10/17/14

Pottermore's Trick or Treat: Disappoint or Alienate?

This was going to be EXCITING. For the first time they were engaging with fans and users of the website on a greater level than just posting news articles on their Facebook Page or the Pottermore Insider.  This was the kind of engagement or activities to keep interests piqued between chapter and book releases that members have been asking for almost three years. Pottermore even made a Facebook Event that included a poll which was another first for them. Speculation abounded for days about what these potential tricks or treats could be.

However every active user who duels was confused and a bit excited when on 15th  October (a day early) the duelling completely changed. Now this could have been extremely exciting, were Pottermore being extra tricksy with us by not only tricking us but tricking us a day early? Alas, this is not the case. As we found out later, this is a permanent change to duelling. In my opinion, this was a huge wasted opportunity for Pottermore, they could have made such a thing part of the Trick or Treat and then announced that it would be permanent a few days later. I think this would have definitely lived up to the Hype that their announcement and subsequent creation of the event generated.

Instead on the first day they released their first trick:

A scrambled up image that anyone with a basic knowledge of mythology, let alone Harry Potter should and would have been able to solve as was quickly proved by the comments under their post. What kind of trick is this, unless Pottermore are being very tricky by getting us to lower our guard? However, given Pottermore’s history and their previously missed opportunities, I highly doubt that this is the case.

So, then we waited for the next day’s surprise which should ostensibly be a treat. We were treated to the announcement that on the 31st we would be receiving 4 new spells (more on this to come!). As Pottermore user Jr Ray (Okie) put it, ‘this is an IOU treat’.  When I first heard about these treats I assumed they would actually be something ‘material’ or that would actually be useable (such as collectable unicorn horns) on the day when we get the treat, not an announcement of what is coming!

To me this shows how out of touch Pottermore is with its users and user demographic. It was advertised as a children’s site as per the numerous images of Rowling with a group of children gathered around a Sony laptop. 

Do children psychologically react well to IOU treats? I’d wager, no. Yes Pottermore may see a gradual resurgence of users which is what the only goal of this whole event could be. However, from a customer service or business perspective I feel that they are cheating their users (especially those ones who log in everyday) with the promise of Treats (or Tricks) that will not come until a later date. In addition, the majority of people that I interact on the site with daily are college/ university students or older. This people are able to see through the transparency of Pottermore’s actions even faster and easier than children are able to. Instead of reaching out to such users, Pottermore, through what could conceivably be argued as false or unfulfilled promises has further alienated this user base and will make them or cynical or sceptical about future events that Pottermore decides to run. Furthermore, Pottermore needs to keep these users moderately happy as they provide the bulk of the daily visitors to the site and thus generate the revenue that Pottermore needs to be able to keep running at all. Thus, while I don’t want to deliver a conclusive judgement yet (there is still over a week of Treats and Tricks to be announced and carried out by Pottermore) all I can say is hopefully they will use the first two days as a stepping stone to make the event reach its full potential.

What did you imagine Pottermore's Trick or Treat event would be like? Let us know in the comments!


1 comment:

Tell me what you think?