Kami Harbinger

I just finished reading the AvaStar (<http://www.the-avastar.com/>, no link because I don't want them to have any googlejuice)... Their obnoxious press release claims it's "the first professional publication", which is a total lie; depending on what you mean by "professional", it was either Second Life Herald née Alphaville Herald, or Reuters, and more recently In The Grid, Metaverse Messenger, and SL Pixel Pulse. There's many more, but that's what's on my regular reading list. It's simply retarded to claim any priority over these existing publications. AvaStar is merely one of many rags published at SL residents.

So, that aside, what's the paper like? Is it worth L$150?

It's crap.

Newbies will learn more from just reading the SL Knowledge Base and the aforementioned free periodicals. Experienced residents will find it pointless and condescending. Their "business tips" might be suitable for a child making a lemonade stand, but are obvious and a waste of time to say to adults trying to do real business. The commentary on 2 million Residents is empty noise, and doesn't Catherine Linden have some real work to do, anyway, not stand around talking to these bozos?

The ads and the back-page girl are all fully-clothed. This would be expected in a non-SL publication, but it's actually shocking to see this kind of modesty in SL. The first SL tabloid, Second Life Herald's Post 6 Grrrl pinups (here's another if you're not into catgirls) are far more... Well, more.

And then there's the price for this pile of electrons, all 31 pages of it, including the cover and non-pornographic girlie pic. You can grab it from their website for free as a PDF, and have something almost readable, or, this is the great bit, you could spend L$150 of your hard-earned camping-chair money on it in SL!

If they were aiming at professionals in SL, they've failed miserably at the content. If they were aiming at newbies, they've failed miserably at the pricing. The advertising rates are astronomical, so expect either a gigantic drop in rates before the next issue, or a totally ad-free issue. I don't know who'd ever buy this. Certainly not me.

For even less generous commentary about the publishers and their corporate tool Aimee Weber, see The First Second Life Tabloid, Second Life Herald and the links in their comments.

I slept. I dreamed I had a robot brain, not a horrible decaying meat brain like you disgusting fleshy things. I was very happy. I woke up and realized how boned I am... I'm one of you mammals. This sucks.