OK Boomer Shooter: How indie games breathed new life into a dying genre
OK Boomer Shooter: How indie games breathed new life into a dying genre
Games like 'Dusk', 'Amid Evil', and 'Into the Pit' are shining examples of a new FPS subgenre: the "boomer shooter" inspired by games like 'Doom' and 'Quake'.
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.
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.
My boomer father pirates doom for me as a child.
Agreed. Carmack is Gen X.
... 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.
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".
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.
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.
“Metroidvania” is a bad term too
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.
Can we ban the use of the term “boomer-shooter” please?
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.
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.
Call it a Classic Doom-like.
That's basically reverting back to calling games "DOOM clones".
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.
Still better than boomer shooter
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.
But then the media post won't be totes edgy and get people to click on it....
Maybe it should be called Doomer Shooter instead
Then you're catering to the peppers
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
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.
Dude it's just a funny name that rhymes, get over yourself.
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?
Wow, no mention of Prodeus
Amazing game
Boom shooter, OG FPS, I don't care what you call it. Just more please.
@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?
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.
Lol, boomer shooter.....wtf
"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.
Java programming language not even based on dem beans WTFolio?