fummeltunte's picture
fummeltunte from Seattle is reading The Left Hand of Darkness October 2, 2011 - 1:20am

I added this under the Entertainment section, since it's kinda a lit/ interactive game experience. Is anyone here involved with the Pottermore beta? 

Just to give it some background, Pottermore is currently in beta until sometime in October, then it's going public. Right now it gives HP fans a place to discuss the books, submit fanart, explore extra written content by JK Rowling, and play some games, like Potions brewing. There is also a combat system with Wizarding Duels, but it's currently under construction. 

 

What do you think of authors getting involved with their readers on this level? Would you ever want an online interactive world based off you fiction?

Fylh's picture
Fylh from from from is reading is from is reading is reading is reading reading is reading October 2, 2011 - 1:26am

Pottermore baffles me. Not its existence — it's a wonderfully cynical way to cash in on your success — but its popularity. People keep moaning about the "maximum capacity" messages they get when they try to log in. How can there be that many people trying to get in on this?

It's not necessarily a bad thing. I'd love to play around on a site pretending to be based on, say, Snow Crash. (Or maybe that's what the internet is...) But it's astounding to me that it's already so popular.

fummeltunte's picture
fummeltunte from Seattle is reading The Left Hand of Darkness October 2, 2011 - 1:40am

I think it was poor planning on Sony's part....they did give out over a million invites to the beta. This week they handed out passes to the last of the invitees....and now the site's been crashing left and right. It took a long time for Rowling to build up to this momentum-- I think the reason it's so popular is because it appeals to not just readers but the movie fans as well. Half the people I know on it have never touched the books. They've only seen the films. Pretty insane. 

 

 

Kirk's picture
Admin
Kirk from Pingree Grove, IL is reading The Book Of The New Sun October 2, 2011 - 9:13am

I doubt it was poor planning on Sony's part. When you develop something like this, that has such a large user base, one of the things you do during beta is intentionally throw more users at your servers than your servers can handle.

This way, when it goes live, they already have a good feel for how many users can be active on a given server at any time. It also helps them identify load issues they wouldn't have been able to see otherwise.

Where the problem is, is that people don't understand what a beta is anymore. Beta has become synonymous with "sneak preview".

I'll show my age here - but in the old days, you had to prove you were worthy of being a beta candidate. You had to provide system profiles, fill out questionnaires, tell them other betas you had been involved with prior, etc. Basically they wanted people who knew what was expected.

fummeltunte's picture
fummeltunte from Seattle is reading The Left Hand of Darkness October 2, 2011 - 5:44pm

Yeah Kirk, I definitely think you've hit the nail on the head about the beta misconception. There's been a lot of whinging about housepoints and cheating, but it seems like cheating is an ideal here, because the developers are able to figure out all the loophole during this period and fix them up. 

I was surprised that when I "found the magic quill" and signed up, there was really no questionnaire asking what sorts of devices we'd be accessing Pottermore on. I suppose they can pull that from site statistics, but yes, there was very little in the way of a filter to sign up for the Pottermore beta. 

A. Mason Carpenter's picture
A. Mason Carpenter from USA is reading The Power of Myth, by Joseph Campbell October 2, 2011 - 8:04pm

A short list of universes that would make fun MMOs.

A Scanner Darkly - P K Dick

Saga of the Seven Suns - K J Anderson

Naked Lunch - William S. Borroughs

Clockwork Century Universe - Cherie Priest

I wish I had a talent and the patience for game programming.  It is a wonderful and still largely unexplored medium for the detailed expression of complex ideas.

lyndonriggall's picture
lyndonriggall from Tasmania is reading Going Bovine by Libba Bray October 3, 2011 - 12:52am

I think Pottermore is a genius creation.  I loved buying a wand, getting sorted, generally re-living the glorious moments of first discovering those books as a child.  Then it was three hours later, and I had done all there was to do and was sick of it.

Love Pottermore - curious about the longevity of it.

N.L. Vaught's picture
N.L. Vaught from Charlotte, NC is reading All sorts October 6, 2011 - 8:39pm

Anyone with a pottermore account:

Add Me!

Queenstrike96 (lame name, i know. but my friend made the account)

I'm a slytherin! Add meee

fummeltunte's picture
fummeltunte from Seattle is reading The Left Hand of Darkness October 9, 2011 - 5:34am

Haha, they didn't give people the choice on usernames. They automatically generate "magical" sounding ones. So I'm stuck with WatchUnicorn55. Got Slytherin as well-- let's go terrorize people with our amazing potions abilities. :D