How the Generational Shift Has Affected Gaming

Recently, I've been dabbling into all kinds of cute, relaxing titles — from platformers to life sims — and I realised that what I thought was a cute trend among them is actually something much bigger: it's signs of a new generation taking over media, and tiny traces of their childhood and nostalgia seeping into their projects. 

Allow me to elaborate: whilst I don't rember the exact title I first noticed it in, I realised that they had implemented the quirky Banjo-Kazooie voice effect during dialogue. I thought it was a cute way to honour a fantastic classic; easter eggs aren't that uncommon, after all, and it's evident in the repetition of the Zelda’s "it's dangerous to go alone, take this" reference. 

 

That being said, the more I started playing newly released titles, the easier I noticed the distinction between an easter egg honouring an iconic phrase from a classic and what I am noticing to be a generational shift. It's a simple discrepancy, but it's definitely there.

The best way I can explain it is by showing some examples, starting off with the slight changes in how games set in the future have changed. This can be broken down into two different categories: futuristic and apocalyptic. Starting with the former, unlike back when I was a kid, where the future was always depicted as this beautiful, advanced, and mostly-metallic dream, nowadays, it always seems to be set in space — or a dying world — and the main narrative behind it is corruption and greed. I noticed this last year when I tried out Obsidian’s open-world RPG The Outer Worlds; I expected a title more along the lines of a sci-fi-heavy Fallout 4, and instead, I was faced with something more centred around evil corporations and abusive, greedy systems. 

A similar change can be seen in post-apocalyptic titles. Instead of a virus or plague causing the apocalypse and the player having to fight off mutants and zombies, the new games are centred around restoring Earth in an attempt to correct the end that humanity has led itself into. It cements the fact that the end of the world isn't a fantasy or a myth: it's a reality that, sooner or later, we might have to face. This shift in our position from victims of a greater power to being the ENEMY can be seen in many, many titles. In some, like in My Time at Portia and Stardew Valley, these themes are less obvious and invasive but absolutely still present. Others, like No Place Like Home and the upcoming survival title I Am Future, have much more of an emphasis on it, but regardless, they all use humanity as the ultimate evil. And lastly, if you’re not rebuilding society, you’re cleaning the world from the current pollution, such as in Fresh Start Cleaning Simulator and Coral Island, where you clean the ocean. 

Of course, the changes that come with millennials and gen z becoming game developers aren't all about our bleak futures and disdain for corporations, governments, and close-minded traditions — you can see them in the way games try to make players empathise or undergo situations that might otherwise go over their heads. They bring up the topics of privilege, mental health, identity, gender, war, and sexuality to the forefront and make you face them in hopes you'll walk in someone else's shoes — a trend rarely seen (if at all) in older titles, which focused more on gameplay-heavy elements and pushing the boundaries through gore and violence. This is shown through the famous titles during the previous eras, such as God of War, Mortal Kombat, and DOOM. Some great examples of the more millennial-y empathetic trend are Celeste, which tackles the overcoming of mental health struggles through the perspective of a transgender character; Venba, which unravels the story of an immigrant family; and Life is Strange, which touches on heavy subjects, from depression to LGBTQ+ issues; and This War of Mine, which touches on the consequences of war. 

Aside from terrifying futures and narratives with deep topics, you can see it emerging in some developers' music, colour, and sound effect choices. One of the most recent examples I have of this nostalgic trend is in Grimoire Groves, where you can see glimpses of Banjo-Kazooie, Yoshi's Island, and Animal Crossing within the dialogue, sound effects, and soundtrack. It has one of the best and quirkiest OSTs I have heard in a while, and I am sure it's because it tugs at all the right strings — my nostalgia.

Interestingly, the changes don't only revolve around things that worry us and make us think of our childhood, as our culture, lingo, and humour are evident across many titles. Silly jokes, such as calling coffee "hot bean water" — as seen in Love, Ghostie — have become pretty normalised in games. Fourth-wall-breaking, acronyms (such as LOL, idk, or OMFG), and odd memes are found everywhere in light-hearted and silly games: a norm that is becoming more common as time goes by.

 

We can tell a lot about our generation through the media that is famous today: from TikTok videos to the type of YouTubers that dominate the front page. And I can't help but wonder how everything will change — especially in gaming — in about 40 years more. How will gen z be affected by what we'll create? What will be their nostalgic easter eggs? And most importantly, what do we carry from the generations before ours in our media? I guess we'll see someday.