Ever wondered what J.K. Rowling thought of all the Harry Potter fanfic and roleplaying forums? Did you imagine she might have seen them as the natural extension of the franchise once the books had finished and the last movie was beginning to air?
Right now we’re waiting to see what the next thing in the Harry Potter experience will be. There is a mysterious countdown clock on YouTube. It’s due to finish in June 23rd.
The Pottermore.com site simply promises that something is coming soon.
There are clues though. As EW.com are reporting the trademark application for the website explains a lot.
“…providing multiple-user access to a global computer information network, […] on-line chat rooms and electronic bulletin boards for transmission of messages among users in the field of general interest [and] on-line facilities for real-time interaction with other computer users concerning topics of general interest.”
It’s easy to fit keywords in Pottermore too. Potter Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Experience.
What do you think? Compelling?
Can they pull something like this off without tapping traditional RPG experts? Have they reached out to Wizards of the Coast owners Hasbro? After all; if they want to extend the franchise via forum RPGs (or something more modern) then they could tap a small fortune of gaming books.
There were rumors that a big secret project that Turbine (LotRO) was working on was related to Harry Potter. Mostly it was wishful thinking for Potter fans, with no hard evidence. It mostly came to be when several LotRO developers had big schedule changes for ‘a secret unrelated project’ that they refused to elaborate about. The rumors got louder when WB bought Turbine, given that they’re the ones responsible for the movies.
The wording looks like more of an online community website, but that doesn’t seem to be worth such a big fanfare. (no pun intended)
My concerns around the wording is that you need to make the claim trademark worthy – that sometimes corrupts the language. I admit that a fully fledged RPG may well be too geeky for the mainstream audience!
Indeed, I don’t really see the legions of Potter fans flocking to a MMORPG. It’ll never really capture the feeling of the books. The other reason why I’d lean against it being a game is that it would probably NOT be Ms Rowling making the announcement, in my opinion.
I always used to refer to any sort of Potter MMORPG as ‘SchoolSim’ given that most of what was going on was actually just studying and classes. :)