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€“] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 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€“] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

An actual boomer shooter would be like Space Invaders.

But at least it's got a name I suppose so if you like them you can find them and differentiate them from all your online XP bar tutorial modern bullshit.

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I just think of it like boom as in explosions. Boom-boom shooty-shoot; or boomer shooter if you prefer brevity.

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

Boomer basically means 20+ years old nowadays as far as I can tell. Or older than zoomers.

[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

I dunno, my rich uncle is a boomer and back in the 90s he was one of the only people I knew who could afford a gucci PC and every big box FPS game. So it kinda makes sense from that perspective.

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

It's marketing doublespeak dreamed up by the totally deranged and it works

You have to remember its millennials and Gen Z experiencing this genre, not boomers.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

Boomer doesn't have to be literal boomers but old, like it is a joke in the WoW community to call it a boomer game because most of the people playing it (especially classic) are 30+ years old.

In the same way, people will talk about boomers in politics but Obama was the last baby boomer in the presidency.

[โ€“] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Boomer Shooter = Shooter that goes boom

Boomer shooter

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Okay, then riddle me this: which shooter DOESN'T go boom?

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

That's a good one. True enough, Splatoon doesn't go boom, it goes splat.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Rare boom isn't boomer.

It would be like putting Fallout in First person mode and calling it a FPS shooter game since it does have guns.

Dusk is a boomer shooter. Same group who I quoted the first time.

[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago

Yeah, it drives me nuts as well! Boomers hated video games. They still hate video games. They had congressional hearings about the evils of video games. Stupid name.

[โ€“] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago

I always assumed that the Boom in Boomer Shooter was more โ€œGun go Boomโ€, which seemed to fit the genre quite well.

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

If it helps, this is the first time I hear it ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™‚๏ธ

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

played mostly by Gen Xers and Snake People

For a moment there I was really confused, I forgot about this wonderful extension

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Millennials are going to be in absolute shambles if they ever find out "Okay boomer" wasn't directly targeted at boomers.

[โ€“] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago (2 children)

It wasn't? This is what Wikipedia says:

"OK boomer" or "okay boomer" is a catchphrase and internet meme that has been used by members of the Millennial generation and Generation Z (born between the early 1980s and the early 2010s) to dismiss or mock attitudes typically associated with baby boomers โ€“ people born in the two decades following World War II.

Who was it targeted at then?

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

It was targeted at everyone older than the younger people saying it.

It's used as a catch all, with the intention of getting everyone riled up. Because regardless of if you're an actual boomer or not, now you're getting bundled together with them.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

Young people saying things old people told them.

People who were usually younger than millennials.

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

Boomer today is used for anything that's old, and I wouldn't be surprised if you get Gen Xers that get called boomers. Since boomer shooters are a homage to old shooters, we call them boomer shooter. The ultimate problem is that it's just catchy, so unless you find a more catchy term, you're shit outta luck.

[โ€“] [email protected] 27 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Guys, IT ISN'T A REFERENCE TO THE BOOMER GENERATION. It's boomer as in shotgun-go-BOOM.

[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

This is worse tho. You can't just erase the bfg like this

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

Boomer cope

[โ€“] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Old=boomer sorry. That's just the way it turned out, nothing we can do about it. Raging against new slang is just gonna make us more out of touch, and intensify the feeling of being old, so I just accept it and try to keep up. Boomer is old now, not just the Baby Boomers.

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I'm 26 and I've already been called a boomer by younger people. I don't really see the problem as to me it's just funny and reminds me to try my best not to eventually become a boomer that hates everything that isn't how it used to be.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Don't be such a tardigrade.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Raging against new slang is just gonna make us more out of touch, and intensify the feeling of being old, so I just accept it and try to keep up.

NEVER! I choose to embrace my inner geriatric and complain about kids these days and their hippy-hop music.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

NEVER! I choose to embrace my inner geriatric and complain about kids these days and their hippy-hop music.

Can recommend, but only when you're subverting expectations. Young student is unloading a bunch of empty beverage crates from the elevator on the ground floor, making you wait, already looking quite self-conscious about it? Bellow, loud but not shouty, "Unbelievable, the students of today". See them flinch and cower, "oh fuck this again". Continue, with flawless timing, "why isn't that beer?".

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

I've been saying this forever too! Boomers were the ones complaining about thier kids playing them back in the day because of the violence and demonic imagery.

In the 90s people called them "Doom-like"s. I usually just say "90s FPS games". Which I guess could be confusing and make people think I'm talking about framerate, but eh.

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