Pottermore News

Here is our Weekly Roundup for this week, May 12-18…

This was a slow news week (only one news story) but we did find a few things on the Internet that might interest you.

News on our site:

Pottermore wins the Digital Strategy of the Year Award at The Bookseller Industry Awards

Pottermore picked up Digital Strategy of the Year at The Bookseller Industry Awards on Monday for their outstanding work on the groundbreaking Pottermore Shop.

Good eReader wrote a very nice article about the win that praised the Pottermore team on their strategy for the Pottermore Shop and discussed how the strategy made the Pottermore Shop a game changer. You can read the article here.

Harry Potter News elsewhere:

Universal survey reveals details on Harry Potter expansion (Orlando Business Journal)

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone early edition shows bear as Hufflepuff sign (SnitchSeeker)

Jo was featured on the UK TV special “The Many Faces of Robbie Coltrane”:

Photo creds to @JoRowlingRocks on the Twittaaa (acciorowling on the Tumblaaa)

Interesting/Fun articles found online this week by yours truly (All worth a read!):

Ron Weasley and Draco Malfoy are Fashion Models Now (BuzzFeed)

28 Things You Never Knew About How the Harry Potter Movies Were Made (Business Insider)

And finally, J.K. Rowling’s hand-written plot plan for ‘Order of the Phoenix’ resurfaced this week. It was originally posted on her old website several years back but once and while it is rediscovered and people are amazed as ever. Check it out!

Have a great week and a fun weekend! :)

I’m really getting annoyed at everyone complaining about Pottermore and Pottermore on PlayStation Home. Here’s the difference:

-If you want an online experience, an illustrated version of the books and some additional new content from J.K. Rowling, then your best bet is Pottermore.com. You’ll also get some interaction with other fans through social portals such as Common Rooms and the Great Hall. There are also a couple games available for play, including Potions and Wizard Dueling.

-If you want a hyper-interactive, MMORPG-like gaming experience where you can visit different parts of the Wizarding World with you’re own avatar and STILL get exclusive content from J.K. Rowling, then obviously the Pottermore PlayStation Home experience would be a better fit. There are also some different games and other features that are offered in the game as well.

Now, the second option comes at a price, but for (hopefully) obvious reasons. You are getting what you paid for, basically. You are getting a lot of extra features that the online version doesn’t offer because you paid money for it. If you pay money for it then quite frankly you deserve and earn it.

If you want the PlayStation Home experience, and are in a situation where you have the money to buy it, but are unwilling to pay the money for it, then stop complaining about it. 

For all those who don’t want to pay the money for a Playstation home experience, including myself, then you have the online experience. And by the way, give that thing a chance. It’s a pretty amazing site. So what? It’s obviously not what everyone wants, what you may want, but you’re getting it for free. They are offering you new content from J.K. Rowling for free. We all know they could’ve very well sold it in book form, put a $50 price tag on it and people would still buy it. Heck, I know for sure that I would buy it. But no, they were nice enough to give you the content for free, along with beautiful illustrations and not-that-bad games. (Come on, they’re not that terrible.) 

Be grateful that you get all of this for free. Be appreciative of all the hard work the Pottermore team puts into the site. They put their time and effort into it, and trust me when I say that they are working as fast as they can to put together the best they can.

So, basically; Reality check people. Get over yourselves.

Please note: I do understand that the vast majority of Pottermore users enjoy the site, appreciate the Pottermore team and their work, and are very grateful. It’s just that the opponents are so defined and stubborn and I was really on the verge of ranting, and this is my rant, so to speak. 

He is the weirdest thing I have ever seen.

But adorable.

“If there were other methods to gain points [rather] than collecting books/cards/potion ingredients/objects… that are accessible for users with a screen reader (that couldn’t use the mouse), I could help my dear house to gain more points. On the playstation home update for pottermore, there’s a quiz. Why is the quiz and extra content that’s available on “Book of Spells” etc. not available on Pottermore itself? If this were the case and if this were accessible for all users, not only for users that could use the mouse, also the blind (and other reading impaired) users could join the game and help their house with all their efforts to win the cup.”