cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ninja/post/10393
“Boomer shooter” is the latest term to follow the likes of “Roguelike” or “Soulslike” in the realm of hyperspecific gaming subgenres. It applies to first-person shooters that intentionally harken back to the classic PC games of the late ‘90s like Doom and Quake.
These are millenial shooters dangit, boomers were too old for doom. Gen X at most.
More seriously though I just replayed the OG doom and it still slaps, nice to see some folks are trying to recapture that. I should check these out.
The article did address this:
The internet loves roasting “boomers,” the shorthand term for the Baby Boomer generation born in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Admittedly, most boomer shooter fans are likely Gen-Xers and Millennials, but they’re still co-opting the term in a sarcastic but positive way that conveys the old-school nature of this niche genre.
It all comes down to it rolling off your tongue better.
I was making a joke my friend :)
I know I know. Just thought it was interesting that they had the same thought process in the article too. 😄
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I completely agree with the generational… “faux pas” in the naming. But it SOUNDS good… boomer shooter… I’ve also heard retroFPS. I wasn’t a fan when these originally came out. I was too busy with more “complex” hoity-toity puzzlers and “deep” rpg’s… Now that I’m almost 50, I enjoy the HELL out of Boltgun. If you buy ONE game… I HIGHLY recommend it. It starts with the pedal to the metal and then hits turbo at some point (you’re too busy to notice). REALLY… give it a try.
Good to hear thanks! I’m taking a breather from fast paced fps to get into a hoity toity puzzler now (outer wilds is awesome) but I have reminded myself how nice it is to take a mindless break and destroy Nazis and demons so I’ll be back to the dizzingly fast violence trough soon enough
If you like Outer Wilds, take a look at Call of Cthulhu or Superliminal. Superliminal will bend your perception. Call of Cthulhu is a fun romp through the Lovecraftian universe. And both have an extra helping of hoity.
I found superluminal just made me miss portal unfortunately. It wasn’t bad but not as strong. Might take a look at coc though!
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Pinball on an Apple IIe was honestly slick.
Asteroids was my dad’s boomer shooter.
It’s a great game though. Can’t blame him at all
Galaga was my dad’s boomer shooter.
OG doom is so awesome. It basically fathered the FPS genre and speedrunning. There’s still so much development and so much being done. Even artistically there’s a lot happening. Have you seen myhouse.wad? That’s just brilliant meta storytelling.
If you’re not going to play myhouse.wad there’s a great (albeit long) video essay on it.
It’s also kind of ironic to call them boomer games since they were hell bent to censor or cancel games like those or pretty much any video game in general.
Millennials? No way. The oldest millennials were 11 when Doom came out.
It is most definitely a Gen X game. It has all the hallmarks of mid 90s GenX culture: unapologetically rebellious, anti-establishment, edgy and violent. The developers are also all oldish GenX-ers (Adrian Carmack, John Carmack, John Romero, Dave Taylor) or young Boomers (Sandy Petersen and Tom Hall)
A lot of us older Millennials still grew up playing these games as they came out.
But you’re right, they are thoroughly a product of '90s Gen-X culture.
A lot of us older Millennials still grew up playing these games as they came out.
Of course. Especially the ones that came after Doom I guess. I listened to a lot of older music at the time too (like 80s new wave or 70s hard rock and punk), but that doesn’t make it “GenX” music.
But you’re right, they are thoroughly a product of '90s Gen-X culture.
Yeah, Doom, Quake, Duke et al are like ‘90s GenX culture personified for me. Millennials’ era (and this is sort of in the name) is ca. 2000 and afterwards, and gaming had already shifted to something else by quite a bit by then.
I am a millennial who was 13 when Doom came out but go off
That’s my thought as well. The only game my boomer dad ever played on our old Windows 3.11 Acer PC was some golf game. It was my gen x future brother-in-law that introduced me to shooters like Doom and Quake.
What an awful, awful name for the genre. I’ve always hated “Metroidvania,” but I’ll embrace it with open arms if I never have to hear or read “boomer shooter” ever again.
I’m going to murder someone if I hear any of my friends call them. I swear if this becomes a widespread term
It’s been used for a couple years now. Seems like a pretty small thing to get so worked up over.
Hyperboles man. But in general I just hate the term don’t subcategorize shooters based off of the era it’s designed around. It’s just stupid subcategorize off of different things
I wish we had decent Arena Shooters like UT99. Splitgate was close.
I hope that genre is the next to return. I think that people are mostly split between warfare simulators and these older shooters. On the one hand you have a heavy tactical simulation, and on the other you have a fast paced, low development overhead game that costs 25% of what the AAA warfare simulator runs. Arena shooters are in the middle, and most people that play them just jump up to warfare simulators. I’m not saying you’re wrong, I’m just saying it’s hard to find enough people that didn’t go one way or the other to make arena game development worth it.
Then there’s tf2 the middle group youre looking for
Call of Duty and Battlefield currently define the FPS genre, signaling a trend towards realism
What version of reality does this author live in, anyway?
I feel like a lot of games work better for the indie market because development costs are so low.
my brother is a young boomer and not many of his gen played video games. This should likely be XerShooter or something.
I hear what you’re saying. Boomer doesn’t JUST mean Baby Boomer Generation. It is also used as “the old generation.” There was a meme/song that was popular for a while called “Ok Boomer…” The other thing to consider is that most of the “Boomer” shooters have grenades. They go “BOOM.” So maybe let’s not hang up on the name so much? If you don’t like it I might recommend “retroFPS.”
Doom and Doom II are boomer shooters. No grenades. Just a rocket launcher and a Big Fucking Gun.
Boomer shooters are basically shooters from the 90’s. Between like ~94-98, depending on what you count.
Once you hit Quake and Half-Life you’re out of the boom shoot era. And I wouldn’t call Wolf3D boom shoot.
I’m not here to argue with you. That’s great that’s what YOU want the definition to be. When OTHER people talk about Boomer Shooters they’re talking about games released recently BASED ON elements of FPS games released in previous decades.
so conversely does zoomer include millenials? Or are millenials boomers too? Are they old? They might be getting over 40 so can’t trust them.
