POTTERMORE!

OMG! So, I've officially been dying since yesterday when I found out the first three letters!

Now, however, I'm torn and trying to control the excitement.

My first thought was that JKR wouldn't do a social networking or fan site. She knows the online HP community and works with our fansites now. She loves The Leaky Cauldron and Mugglenet, so why would she make them obsolete by creating her own social networking/fan site? It doesn't make sense.

Then, I thought of the encyclopedia. It would be awesome to have this, especially if it is what the website is all about. We'd get it earlier than we would in book form because she can just add to it as she finishes working on an entry. It has been suggested that POTTERMORE stands for Potter Massive Online Reference Encyclopedia. I personally believe that Pottermore HAS to stand for something. JKR is obviously a very creative person that likes to surprise fans. Squashing "Potter" and "Forevermore" into one word is neither creative nor a surprise. So, it has to mean something else. "Reference Encyclopedia" is a little...redundant, though (what other kinds of encyclopedias do you know of?). And why would she publish it online and not make money off of it? I mean, I know she's rich and all that, but I think that might be in the back of her mind too, even if she went and donated all the profits to charity or something.

My personal favorite speculation is that POTTERMORE stands for Potter Multiplayer Online Roleplay Experience, meaning she'd be making the MMORPG that Warner Brothers and others inside the HP franchise have been going on about for years! And the trademark information found online seems to kind of back this, in my opinion. As this would be what I would see in the Mirror of Erised, I would TOTALLY be on board for that! OMG! I'd have no social life, but I'd totally be on board!

EDIT: It's also been said that Akamai Technologies (who was behind Lord of the Rings Online and a few other MMOs) is involved due to the fact that they own the IP address linked with Pottermore.

Also, I can't see why JKR would spend money and time on getting some amazing owl graphics for a website and countdown when the graphics aren't linked to anything at all, but that might just be me.

Yesterday, some "preview pics" were released which dashed my hopes of a MMORPG. They looked pretty much exactly like JKR's site now, which is...nice, but not "breathtaking", "fantastic", or any of the other over-the-top adjectives that have been used to describe it by the fan sites who have seen previews. Luckily, it has been revealed by the site that released them that these were fakes! *breathes a sigh of relief*

The reason I'm trying to control my excitement is because if it's not an MMORPG, I don't want to spend the first few hours after the announcement/opening upset about what it's not. I want to be thrilled about what it is. I don't think there's any going back, though (and the 3D animated owls on the site and the youtube countdown do look like it might be all MMORPG-like...someone make me stop!).