Hey everyone,
I have decided to study Pottermore.com. This is a fascinating site for those who wish that the world of Harry Potter were real. There is a wide range of people who participate in this online world. Harry Potter was one of those rare phenomenons that engaged all ages. This site is similar in that respect. There are more than a million people playing in the Gryffindor house alone and for those of you who are deprived of Harry Potter knowledge there are four houses...so do the math.
The site is set up as a game. There are sections to read about the books and to read clips of the series. In those sections there is a number of tasks to accomplish. There are items to discover for missions later as well as there is exclusive content from the Harry Potter author, J.K. Rowling. There is an overall goal in the game to work with other members of your house to earn "house points" and win the "house cup." I plan to play the game (in fact I have gotten rather sucked into it already) to get into the real world that this site offers to Harry Potter fans. There is also the ability to directly chat with other members of your house to help each other complete different tasks and to collaborate in earning house points. There is also a super fun section on wizard dueling (you duel other "students").
This site is interesting to me because I was heart broken when I finished the last Harry Potter book. This site is awesome for Harry Potter nerds (yes, I am somewhat of a nerd). This site offers the world of digital literacy an interesting insight into how people of all ages and backgrounds communicate and work together to complete the common mission of winning the House Cup. How people interact in an online environment is central to digital literacy studies and Pottermore.com (I think) would be an interesting site to explore this concept.
'Til next time...
I loooooove Harry Potter. And pottermore totally rocks, I've been playing since it opened like a year and a half ago. I can vouch for the addictiveness, I have delayed studying for finals because pottermore needed to be played, and on one occasion, I may have spent about 90 minutes straight trying to get a gnome to fly over the hedge. Anyway... I'm curious as to how specifically you intend to focus on community with pottermore, considering that although millions play it, its a one-person game. In all my experience with pottermore, the only person-to-person interaction that I've seen (not counting the duels, as those are usually wordless) are the comments that people post at the end of each section. There's certainly no lack of action there, so I can't imagine that you'd run out of material. Is there some group that focuses on winning the house cup that I haven't come across yet. I'm very interested to see how your project turns out, best of luck from Slytherin House!
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