In my many years of involvement with the Second Life platform, I would say the most common cry, the most often lamented facet of our virtual community would be that of the "High School Mentality." One cannot publically acknowledge another user without accusations of cliquishness. One cannot host a contest without the perception that it will all boil down to a popularity contest. And one cannot find enmity with another resident without our minds drifting back to those days of emotional drama, of locker rooms, of sweaty gym socks, of uncomfortable desk-chairs, and the nerve-grating sound of the high school bell.

I suppose it's no surprise that the High School era is one that brings back mostly bad memories to the Second Life demographic. For such an intelligent group of people, High School is about the only era of our lives where intelligence is a liability, and where civilized society is unable to intervene with the Darwinian principals of survival of the fittest. It's a time where girls eviscerate each other with subtle glances, a wrinkle of the nose and a well placed rumor. It's a time where boys, uh, well, beat the snot out of each other.


But it wasn't necessarily all bad, at least not for everybody. High School was a magical time where kids could start to enjoy the rights and privileges of being young adults while still being unburdened by the responsibilities of adulthood. It was a time when we were all pure potential. On top of the excitement and pressure of our newfound freedom and the awesome task of exploring the career options that would decide the direction of the rest of our lives ... we were also very very horny.

For those who long for the days of jocks, geeks, burn-outs, sluts, prudes, punks, goths, ravers, hip-hoppers, metal-heads, motor-heads, stoners, nerds, drama queens, and sexy foreign exchange students, you should immediately put in for a transfer to Kindly High School.



Kindly High School (KHS) is a high school role playing sim that does an outstanding job retrieving those tucked-away memories of musty books, smoked-filled girl's bathrooms, making out in the library, and the smell of fresh cut grass wafting through an open window a week before summer vacation.

Largely the creation of Redd Columbia, KHS features everything we come to remember from our high school experience. Classrooms are decorated by subject including a computer lab, science class, foreign language lab, and even a health class (Uh, drugs are bad. M'kay?) A cafeteria sports a menu of "grease pizza" and "mystery meat." There is a library, an indoor pool, a football field, a basketball court, and even faculty offices. If you wander off campus you will find a bowling alley, a skating rink, and a cute diner where the kids can hang after school.



But there is more to KHS than just a build. This active role playing community has sign-up sheets for every activity you can imagine. You can be a cheerleader, a football player, a teacher, a coach, in fact you can even be the lunch lady! (I SO have my eye on that job!) Students can run for student president, and as it happens, several candidates were actively campaigning during my visit.



I was able to catch up with KHS creator, Redd Columbia and ask about the inspiration to create a High School themed role playing sim. "It was going to be all 50's style town, and I made all those buildings before the sim was bought but then we started talking about where we could just hang out, and we thought of a school. So I was going to make it a town with a school attached, but as we thought about it more, we came up with more and more ideas for the school, so it ended up as a School with a town attached, lol."



KHS also sports a respectable traffic rating (14184 when this was written), especially for a sim that doesn't employ camping chairs or feature sex as a main attraction. I asked Redd if this came as a surprise to her. "Actually I figured we would have quite a few people, but not this many. The traffic on the find menu completely boggles me. It's hard to keep up with sometimes, and the security needed was underestimated, but we've been working on improving it to keep everything pleasant here. The traffic is expected to go down if we stay with the idea of the next security step of setting the sim to 'group only'. It's okay by us though, we're looking for quality over quantity."

That's all good and fine, but what about the drama! Redd responded. "Well, it's going to carry that, due to the fact we're trying to keep this as realistic as possible, and drama is what high school is all about for most people. Some people I think cling to that as entertainment. Since we stress that this is a role-play sim. If drama isn't your thing, you probably should keep your character out of it.



"We try to stress that it's a role-play sim, and those who are going to get upset about what someone IN character says about them, taking it personally should have been ready for it by being in a "role play" area."

When asked about the future of KHF, Redd seemed enthusiastic and optimistic. "My RL boyfriend is the coach for all sports at this time, and he's been focusing on the football team. (He's got degrees in exercise stuff in RL that I have no idea about, and has an internship with a major college football team coming up.) He's in charge of keeping the rules straight, and I just supply the props like tacklers and throwers."



Redd had one final note to add. "The purpose of this school is not to compete with any other schools, ever (with the exception of some friendly sports games if we can find those willing to join us.) We're here to role-play in our own way, but we've just eliminated some of the more explicit features as we thought they were unneeded. People who want to role-play the naughty teacher/student deal shouldn't come here expecting to hop on a sexgen desk. That's not what we're about (you won't find a single x-rated poseball set anywhere in our school by our staff members. We're makeouts-only haha.) If you're looking for a cool place to hang out in a realistic setting, that's us."

And Redd's words were more than lip service. There really wasn't any funny business going on the day I spent at KHS (however me and my partner, Catherine Omega, did manage to steal a smooch by the stairs between second and third period.)



I think it's safe to say that this sim will offend some people right to the core of their very being. To role play, perhaps to relive, one's high school experience in Second Life may feel like a virtual hell. On the other hand, if your High School experiences were less than memorable, this sim may offer a rare chance to go back and set things to rights. Maybe this time you can be popular, or athletic, or rebellious. Or maybe you can be the teacher you always wished you had. It's totally up to you, after all, that's what role-play is all about.