Boom Again – How We Made a Boomer Game That Even a Millennial Can Love
We made a Boomer Game in 2020. There can often be a rift between baby boomers and millennials—as well as Gen X, Gen Y and the rest of the generational alphabet. As baby boomers, we shouldn’t be surprised by that. After all, we were the ones back in the 1960s who said not to trust anyone over 30. Then we became the over 30 crowd…and then some.
Our Inspiration
When we created Boom Again, we in fact set out specifically to make it a “boomer game.” Boom Again is a game developed by baby boomers for baby boomers. As we rolled it out, we knew that the boomer crowd would on board with a pop culture trivia game that features all the music, movies and fun of the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s. What came as a bit of a surprise is how much even those millennials and other non-boomers like to play it.
The Reviews Tell the Story
We’re getting emails and reviews from people who tell us things like, “I played it with my kids and we all had a blast.” And, “I was totally surprised by how many answers the younger players knew, and they weren’t even born back then!”
A Generational Bridge through a Boomer Game?
The fact that this boomer game manages to bridge the generation gap is a pretty big deal. These days, for most people it’s not possible to get the gang together to host a game night gathered around the dining room table. Most peoples’ “bubbles” are pretty small—limited to close friends or family or the immediate household. Some baby boomer’s bubbles don’t contain a lot of other boomers rather people in a mix of ages, including young adults.
And many of those young adults are bored out of their freaking minds. Feeling isolated. Alone. You might be feeling the same way. So isn’t it amazing that you can bring everybody together to have some fun with something as simple as a board game?
We’ve since discovered a couple of other benefits to looping in your younger friends and family to play
It’s good to remember what we have in common
Boom Again might be categorized as a boomer game, but the music, movies, TV shows and other products of the era are still very much around and enjoyed today. Sure, the younger crowd has their own tastes and trends in music, fashion and, well, pretty much everything. That doesn’t mean that they might not also enjoy some of what the baby boom years brought to the world. Like, you know, The Beatles. Bellbottoms. Cool sayings like, “hang loose” and “do me a solid.” You dig?
You can play it on Zoom—even if you’re not tech-savvy
Expand your invitee list to people outside your household by playing on Zoom—what we call a Boom Zoom. You might be comfortable setting this up on your own, but if you’re not? Young people are. Most were raised on a steady diet of computers, iPhones and digital everything—so hand the task over to them. All you need to do is to have the Boom Again game, a list of players’ emails, and set a date and time.
It opens a conversation between the generations
Boom Again isn’t just a boomer game. To someone who grew up in the era, it’s a trip down memory lane. Yet what we call nostalgic, millennials call retro. What we call our childhoods, they call history (and sometimes ancient history if they’re trying to be funny).
Yet the truth is, the younger generation pays more attention than we think. They know our songs. They’ve watched our TV shows. And, yes, they may have learned about what we experienced growing up in their high school history class vs. on the streets like we did, but the fact is, they still learned an awful lot of it.
Even the game tokens in Boom Again are a real conversation starter between the generations. The playing pieces include authentic items like a roach clip, a 45-record insert, and a skate key, among others—things people under 50 may well never have seen before.
Most importantly, Boom Again is a boomer game that doesn’t take itself too seriously
Boom Again is played in teams, so if you’re playing with a mix of ages, be sure to place people of varying ages on each team to make things fair. The game questions aren’t meant to trip up your brain like in other trivia games. Rather, they’re designed to be fun, to spark memories of “days gone by” —and mostly to bring people of all stripes together for a good time.
And these days, we need that more than ever
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