The AvaStar is Second Life's first newspaper (a weekly, actually) backed by a real world publisher - and not just some publisher: the company behind this famous tabloid is Axel Springer Verlag, publisher of Europe's biggest newspaper, the German "BILD Zeitung".
The idea was born in the late summer of 2006 in the management team of Bild.T-Online, the online publishing arm of BILD Zeitung. And while Second Life was near the peak of the the hight of the the Gartner hype cycle at that time it can still can be considered a daring experiment: a weekly tabloid created by a real world team of experienced journalists but with a target audience of only "avatars".
Develop a concept for a real tabloid, professionally done, created for the residents of the virtual world Second Life and created by the for the residents of the virtual world Second Life - taking them seriously, always treating persons and events similar to persons and events in physical reality.
The Otherland team, working together with the trend scouting agency CScout, provided consulting services, developed the master concept for The AvaStar, was responsible for creative direction and lead project management for the first big German project in Second Life.
We developed the architectural concept for the AvaStar's main building and the editorial offices and created one of Second Life's most spectacular (but sensible) "office buildings" together with one if the most experiences team of Second Life builders from Aimee Weber Studio.
One and a half year after its launch, The AvaStar ist still one of the most popular e-magazines about virtual worlds. In its first year it has added a German edition which is wildly popular in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It has extended its reach to other virtual worlds besides Second Life (Entropia, Kaneva and There) and has switched to a web publishing format (plese check www.the-avastar.com).
The original concept - providing a tasteful yellow-press magazine which takes virtual worlds 'seriously' - is alive and still going strong.
DISCLAIMER: The project "The AvaStar" was done, while the participating members of The Otherland Group were still with their former employer, Pixelpark AG resp. Elephant Seven AG.
