Can't Wait! JK Rowling's 'Pottermore' details revealed: Harry Potter e-books and more (via Wired UK)

Excerpt from Olivia Solon's article in Wired UK:

"...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.

On the journey to Hogwarts you can explore a virtual train carriage, finding digital trinkets such as magic beans and a different spell cards that you can add to your personalised trunk for use later. The trunk can be accessed on your profile page which shows all of your friends, digital wallet, all of your digital items, details about the wand you have and the house you are in.

The Sorting Hat -- which allocates users to a Hogwarts house -- is a lot of fun. You go through a series of multiple choice questions to assess your character. Based on your unique responses you get allocated a house -- Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin. I volunteered to be sorted into a house in the press conference and got sorted into Gryffindor.

Having been sorted into a house, you can challenge fellow students to wizard duels or by successfully mixing potions in order to win points for you house. This part seems to play a little like a multiplayer game -- with leagues of point winners competing against each other.

You can also see what your friends are doing on Pottermore -- you can see where they are in the storyline and go and meet them should you so wish.

Rowling took a hands-on approach to Pottermore and came up with questions for the aforementioned Sorting Hat and for the Wand Chooser -- which selects the appropriate wand for each user for one of thousands of possible combinations. All of these extra details appear to be the Harry Potter encyclopaedia that Rowling has alluded to in the past. TH_NK has previously worked with Sony to create Little Big Map -- a huge Google Maps mash-up which allows fans of the game Little Big Planet to connect with each other.

Pottermore will be first opened in beta on 31 July (Harry's birthday) to a million fans who will be required to find a Magical Quill in an online treasure hunt. They will be able to feedback their comments and criticisms of the site in order to shape the final look and feel of the website before it opens to everyone on 1 October. This will also be when the Pottermore shop will open, allowing people to purchase the e-books and digital audiobooks in a selection of languages. The second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, will go live in early 2012. Other books will follow later..."

via wired.co.uk

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales