OK Boomer Shooter: How indie games breathed new life into a dying genre - eviltoast
  • Cypher@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I refuse to use “boomer shooter” it’s a dumb moniker that ignores the single most influential person involved in the genre: John Carmack.

    He’s not a boomer, boomers didn’t make the genre, boomers don’t deserve the credit.

    • Its_Always_420@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I don’t even think boomers played these when they were popular. At the time they were still way too scared of technology, think flashing 12:00 on the vcr jokes. These games are Gen-x/millennials childhood shooters.

    • Dukeofdummies@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      … man I never made that connection. I thought it was because there was never an explosion smaller than somebodies head. If it doesn’t cause a boom it’s a gun that shouldn’t be in a boomer shooter.

    • MossBear@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s like what someone who wasn’t even born when these games were made would think. Just say no to “boomer shooter”. Classic FPS is fine. Old School FPS is fine. Anything but “boomer shooter”.

    • woelkchen@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      the single most influential person involved in the genre: John Carmack.

      Why would an engine developer be responsible game design? Are you confusing the Johns and meant John Romero?

      And what would the genre be called then? John-like?

      boomers didn’t make the genre, boomers don’t deserve the credit.

      Neither did Castlevania in Metroidvania. Metroid founded the genre a decade before Symphony of the Night game out, it’s just that it was called a side-scrolling action adventure. That’s a bit long, though, so a shorthand was needed.

      Personally, I would not mind “Retro FPS” but it’s just a label and in the end doesn’t really matter much.

      • Cypher@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        John Romero also isn’t a boomer but the reason I believe Carmack was more influential is because he was the single most important person in overcoming technical challenges that allowed those games to run.

        I would personally prefer Doomer shooters given Doom’s influence, especially its cultural influence.

      • discusseded@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        Dude, if you think the game engine designer and programmer had nothing to do with the end result then you’re out of your mind. Romero did some design, play-tested, and wrote some utility applications for game development. He is not the star of Doom by a long shot. There were others, but Carmack was the music maker, the dreamer of the dreams at that company.

        You do know that symphony of the night is not the first Castlevania, right? The first Metroid and first Castlevania games both came out in 1986.

        Get some culture Van Winkle, you have been asleep for too long.

        • woelkchen@lemmy.worldOP
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          1 year ago

          Dude, if you think the game engine designer and programmer had nothing to do with the end result then you’re out of your mind.

          You’re projecting waaaay to much into what I wrote. Carmack did not design the game but obviously the engine is part of the overall package. Reading my statement into saying that he “had nothing to do with the end result” is insane.

          You do know that symphony of the night is not the first Castlevania, right? The first Metroid and first Castlevania games both came out in 1986.

          Yes, and for a decade Castlevania games were not “Metroidvanias”. That’s why the term makes no sense to be part of the genre but I also don’t throw a tantrum over unimportant things on the internet. Relax.

          Get some culture Van Winkle, you have been asleep for too long.

          Why are you so angry? I did not attack you or your mom. It’s just about video games. Chill, man.

  • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Boomer shooter is a moniker to try to be cute with language. Because these shooters go “Boom”.

    Fuck that noise. Call it a Classic Doom-like.

    • TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Nah, Genres being named after the first game that does it is pretty uninspired. It almost makes it sound like players can’t articulate what makes the game interesting.

    • legion@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Call it a Classic Doom-like.

      That’s basically reverting back to calling games “DOOM clones”.

      • woelkchen@lemmy.worldOP
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        1 year ago

        That’s basically reverting back to calling games “DOOM clones”.

        Calling something like Amid Evil with its spectacular map architecture a mere Doom clone does it a disservice, though, because Doom closes were basically flat and had 90° walls. Descent and Quake 1 aren’t clones of Doom either.

    • Alteon@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      But then the media post won’t be totes edgy and get people to click on it…

    • woelkchen@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Fuck that noise. Call it a Classic Doom-like.

      Except that other than a few GZDoom-based games, Dusk and such have more in common with Quake than Doom, being fully 3D.

  • _sideffect@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Too much cod/battlefield crap… People were sick of it and wanted to go back to the good old doom days.

    Lots of indie titles did that, then doom 2016 propelled it into the mainstream again which gave the green light for even more games being made.

    I love it! My favorite genre

  • Atralyx@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    It’s silly to even bring generations into this or most topics, just another politically driven divider in order to down one group of people and boost another’s ego. In most scenario’s this is the case anyway, yeah silly and childish.

      • Hunter2@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 year ago

        I really don’t get the hate over the term.

        It was ok to use “Boomer” as an euphemism to call someone old, but make it about games that often don’t take themselves seriously and are a throwback to when gaming started to grow massively, and it sucks?

  • Brian Agatonovic@mastodon.social
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    1 year ago

    @woelkchen it would be nice if people stopped conflating Gen X with boomers because we want nothing to do with them. If it’s a joke, it’s not funny to me. We dislike boomers as much as every other generation after them. Nobody gives a shit about GenX, I get it, but could you please do us the favor of not conflating us with boomers?

    • woelkchen@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      could you please do us the favor of not conflating us with boomers?

      I? I did not write the article. I just found it interesting and crossposted it here and I don’t care what others use as a shorthand for fast-paced, pixelated FPS games.

  • dingus182@endlesstalk.org
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    1 year ago

    “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.”

    TLDR: Ignorant statement by ignorant generation. Maybe they could do better with JAVA.

    • s_s@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      Java programming language not even based on dem beans WTFolio?