72 newyork| march30–april12, 2020
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Re- create YourHigh Schoolon ‘Minecraft’BYBRIANFELDMANanyonewitheyeswilltellyouthat the
BronxHighSchoolofScienceonlyhas
threefloors.Butfreshmenare toldthat
thereis a secretfourthfloorthat housesa
swimmingpool.Togetthere,you’d need
tobuya passfroma seniorwhoknowsthe
ropes.It wasjust a bitoflighthazinguntil
earlierthismonth,whena groupofstu-
dentsdecidedtobuildthefabledpoolas
partofa largerproject, reconstructinga
virtualcampusonMinecraftoftheschool
inwhichtheycannolongerset foot.
“Ijustsenta message toa lotofgroup
chats.It wasjust outofboredom,”said
Rex Chung,oneoftheoutgoingseniors
constructingthedigitalBronxScience.
I spokewithhimandothersina group
chatonDiscord,a Slack-for-gamersapp
that’s beena popularsocialhubinthis
periodofsocialdistance.
Thestudentsaren’tfinishedyet, buton
a walk-throughtheyhostedforme,it was
clearhowmuchdetailhasalreadygone
intotheproduct.In a re-creationofthe
spotlightroomabovetheauditorium,my
guidespointedoutthatmy avatarwas
standingona true-to-lifepileoftrash.
“We’reactuallylookingat schoolblue-
printstomakesure that ourbuildingis
followingthesizeandtheroomsareaccu-
rate,”seniorAshleyBaosaid.
Theserverisn’t meanttobea stand-in
fora tactilespaceintheway that a game
likeSecondLifemightbe,though.It’smore
ofa noveltyanda way tochannelfrustra-
tionandschoolspirit.“In thepast week,the
factthat I’veseentheschoolinMinecraft
morethanreallife,it’s kindasad,” Chung
admitted.“We’remakingthemost outofit,
andI thinkthat’s what matters.” ■The cafeteria is one
of the mostdetailed
rooms—it includes the
seniors-only tables.The students
used ‘Minecraft’
blocks to
build everything
to scale.