Weekend Question: What should boomer shooters be called?

PCG Jody

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Dec 9, 2019
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I ask the PCG staff a regular Weekend Question and post the answers on the site. If you'd like to throw in an answer here, I'll squeeze the best into the finished article!

This week's question is: What should boomer shooters be called?

Humble Bundle had a Boomer Shooter Bundle, and games like Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun proudly wear the label by choice. Maybe it's time to give in and accept the '90s-style retro FPS subgenre is going to be stuck with a silly label because it sounds funny. (And it does sound funny, no argument here.) Or maybe it's time to get prescriptive. At the risk of resembling the kind of person who argues run-based permadeath games aren't roguelikes if they aren't full ASCII, here's a chance to make your case for an alternative.
 
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What even is a boomershooter? I kinda doubht that many, even if they existed ofc, started playing shooters in their 30s - 50s back in the 90s. Kinda get the feeling that most people playing games in the 90s were born in the 70s or 80s IE NOT boomers :) So lets just call them Doomclones as usual. Move along, nothing to see here! If anything it should be called Retro shooters if one does not want to use the term Doom Clone. :)
 
Seriously, boomer shooters just reminds me of a bunch of old geezers wielding boomsticks a'plenty... 🤣

that said I can't think of any other nickname ahaha. 😂
also I remember this meme I've seen from somewhere before, but it said "Defense of the ancients"
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Sarafan

Community Contributor
I believe that this genre was called "ego shooter" in the past in some countries. Not that I think that it's a good idea to practice necromancy over this phrase, because it was mediocre to say the least. I'm trying to take the question seriously, so I would prefer the term retro shooter. It's self-explaining. The phrase is better for people who are new to the industry. Everyone can say right away that it's a shooter made in the old style. We can of course discuss that not every boomer shooter is a retro shooter, but I believe we should simplify things not complicate them without a serious reason.
 
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I believe that this genre was called "ego shooter" in the past in some countries. Not that I think that it's a good idea to practice necromancy over this phrase, because it was mediocre to say the least. I'm trying to take the question seriously, so I would prefer the term retro shooter. It's self-explaining. The phrase is better for people who are new to the industry. Everyone can say right away that it's shooter made in the old style. We can of course discuss that not every boomer shooter is a retro shooter, but I believe we should simplify things not complicate them without a serious reason.
Retro shooter is what I've always called it.
 
What even is a boomershooter? I kinda doubht that many, even if they existed ofc, started playing shooters in their 30s - 50s back in the 90s. Kinda get the feeling that most people playing games in the 90s were born in the 70s or 80s IE NOT boomers :) So lets just call them Doomclones as usual. Move along, nothing to see here! If anything it should be called Retro shooters if one does not want to use the term Doom Clone. :)
I thought they were called Boomer Shooters because they were made by boomers, not because they were played by boomers.
 
Personally, I think we should just retire the genre and not worry about it anymore. :)
why though? 😅

I think some of these shooters actually are very fun and execute stuff well like davil daggers, and ultrakill 😉
 
I think i like the "Doom Clone" nomenclature more, but that will likely have my age showing.

Hell, Boomer Shooter more or less seems like a general categorization of FPS, and I think games like Ultrakill, Turbo Overkill, and to a lesser extent, Doom Eternal helped pave the way of an offshoot of the Boomer Shooter known as the movement shooter. I think for more traditional old-school-style FPS games, Doom Clone would probably be more appropriate, whereas the new-school boost-dashing/wallrunning/etc. would probably fit more in the "movement shooter" category.
 

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