Re: FREE GAME: Classic Marathon Infinity

On 25/08/2024 20:34, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Maybe it's not related.  They have shooters that go boom?

Probably a bit of column A, a bit of column B.
 Still, even if the nomenclature is not entirely accurate, I've no
problem calling those sorts of FPS games "Boomer shooters". It
differentiates it from run-of-the-mill first-person shooters and is a
better name than "Doom-clone".
 Not to mention many (but definitely not all; Carmack, for instance,
wouldn't qualify) of the people who developed games from that era were
of the so-called "Baby Boom" generation.
 And, as pointed out, there is a lot of 'boom' in these games. After
all, one facet of 'boomer shooters' is that high-explosive weaponry
can be used recklessly and in close proximity to the user. When you
have games where your hand-held rocket-launcher can fire multiple
missiles per shot, or where rocket-jumping is an ordinary method of
traversal, calling it a 'boomer shooter' isn't completely without
merit. 😉

Well that's the English language for you. Terms get latched onto, and spread, even if they don't always make sense. I had to learn words I've never heard of before for World of Tanks. So tomato for a bad player and 'stronk plane' to be sarcastic about playing badly.
For boomer itself, that over the years seems to have moved from just describing a generation to often a pejorative for anything, or one, that may be considered old. Personally I'm very much in the camp of English is there to communicate so as long as I understand what someone means then that's good enough for me.