Will Ross here. Welcome to The Traveling Avatar’s Quick and Dirty Tips for a Better Second Life. On this show we discuss tips and tricks for the game Second Life, created by Linden Labs. Today’s topic: skating and face planting--flight tips for the busy avatar.

But first, an important public service announcement:

Every day across Second Life another male avatar is born missing a vital part of their anatomy. (Voice 1)“A friend of mine lifted a can of soda, then realized to his horror that he couldn’t even set it down.” Without this part, how can a man truly be a man? (Voice 2) “Sure I can do a pull up…but what then? (sobbing) What then?” Should we have to live another day with the shameful knowledge of being born without…triceps?  Please, write your local Linden Representative and demand triceps today.

Paid for by Citizens for Anatomical Accuracy

Flight is probably one of the hardest things to master in Second Life. In fact, most first flights have more in common with the Hindenberg disaster than anything that happened at Kittyhawk. But don’t worry, we’ve all gone face first into a building to two, or landed in someone's living room by accident.  Although I can’t teach you how to fly, that just takes practice, what I can teach you is how to do is leap and how to fall with some style. 

First, the long jump. When done correctly, you can even use this maneuver to skate along the ground at high speed. What you're going to do, while moving forward, is tap your fly key (nine is the number 7 with the number lock turned off.) Now you’ll take off, climbing at a slow rate while moving forward quickly. When you’re about half way to your destination, typically when you can see it, keep holding forward, but start slowly tapping the fly key off and on. This will start to angle your decent down. When timed right, you’re going to make a long horizontal leap to your destination (and it looks really cool too.) You can string a series of these small leaps together to skate across an area, kind of like the video game Tribes. 

As for falling, the face plant that you do when you hit the ground too fast makes you look about as cool as Bob Dole at a rap battle.  However, it's way too slow for me to press the “descend” key when I’m trying to get somewhere fast.  So here’s what I do: as I fall, I rhythmically tap the fly key off and on (similar to the long jump) just fast enough to keep it from triggering the “freefall” animation. Now, when I’m getting close to the ground I tap it faster which slows down my descent and keeps me from face planting in front of my friends and loved ones.

Today’s term to know is ”griefer.”  A griefer is a Second Lifer who plays only to disrupt the game for other players. Shooting in a public place, running around naked, typing in all caps, and caging people are all things that will get you a reputation as a griefer. They’ll also probably get you introduced to my friend “Mister Orbiter.”

Today’s etiquette tip is about pushing. Bumping into people or pushing them is considered just as rude in Second Life as it is in first life. If you do accidentally push someone, just apologize. And blame lag. That’s what I do.

That’s it for this episode! A quick note, we’ve had some issues with the forum software to leave comments. It tends to time out after about a minute. If it does, just enter the new authorization number and it should register the comment just fine. Otherwise, Send your feedback or question to secondlife@quickanddirtytips.com, or our comment line is 206-888-6975, that’s 206-888-MYSL. 

The Traveling Avatar’s Quick and Dirty Tips for a Better Second Life is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips network, so be sure to check out other great shows like Grammar Girl, Money Girl, and the newest QDnow show “The Mighty Mommy’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Practical Parenting” at QuickAndDirtyTips.com.  I’m not sure if her tips will help you raise a well adjusted prim baby, but the first episode is about taking family photos and if you’ve ever tried to get a group of Second Lifers to sit still for a snapshot and just wanted to tear your prim hair out, you’ll appreciate how well the advice translates. 

So until next time remember, if you finish shopping and you’ve still got Lindens left, you’re not trying hard enough.   

The Traveling Avatar theme song is B-Roll by Kevin MacLeod.