As my course is finished for the year, but everyone else is still revising/working, I have become quite bored. So, I decided to finally join Pottermore. I had been really excited when the concept was first announced and eagerly awaited October, when the beta was opened to a select few. I did try to join but I never received my welcoming email and so was unable. I hear this happened to a lot of people, how unfair! But now it's open to everybody so I tried again, and I am now a member of Pottermore, yippee! My name is HexOak29860 if you really fancy adding me.
I mainly joined Pottermore so I could find out all the new things that J.K has added, like back stories of characters and extra facts. I admit some of them are very interesting, I liked how Petunia and Vernon met, and learning about McGonagall's childhood. But really, the interesting facts are few and far between. Lots of them can be found on the Harry Potter Lexicon.
I love the Harry Potter stories but I've read them so many times before that I don't need to read them again on the computer. I skipped over those parts of Pottermore. The drawings that accompanied the story were good though, but you never saw an of the character's faces, which is a bit eerie, especially when Hagrid is looming in dark corners.
The tasks you have to do can be a bit tedious too, like opening your Gringotts account or buying spell books. Buying school books isn't fun in real life and isn't fun in a fake wizard world, either. You can buy an animal too, in fact you have to, as it will become your profile picture. I went for a cat because some of the owls look a bit creepy. Also, you don't need an owl as you don't send any owl post. Sometimes I do wish there were magical dogs, and not just three-headed ones.
While in Diagon Alley there is one exciting bit that comes up - getting your wand. Obviously it doesn't happen the same way it does in the book. Instead you have to answer questions. And these are some pretty random and obscure questions. Luckily there aren't that many to answer, and they have some funky drawings too. Then ta-da! You have your wand. My wand is Rowan wood with a Unicorn core. Here more facts from J.K are made available, you get to learn some new things about the woods used and wand cores. There's some bits about Ollivander, too. I don't want to ruin reading about it for yourself though.
So, you have all your school equipment and wand, what next? Hogwarts! This is the bit everyone's really excited about - getting sorted. Now, my boyfriend and sister had already done this back in October, and they got sorted into Hufflepuff and Slytherin, so I knew what to expect. These questions are equally random as the wand ones are. I don't really understand how some of them would affect what house you would be put in, black or white? Dawn or dusk? Bit weird. Some questions are interesting, like what superpower would you have? I chose talking to animals because then you could get animals to listen in on other people's conversations. Maybe that's a bit Slytherin of me after all. I was a bit nervous as I'll be honest, I didn't want to be in Hufflepuff, house-ist I know! But luckily for me I was put into RAVENCLAW! Woo hoo! It's the one I wanted to be in really. I'm not brave enough for Gryffindor, or cunning enough for Slytherin, and I suppose I could have been in Hufflepuff to be fair. But I much prefer Ravenclaw.
Now you can start earning house points. So far I have only earned 36, but some people have earned 230,766. You do this by finding books and chocolate frog cards. You can also get them for winning at duels but I'm pretty bad at casting spells. That's actually quite a fun part of Pottermore, spells and potion making. They're both quite tricky and awkward but strangely addictive. I am determined to win at a wizard's duel eventually!
Anyway, after that I really skimmed through the rest of the book. You can comment on each section and chapter. You get a lot of comments, mainly things like: LOVED IT!!!!! DUMBLEDORE IS MY FAVOURITE!!!! I LOVE HARRY!!! It can be a bit overwhelming. I love Harry Potter as much as the next person but I don't fancy screaming about it caps lock.
In the end, going through the whole book was more of a chore than anything. I wanted to really like Pottermore but it was more like Potterbore. Only the first book is available at the moment and I'm not sure I'll be fussed when the other six are put up. I think I'll just stick to reading the books and watching the films. They're enough for me.
I mainly joined Pottermore so I could find out all the new things that J.K has added, like back stories of characters and extra facts. I admit some of them are very interesting, I liked how Petunia and Vernon met, and learning about McGonagall's childhood. But really, the interesting facts are few and far between. Lots of them can be found on the Harry Potter Lexicon.
I love the Harry Potter stories but I've read them so many times before that I don't need to read them again on the computer. I skipped over those parts of Pottermore. The drawings that accompanied the story were good though, but you never saw an of the character's faces, which is a bit eerie, especially when Hagrid is looming in dark corners.
The tasks you have to do can be a bit tedious too, like opening your Gringotts account or buying spell books. Buying school books isn't fun in real life and isn't fun in a fake wizard world, either. You can buy an animal too, in fact you have to, as it will become your profile picture. I went for a cat because some of the owls look a bit creepy. Also, you don't need an owl as you don't send any owl post. Sometimes I do wish there were magical dogs, and not just three-headed ones.
While in Diagon Alley there is one exciting bit that comes up - getting your wand. Obviously it doesn't happen the same way it does in the book. Instead you have to answer questions. And these are some pretty random and obscure questions. Luckily there aren't that many to answer, and they have some funky drawings too. Then ta-da! You have your wand. My wand is Rowan wood with a Unicorn core. Here more facts from J.K are made available, you get to learn some new things about the woods used and wand cores. There's some bits about Ollivander, too. I don't want to ruin reading about it for yourself though.So, you have all your school equipment and wand, what next? Hogwarts! This is the bit everyone's really excited about - getting sorted. Now, my boyfriend and sister had already done this back in October, and they got sorted into Hufflepuff and Slytherin, so I knew what to expect. These questions are equally random as the wand ones are. I don't really understand how some of them would affect what house you would be put in, black or white? Dawn or dusk? Bit weird. Some questions are interesting, like what superpower would you have? I chose talking to animals because then you could get animals to listen in on other people's conversations. Maybe that's a bit Slytherin of me after all. I was a bit nervous as I'll be honest, I didn't want to be in Hufflepuff, house-ist I know! But luckily for me I was put into RAVENCLAW! Woo hoo! It's the one I wanted to be in really. I'm not brave enough for Gryffindor, or cunning enough for Slytherin, and I suppose I could have been in Hufflepuff to be fair. But I much prefer Ravenclaw.
Now you can start earning house points. So far I have only earned 36, but some people have earned 230,766. You do this by finding books and chocolate frog cards. You can also get them for winning at duels but I'm pretty bad at casting spells. That's actually quite a fun part of Pottermore, spells and potion making. They're both quite tricky and awkward but strangely addictive. I am determined to win at a wizard's duel eventually!
Anyway, after that I really skimmed through the rest of the book. You can comment on each section and chapter. You get a lot of comments, mainly things like: LOVED IT!!!!! DUMBLEDORE IS MY FAVOURITE!!!! I LOVE HARRY!!! It can be a bit overwhelming. I love Harry Potter as much as the next person but I don't fancy screaming about it caps lock.
In the end, going through the whole book was more of a chore than anything. I wanted to really like Pottermore but it was more like Potterbore. Only the first book is available at the moment and I'm not sure I'll be fussed when the other six are put up. I think I'll just stick to reading the books and watching the films. They're enough for me.
