A Glossary of Virtual Terms

afk – a moment or more when the master mind is ‘away from the keyboard’

alt – from “alternate”, or alternate avatar; many residents of Second Life have additional avatars for various uses.

avatar - an animated digital “object” representing the embodiment of the user in a virtual environment, controlled by the user

cam – for ‘camera’; a verb used to describe the act of sending your camera around your environment to see more detail, or to zoom out to see the entirety of it

code warrior - a slang term for programmers (a derivative of the term ‘road warrior’ from the Mad Max movie series)

First Life – Real life, also known as atomic life, meat life, and a few other choice terms

IM - instant message (can be a noun or a verb)

inworld - the state of being logged in and active in Second Life

Linden Time – the time zone of Second Life, which is actually Pacific Time, Linden Labs is located in San Francisco, CA

LM – a landmark; a beacon marking a specific location in Second Life, and the teleport shortcut that takes you there

metaverse - a virtual environment where humans, as avatars, interact with each other in a 3D space (a term coined by Neal Stephenson in his 1992 novel Snow Crash)

newbie – a slang term for a newcomer to virtual worlds, or to the internet itself

prim – a virtual solid object of any shape, used as a building block in Second Life (an abbreviation of the word ‘primitive’, which is part of the lexicon used in geometry)

rez - to bring an object into 3D space within Second Life (commonly attributed to the movie Tron)

Second Life -the virtual world created by Linden Labs in 2003, now host to millions of virtual residents

sim – a region in Second Life (an abbreviation of the word ’simulator’)

teleport, or tp – the ability to travel instantly to another destination in a virtual world, distinct from the ability to fly

virtual world - a computer-based simulated environment based on the real world

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