As a general rule of thumb, you do not want to have any sort of story about your video game wherein your title is being railed against by the ADL. You definitely do not want those stories if your video game is primarily for children. Unfortunately, this is exactly what is happening in Roblox at the moment, as the ADL is calling attention to a trend of user-created maps in the game that recreate well-known mass shooting events such as the Columbine school shooting and the Uvalde school shooting. Apparently, there’s a very specific group that uses Roblox and other games for these morbid pursuits. (The ADL calls it a “true crime” community, but that term is being misused; this is not moms reading true crime novels but a toxic subculture that glorifies mass-murderers.)
The posting by the ADL does note that Roblox as a platform has tried to stamp out this content, with the creators having moved to private invite-only venues to limit the likelihood of people stumbling on and reporting the content.
“Despite Roblox’s efforts to take down these maps, A.S.S. continues to find ways to keep their content available. The group has pivoted to hosting games on paid Roblox private servers. These servers exist as part of Roblox’s main platform (and are ostensibly subject to their policies) but allow players to control who is admitted to these spaces, reducing the likelihood they will be detected by Roblox and have their accounts suspended.”
But it’s indisputably a bad sign to have this content available anywhere on the Roblox platform, and calling more attention to it – especially as the company has shown its interest in keeping a handle on this content – is a good thing. It remains unclear why these account haven’t been banned or blocked from Roblox’s broader platform.
This is not the first time that the ADL has spoken out about toxicity in gaming, ranging from simply calling out harassment in online communities to the extremism pipeline possible in online games. The group has also drawn attention to this content in Roblox before. Here’s hoping this time Roblox can get rid of it entirely.
