this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2024
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Not to say I hate the genre, I actually love me some Dusk or Turbo Overkill, but why, oh why are they called Boomer Shooters?

These games clearly took inspiration from 90s FPS games, which ๐Ÿ‘Œ, but they were played mostly by Gen Xers and Millenials, not Boomers. When games like Duke Nukem 3D or Quake were out, Boomers were what? 30 to 50 years old? I'm sure some of them played FPS games, but there is no way they were the majority.

Whenever I see the term Boomer Shooter, my mind goes to games like Shootout! for Magnavox Odyssey. Can't we call them something else, like Retro FPSes or something?

Anyway, rant over. Thank you for your time.

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[โ€“] t3rmit3@beehaw.org 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

When games like Duke Nukem 3D or Quake were out, Boomers were what? 30 to 50 years old?

You mean, like most of us Millennial gamers are now (30+)? The youngest Millennials, born in 1996, will be 30 in 2 years.

These games clearly took inspiration from 90s FPS games, which ๐Ÿ‘Œ, but they were played mostly by Gen Xers and Millenials, not Boomers.

I'm a middle-Millennial (1988), and Doom was well before my time as a gamer. I was 5 years old in 1993. Halo (2001) was more my generation, just barely. The oldest Millennials in 1993 were 12 years old, which was not the target age group for Doom.

GenX? Sure, they played Doom, but Boomers were by far the larger age group playing "Mature" games at that time. Video games have never been just for children.

[โ€“] RiikkaTheIcePrincess@pawb.social 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Maybe it works if read as "games made by boomers?" ... Yeah I have no idea how old anyone was/is. Time and I don't really get along ๐Ÿคท

Also, going along with a thing I've been seeing in these comments, I'm idly curious as to whether anyone who isn't a Boomer cares about use/misuse/abuse of the term "Boomer" ๐Ÿค”

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[โ€“] Dangdoggo@kbin.social 1 points 8 months ago

If it helps try thinking of it as a "boomer shooter" because of the proliferation of rockets and rocket physics in classic games like Unreal and Quake

[โ€“] Coelacanth@feddit.nu 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It's so curious, I swear I heard "boomer shooter" used to refer to another type of FPS... But then again I guess the definition has changed. What term do people use nowadays for slow FPSes that are more tactical, rather than twitch-reflex reliant, like ARMA?

[โ€“] bermuda@beehaw.org 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Those are tactical shooters. If it's a simulator like ARMA then the term "milsim" (military simulator) is also used. Good example of a non-ARMA tactical shooter would be Ready or Not, Squad, Insurgency, or S.W.A.T

[โ€“] Coelacanth@feddit.nu 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Makes sense. And I have heard those terms before. I guess i just need to update my internal definition. All this time I thought boomer shooter meant "slow FPS for old folks who can't keep up in Valorant anymore". Which is a group I probably belong to myself, to be honest.

[โ€“] bermuda@beehaw.org 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Oh no boomer shooter means very fast FPS, it just has old-school mechanics like health packs, a large loadout, arena-style gameplay, stuff like that. Things that were considered outdated when games like Battlefield and COD rolled around in the mid 2000s. Like you're not supposed to take cover in DOOM, but you are in Battlefield.

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