Big agree on roguelike. It’s both annoying and entertaining how a whole genre of somewhat popular titles are only described in reference to another basically ancient title.

And some of them have gameplay that doesn’t compare all that well to Rogue, but are similar to something else that was considered roguelike! It’s just this vague descriptor with a constantly shifting definition depending on who is using it.

No hate intended towards the titles or the players, just language being funny 🤣

I started to use the Japanese term “search action” rather than Metroidvania unironically, sue me.

Yeah, it sounds silly, but it’s descriptive and feels less limiting to me than “a game that looks like Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night”. I love those two, but lots of games do the big interconnected map with ability gates, and they’re not that close to them.

Some of those even don’t have a map made of blue rectangles! Only like 90% of them.

Really, if we can do with genre names that are not built like that in general, all the better. I’m not going to the library to read a FrankenDracula or a DuneFoundation or whatever.

I definitely agree with you on “character action” but I don’t think it’s the worst. I just call them “action” games.

MOBA, Multiplayer Online Battle Arena. That could apply to so many games that are nothing alike, other than having battles in an arena with other players using the internet. Street Fighter, Mainline Pokemon Games, Quake, and Warframe could all fit that genre name but it is not used for any of them.

I like the term boomer shooter. The reason is the alliteration. But more importantly…

• Rookie Level 1 Gamer: “They’re called boomer shooters because they’re old like baby boomers”
• Veteran Level 20 Gamer: “Baby boomers thought Doom was satanic, that’s a stupid term”
• Enlightened Level 60 Gamer: “They’re called boomer shooters because of the huge debt they owe to the original Doom modding scene and therefore “Boom”, one of the first limit-removing source ports”
• GigaChad Level 80 gamer: “Who cares. My ego isn’t so delicate as to have my sensibilities offended by whatever the fuck you want to call it. If you think something like ‘MyHouse.wad’ is something that is for “bOoMeRs” (a.k.a. anyone old enough to know that it’s called a “VCR,” not a “VHS player”) then you’re the one missing out… not me.”

Credit to @[email protected] and @[email protected]

You mentioned the -likes ones, which I really don’t like, but “Soulslike” takes the cake and I absolutely loathe using it. Might be a bit biased here because I think Fromsoft’s Souls games feel very bland and I really enjoy Team Ninja’s versions of this genre, instead (had an absolute blast with Nioh and Wo Long, and am currently addicted to Stranger of Paradise)

Me and my friends talk all the time about which mechanics make an rpg an actual rpg or just unnecessary bullshit to call it an rpg. Any game where you can play a role in a world is an rpg to someone and any game with more than 2 people is “massively multiplayer” to someone making it an mmo. Its all vague nonsense to me.

My eyes gloss over a little bit when I hear “modern platformer” but my most hated would be full loot RPG. A paradise for greifers, not fun for anyone else.

What is a boomer shooter?

Favorite: Metroidvania. It’s kind of a simple name since it mashes Metroid and Castlevania but it’s always been very straightforward. It’s a cool name that says everything you need it to say about the game usually. It’s broad enough to be a genre, but specific enough that you know exactly what you’re in for.

Least favorite: ARPG (Action RPG). It bothers me a lot that it means “diablo clone” and not an RPG with action in it. I assume back in the day they used to call it ARPG because a game that isn’t turnbased was novel, but boy did it not age well. Is dark souls not an action RPG? The name’s very misleading.

99% of “roguelike” games make no sense to me. Is it turn-based? Is it based on a map of discrete tiles? Is it top down?

If it’s not all of those things, then what does the name even mean?

Honestly, I don’t get bothered by this. If you and I are having a conversation and you know what I’m talking about then the name did it’s job. Thing is, these names work because their popular, if I say character action game, regardless of how descriptive the name actually is, you’ll 90% of the time still know what I’m talking about. Same with rougelikes, at this point the genre has strayed so far from rouge you could justifiably call it something else, but no one does, because everyone knows what a rougelike is. Thus we will continue to call them RPGs, rouglikes, character action games, beat 'em ups, and what have you.

You “thought” about this?

That’s what you went with?

Scathe… got “scathing” reviews. Articles were written about problems with the environmental design, weapon designs, lack of imagination in aesthetic appeal in the enemy designs, the AI… but not once did anyone point out a problem with it being in a sub genre called “boomer shooter.”

Wrath: Aeon of Ruin not only duplicated Quake by using the Quake engine, having amazing level design, and the 90’s appeal of run n’ gun, but it also matched Quakes failures in that the Dev team left and had to be replaced. Right now Wrath is stuck in perpetual Early Release with no completion date in site. I’m sure the reason for that is its sub genre of “boomer shooter,” right?

How about Amid Evil? I spent a couple hours streaming that last night. It was an absolute blast. I haven’t been on a caffeine bender like that in years. I’m looking forward to streaming it again as soon as possible. I can’t wait to play it and its new DLC that’s about to drop. Obviously Amid Evils success is going to be because of the term, “boomer shooter.”

That term has obviously done so much harm or good….

Or it doesn’t fucking matter at all and this is a frivolous waste of time to whine about (as I’ve pointed out in more than one article I’ve posted).

We could be discussing something useful, but what matters to people is their egos. How important it is what term is used for a class of FPS games? People tried to argue with me about the fact the term “boomer shooter” is years old. Something that two seconds on google would make clear. But ego… I have had several people tell me they’d KILL people for using the term… I guess that’s acceptable behavior?

Okay, you win. Focus on trivialities while the industry moves on shaking it’s head while you shake your fist at clouds. But please, don’t forget to complain about not being taken seriously and for damned sure point out something trivial in what I wrote here, because that will matter.