“I Solemnly Swear I Am Up to No Good!”

Call me nerdy. Call me a loser. Call me any derogatory comment you’d like, but I have to get something off of my chest. I currently partake in a Harry Potter roleplaying site. This site is used to write backstories, develop characters, roleplay, use creative writing to finish homework assignments in the Harry Potter world, and live vicariously through a fantasy world. Given that my current major study is fulfilling a dream of becoming a writer, this kind of site is perfect for honing my craft.

Now, on this site, you start out as an eleven year old student that becomes sorted into Hogwarts. After finishing the sorting ceremony, you immediately begin forming your character and attending school. There is a general chat where people can talk in and out of character, and you can browse different shops from Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. In those shops you can buy different items from the Harry Potter world. Anything other than food is more or less there for show, but it can be nice to have certain things to fit in your roleplay.

The classes described in the Harry Potter books and movies are also available. Each class is run by a professor, and all of the professors are people on the website that have graduated from the school. Each class requires certain materials from the shops which you can buy with the Harry Potter currency of galleons, sickles, and knuts. You start out with 500 galleons but can earn more by doing homework and completing riddles and anagrams.

Once you enroll in the class, you can complete homework assigned by the professor. Now, each class assignment has different requirements. Some of them want you to write about the information in the form of a diary entry, a Q&A format, or an RPG (or roleplaying game). One class, such as Flying, really has a lot of freedom where you can write a roleplay about your character and his or her experience learning to fly a broom.

Throughout the site there are random areas of Hogwarts and other magical locations where you can set up a roleplay with other people. Now, you might think this site is nothing more than a weird fetish to allow people to play out their inner most sexual Harry Potter fantasies. Even though I’m sure some of this does exist on the website, I have come to find that most of these roleplays are really interesting. You have to keep in mind these are young kids between the ages of 11-13 for the most part, so sex isn’t necessarily a prevalent part of the site. Instead, a good majority of the roleplays are really interesting topics about students and the eccentricities of student life at Hogwarts.

So far, my character has participated in a few roleplays where he met a new friend in the Library late one night, learned to fly a broom from that same friend, and had a run in with a Gryffindor student (mine is a Slytherin) in the hallways. One of my favorite topics so far included a run in with a girl in the Slytherin common room where my character, who stutters and is socially awkward, had a conversation all in writing with her.

The site does an amazing job of giving you the freedom, with SOME restrictions, to work on great creative writing while developing a character. The entire thing is a perfect tool for actors, writers, and lovers of the Harry Potter universe while providing an incredible place for social interaction. Many of us, myself included, don’t have a lot of friends and dread being out in the world full of social interaction. This site is a perfect fallacy that allows for making friends. I have already made good friends on the site that I enjoy talking to both in and out of character.

There are several other aspects of the website that I should point out to help encourage you to join. There are positions you can earn throughout the school that allow you become a part of the staff. Like I stated previously, each of the professors are actual people on the site that set up the assignments. Some of the other positions in the magical world are also all players on the site. Some of them are:

Minister of Magic
Headmaster/Headmistress
Heads of Houses
Prefects
Journalists for the Daily Prophet and Quibbler
Plot Team (they set up events for the site to keep the site interesting)

A few other smaller positions are available such as librarians (my character is currently a librarian that helps write the books for the library on the site). Just like the actual Harry Potter world, there is a house cup where the different houses compete. You can gain points by submitting and grading homework, and completing the aforementioned riddles and anagrams. Of course, this is a website of nothing but intellectual works, so you can guess that Ravenclaws have a distinct advantage on the website for the house cup. So if you’re a natural Ravenclaw, have fun with your homework.

There really isn’t much more to say about the site. I have a few other discussions I’d like to talk about within the blog about the site such as the importance of roleplaying and taking pride in one’s house and heritage. However, I’ll leave those for another time and simply encourage you to try the site out for yourself. If you enjoy writing, acting out a character, and exploring the world of Harry Potter in a whole new light, then come try out the site. Who knows, maybe we’ll even be able to write out a roleplay together and help develop in depth characters.

Visit here for the US version of the site:

http://www.worldofpotter.com

Visit here for the EU version of the site:

http://www.worldofpotter.eu

 

I really hope to see you there!