The logo of Active Shooter Studios (A.S.S.), which has gained notoriety for creating Roblox maps that replicate real-life mass shootings.
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Roblox has established itself as one of the most popular online gaming platforms for children and teens, drawing millions of gamers worldwide on a daily basis. But beneath its kid-friendly façade, it has also been plagued by crisis and controversy surrounding issues such as content moderation, player safety and exposure to inappropriate content. More recently, the ADL Center on Extremism (COE) has uncovered a disturbing subculture on Roblox that centers around mass violence.
A group called Active Shooter Studios (A.S.S.) has gained notoriety for creating Roblox maps that replicate real-life mass shootings, including the infamous tragedies at Columbine, Uvalde and Parkland, as well as mass shootings conducted by white supremacists and other extremists as terrorist attacks.
A.S.S. is part of the larger True Crime Community (TCC) online subculture, whose adherents have a disturbing fascination with serial killers and mass murderers, often creating dark memes and fan fiction glorifying killers and their crimes. A.S.S.’s leadership has attempted to distance itself from TCC due to its controversial and negative reputation, but the group regularly uses Roblox to create TCC-related content.
This content is particularly disturbing because it doesn’t just reflect mass violence—it actively helps glorify it, even if A.S.S.’s leaders claim otherwise. By creating these games, A.S.S. fosters an environment where violence is not only normalized but celebrated, as seen in how the group’s games are perceived by their fans and players. Moreover, because they include scenes connected to extremist-related shootings, their creations increase the overlap between the TCC subculture and extremism, particularly among accelerationist white supremacists and incels.
Recreating mass tragedies
Led by a developer using the pseudonym “Rorshac,” A.S.S. specializes in building highly detailed, disturbing recreations of actual tragedies. One of their most infamous maps is “Carbine,” which recreates the 1999 Columbine shooting, allowing players to take on the role of perpetrators Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. The Columbine shooting is one of the events most celebrated by TCC adherents.
A screengrab of Carbine, showing the two players assigned to be “shooters” dressed like Harris and Klebold. (Source: COE)
Rorshac works closely with another developer, who uses the pseudonym “Skinless,” to develop these maps. While Rorshac focuses on developing the overall maps and designs, Skinless works in a more specialized capacity, focusing on creating animations for the weapons used in the group’s games.
The maps created by A.S.S. are not simple game environments—they are disturbingly graphic and detailed, designed to mimic the mass shootings they’re based on with unsettling accuracy and gore. For example, in A.S.S.'s map based on the 2022 Uvalde shooting, students—clearly depicted as children—are programmed to hide under desks or play dead when the shooting begins. Players can also alter their avatar’s appearance to resemble the assailant.
A screengrab of A.S.S.’s game based on the 2022 Uvalde shooting. (Source: Blingmcqueen via YouTube)
The gore in A.S.S.’s games is extreme, allowing players to maim or dismember other players and characters—something that is at least nominally prohibited by Roblox’s community standards. A.S.S.’s games also revolve around surviving until police arrive, with players eventually being forced to either die fighting or commit suicide—adding a disturbing violent ending to their games.
Evading detection
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.
A.S.S.’s influence also extends far beyond Roblox. The group runs an exclusive, private Discord server, accessible only to vetted members, which serves as a central hub for discussing new developments, sharing game links and requesting new features and content. Additionally, A.S.S. organizes events where server members can play games together and provide feedback. A.S.S.’s Discord server, which has undergone several iterations due to suspensions, boasts around 500 members. This exclusivity has made A.S.S. and their content particularly enticing to TCC members.
The group also runs a Roblox community with approximately 800 members, where the leaders share announcements with their fanbase and promote their private Discord server. The community features a store that appears to be selling in-game Carbine-branded merchandise, including several shirts displaying the game’s cover art, which users can equip on their avatars.
TikTok has also played a key role in spreading A.S.S.’s content. COE analysts have found numerous TikTok accounts sharing gameplay footage for mass shooting recreations made by A.S.S. and others. The comment sections of these videos are often filled with requests for the names of and links to these games. Rorshac is known to be active on TikTok himself, frequently posting links to A.S.S.’s Discord server in the comments. In addition, COE analysts have also found Reddit users sharing copies of A.S.S.’s maps, further spreading their disturbing content.
In the comments of TikTok videos promoting this content, users often ask for links to the games. (Source: TikTok)
While A.S.S. may be the most prominent group within the true crime community creating these maps, they are not the only ones. COE analysts have discovered other individuals developing similar content for Roblox and the game Garry’s Mod, indicating that this troubling trend is gaining traction within the TCC subculture.
A screengrab of a recreation of the 2022 Buffalo shooting in Garry’s Mod. (Source: TikTok)
Roblox, Discord and TikTok all have community guidelines that prohibit content glorifying mass violence. While these platforms have taken steps to prohibit mass shooting recreations created by A.S.S. and others—and have acted swiftly in response to our flags—there is still more to be done. For example, what steps are platforms such as these taking to prevent the abuse of private spaces for the dissemination of these recreations? How are these platforms working together around this egregious form of content to prevent its spread between platforms?
Why this matters
Games that recreate offline incidents of mass violence not only desensitize young people to events like these but also normalize these recreations as a form of entertainment. Many mass shooters—including the Abundant Life and Antioch shooters—have expressed a fascination with previous killers, often referencing or glorifying them in their own manifestos or social media posts.
Because such games recreate extremist-related mass shootings—such as the 2022 Buffalo shooting, in which the perpetrator deliberately targeted and killed Black people—they may also serve as a gateway to extremist content. Players might be prompted to seek out more information about these violent events, which can lead them to manifestos or videos created by the attackers. In some cases, they may also encounter content produced by accelerationist white supremacists, which glorifies these killers and aims to radicalize others to follow in their footsteps.
Accelerationists—who aim to provoke societal collapse through mass violence—would like nothing more than to find people already obsessed with death and killing, then simply nudge them in their preferred direction. Games like those created by A.S.S. can help serve this purpose, adding another danger to the general threat posed by serving content to an impressionable audience fixed on death and killing.