Harry Potter Flies Under the Radar
by ted2112 HSM team writer
Pottermore is one of the biggest A-list names in Home, along with the BBC’s Doctor Who. They basically own the tv and movie tie-ins in Home. Like Doctor Who, Pottermore has been rolled out its content in waves, and with this last wave of content, they experienced a few problems.
The new wave included a personal house in Hogsmeade, all the houses Common Rooms, the great hall, and library additions to Hogwarts. Also two new games came with this second wave: The Chessboard Chamber and a really cool flying game through the Forbidden Forest.
Most of the issues that plagued the first and second wave have been fixed. The crashing on the loading screen in the Forbidden Forest game was primarily caused by the massive amount of people trying to access the game at once those first few days it opened, and the personal space issues have been resolved. These bugs are something that are unfortunately becoming the new norm in Home, but with these issues behind us, Pottermore is truly worth taking another look at.
The scope of Pottermore in Home is quite remarkable. With well over a dozen public spaces that include several games, a ton of free rewards ranging from clothing to active items Pottermore has made a huge investment in Home. It’s quite simply the largest franchise in Home right now.
The game’s architecture is rendered remarkably well. We have seen some doozies come and go in Home, but the attention to detail in Pottermore is done incredibly well. With a multi-billion dollar movie franchise to live up to, they had to nail it, otherwise it would look ridiculous. Also the Pottermore on-line game with its distinct art style also raised the bar quite high for what Pottermore would have to look like in Home; everything from the buildings to the movie made sound effects make Pottermore fire seamlessly on all cylinders.
The games of Pottermore are a creative mix of the books and movies. The Chessboard Chamber is taken right out of the pages of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone climatic ending and the potions mixing games and library games are a play on a theme of several of the Harry Potter films. The best game perhaps though is the flight through the Forbidden Forest and was made expressly for Home.
One of the biggest critiques of Pottermore has been that the franchise demands you immerse yourself in the story. This is different from most of Home’s content, where you can casually visit and play games as your own avatar. In Pottermore, you become wrapped up in the metaverse and everything from your clothing – which they provide free of charge – and the disabling of the group chat functions are designed to keep a sense of realism maintaining the fantasy world of Harry Potter. Everyone you see in Pottermore becomes a prop unto itself, establishing the overall feeling of the environment.
Whether you view this as an asset to the content or a liability, I think it’s purely a personal decision. For fans of the genre and the stories, Pottermore is a home run. The more casual players might feel the frustration of having to adhere to the rules set in place by Pottermore, but most I think love it simply for attention to detail and variety, and in the end, these rules are designed to make the experience ring truer for the players. There are many spaces and games in Home, but only one Harry Potter.
Pottermore, like its on-line game counterpart, is somewhat more geared towards a younger audience, and I feel that’s not such a bad thing. Diversity on any MMO has huge positive consequences, and to have a free and safe online experience can only build a loyal fan base for Home in general. Also, with the surge in more adult content in Home, this facet is an excellent counterbalance to have. We are all kids at heart, and gamers are gamers no matter what age we happen to be, old or young.
Interest in Home from these massive third parties legitimizes Home and paves the way for future investment. The movie and television spaces like Harry Potter, Doctor Who and Men in Black come to Home with a built in audience and are not only fun for ourselves, but expand the Home brand.
Harry Potter is a ton of fun to play and now that the initial lag due to the wave roll out have been worked out, it’s very much worth a second look.
August 27th, 2013 by ted2112 | 5 comments
ted2112 is a writer and a Bass player that has been both inspired and takes to heart Kurt Vonnegut words...."we are here on planet Earth to fart around, and don't let anyone tell you different."
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I agree that the Potter spaces are done very well. It shows that detail and good visuals are not impossiblein Home. Even shows up some of the ddevelopers that have been making money in Home for a lot longer too. I love the look of the Cottage space they put out, but I’ll never buy it because of the massive furniture restrictions that have been clamped on to the place. Shame really.
I’m guessing that much like the disabled group chat function in the public Potter spaces, the Cottage has had things disabled also in aid of protecting children from unsuitable content. Guess even the powers that be know how many children are running around Home regardless of the age restrictions.
Anyways, it’s good stuff for those into HP, and seems to be going strong.
I’m not a huge Harry potter fan but I love these spaces in Home. I’ve spent enough time in them to want to see the commons rooms so I signed up for pottermore. The library space is in my opinion one of the very best spaces in Home. I don’t think you have to be a huge fan if the books and movies to enjoy these spaces
I just started 2 or 3 weeks ago my PsHome Pottermore adventure. The places look awsome indeed. The games are fun too. But for me the group&club chat and private message limitation is a real problem. I think we all agree the heart of Home is it’s users and the social interaction. Many times I left “early” because I wanted to be availabe for my friends.
If the reason behind this was to protect the children I seriously don’t think it can be that effective.
Guess that depends on how reliant you are on voice-chat within Home. Personally, I prefer the keyboard method as it gives everyone time to digest the information, and nothing gets lost from weird pronunciations or that (constantly) annoying cut-off that happens every 5mins in Home.
A little ironic that old fashioned typing is the most fluid way to use Home when it comes to conversation I suppose.
Not a big fan of voice chat myself athou some of my friends are. Thing is evrything else than typing in local is blocked.
Example:
Lately I start my home day at the library. So when I get there it show to everyone on the club channel I’m on. Unless my friends open their nav to see where I am they don’t know I wont see anything they type in club.
Sorry I used chat instead of channel in my post… I meant channel.