Videogames and Generation Y

Ever wonder why there are Transformers movies? They are on the umpteenth film, and the plotline seems like something made up by an eight year old with added boobs for his older brother. Before you start thinking that the movie industry must have lost it, you need to ask why they would make the first film. The answer is 96 million Americans who grew up loving Transformers.

The exact term for the children of the 80’s, 90’s, and explaining todays hot hits, is to realize that the biggest population boom in the history of the country happened without anyone talking about it. You have likely heard about the Baby Boom which lasted in sometime during the 40’s and went to the 60’s. In fact, your parents, or grandparents are baby boomers. They were such a large demographic that almost all entertainment was pointed at them.

XKCD gets it right again. 

That same picture can pretty much describe pop culture, and how it was used until the Millenial Baby Boom kicked in. It explains way more than you have ever thought of. There were amazing Family Fun Centers created specifically for kids during the 80’s and 90’s with all sorts of fun things in them. Today, almost all of them are declaring bankruptcy or struggling. Why? Because the 80’s and 90’s were when Millenials were kids. Now that most of the clientelle are adults, they are not going to go into a fun center. In fact, Dave and Busters is essentialy a grown up version of ChuckECheese -minus the awesome ball pit and play place.

Why are so many people needing to lose weight today? Because the companies that made Discovery Zone have not figured out how to make an adult play place.

I have had standing ovations in crowded rooms proposing this very idea.

Back to Transformers, the entire plot of the movies is told in the same way it would to a 5 year old. Why? Because thats how you remember Transformers.

It gets weirder. The vast majority of Marvel Movies have taken story arcs from the 80’s and 90’s. (No I am not doing a giant link dump on this) Why? Because those of the stories most of the audience for the movies remembers. They won’t remember FatMan comics. In other words the big time movies coming out right now are entirely aimed at Millenials.

Videogames have been a part of Generation Y. The Super Mario Bros had a hit kids show, but not the greatest movie. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have come several times to TV. The games for TMNT are usually harkening back to a certain arcade game.

The idea of a remake of Ducktales is only possible if the cartoon wasn’t a beloved show of many a Y’ers childhood. The game makers made sure to have the story feel like one of the old cartoons, right down to voice actors and jokes.

The concept of growing up within games has been a long story. To be honest this essay would not be able to talk about it enough, but basically put one of the big selling points from companies is how much more Mature their games are. Many games are changing because the average gamer is also changing in their own personal lives. If you see mistakes being done today, it is because a company guesses wrong about what will be popular for the GenY demographic today.

In fact, what happened to the Baby Boomers is happening all over again to Generation Y/ Millenials. If you ever hear a Boomer complaining about how kids today seem spoiled, its because they don’t want to recognize how much of their own lives followed the same pattern. It’s a harsh pill to take, and it will likely kick in to todays generation soon enough.