potter related are Tonner dolls...das it...I'm not paying to see the movie, I'll wait for it on HBO or hell, either YouTube as eventually you can watch bits online. and half the time the trailers they put out now show as much as I really need to see.

But if this crap ends up being a pay site, screw that I'll just wait for someone else to post about the extra information they found on there.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

Then there is the extra material she had on hand or will write (this article is very detailed), which "already stretches to 18,000 words about the novels' characters, places and objects, with more to come." I foresee Dumbledore-like annotations more than an encyclopedia. Whatever it is, it's canon now!

This whole thing was rather ho-hum to me...until I checked out that last link!

Now I'm tempted to try to become one of the "select few" 1 million to be allowed in on July 31st, just so I can be at least be a spy to report back on what's what -- and maybe indulge in some surreptious sabotage to boot! LOL

Maybe we ALL should try to do the same! ;-)

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

18,000 words

That's not much - about a chapter's worth of stuff.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Thank you for those referrals, very interesting.

Kudos to Rowling for making the (basic) web site free. At this point nothing's been mentioned about charges except for the e-books and audio books.

Like one of the commentators says in the last web site you referenced this will no doubt 'keep this already tired and ubiquitous franchise in the public eye for years to come'. Yep. It'll keep the momentum going along until they whip up the television series. :-)

When the 'extra material' was mentioned I wondered if perhaps Rowling would slip in some canon corrections, to fix some of her mistakes. The sentences so far state that the additional work will be part of the *web site* and not integrated into the e-books, so any 'fixes' aren't going to be as direct as producing second editions at any rate. Still, it will be interesting to see how things unfold. I gather it's going to be a chapter-by-chapter thing stretching over years. Let's see what happens when Harry gets his invisibility cloak in PS:

Ron: Crikey, Harry, that's an invisibility cloak! They're really rare! And wow, yours looks so pristine, maybe it's Death's own Hallow, ha ha!

It looks like it'll be a long time before the worst books will come down the pipeline with their amendments.

As for social networking, I wonder if the site knows what they are getting into with fan attacks and tedious trolls, which persist on even seemingly harmless sites. I wonder if Pottermore has a plan to deal with this conflict, especially if it involves non-sanctioned ships. The site promises a "safe online experience."

Yes, it's REALLY going to be interesting to see how they handle negative criticism - non-canon ships and pointing out/mocking the mistakes as they unroll. Does 'safe online experience' mean 'safe from criticism'? 'Safe for our Jo'?

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

From the transcript (here (http://www.hpana.com/news.21293.html)).

"The other thing is, this is free. You don’t have to buy anything to access what you’ve seen today. You don’t have to pay to get the extra material, you don’t hve to buy a single thing to go onto Pottermore and have the whole experience you’ve just seen. That was really important to me. This was about the give-back. The technology now existed to do something outside the books and the films for existing fans."

She wants to 'give back' - which is laudable - but, when it comes to allowing negative comments from participants ...

... I wonder if she can take it? :-)

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Do you know, this "already stretches to 18,000 words about the novels" bothers me a bit. 18,000 words is not that much. I think I've written more words than that about the novels. So have many other fans - some, like Logospilgrim, have written whole books about Snape.

My two cents!

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

From the transcript:

"The other thing is, this is free. You don’t have to buy anything to access what you’ve seen today. You don’t have to pay to get the extra material, you don’t hve to buy a single thing to go onto Pottermore and have the whole experience you’ve just seen. That was really important to me. This was about the give-back. The technology now existed to do something outside the books and the films for existing fans."

She wants to 'give back' - which is laudable - but, when it comes to allowing negative comments from participants ...

... I wonder if she can take it? :-)

[the-bitter-word.livejournal.com]

For people still following this discussion, (http://ebooks.dreamwidth.org/profile)ebooks (http://ebooks.dreamwidth.org/) has a compendium of articles on how Rowling is revolutionizing the publishing industry. The coverage from Wired is especially detailed.

From one article (http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/06/pottermore-details/): "In each chapter there are interactive "moments." In the first book there are 44 of these moments. One such example includes Diagon Alley, where you can enter Gringots (the wizard bank) and pick up 175 galleons — the in-game currency. You can then use this to buy items on your shopping list from shops such as Wiseacre’s Wizarding Equipment."

I'm not sure how I feel about this. Sometimes I think reading should only involve using your imagination. That's why we get such brilliant and varied artistic depictions of Rowling's HP world instead of just photomanips or endless renderings of movie actors. I'm sure people won't lose their imaginations -- fanfic will still abound -- but I sometimes wonder if imagining can be restricted by something that is, at base, an enhanced entertainment event, or if the act of reading is lessened by the offer of constant distraction. I predate the digital revolution, however, so maybe I'm just out of step.