All “generations” are social constructs without any fixed meaning and I’m sure people born around the same time throughout the world have some similarities in the changes they’ve experienced, the world history they’ve witnessed, and where they are as far as aging, families, etc.
I think it's the way reincarnation works too, because we lost so many souls in the first two wars they had to be reborn again. So this new Generation alpha or the next beta generation coming up will most likely have a boom again. The boomerang Generation, especially with all the wars and killings happening right now.
Definitely international, and we can all relate to coming of age in a newly digital world. But with differences.
Here in Britain, a lot of the 80s TV shows Americans here love and gush over either never came or didn't do anything ( maybe thrown on satellite channels as filler). References to, say, Macguyver, in other shows went over our heads.
For rock/alternative music, there was a big divide in our scenes between I'd say 1994 (Kurt Cobain's death) and 2001 (the rise of The Strokes) with little real crossover from either side. Shame, as I've found a lot to like in US alternative. Rap was only really popular here in diverse cities until Eminem.
For gaming, we were very much Sega Land between the home computers and Playstation, with the Megadrive (Genesis) being bigger than the SNES. The NES didn't do much while the Master System was decently successful as a budget console (though with the poor kid stigma). Sonic's a bigger deal than Mario here.
The Gameboy was universal, we loved it as much as you and no other handheld could compete.
At least in the 80s, cartoons and kids shows were often at least a year later for us. We didn't get the Ninja Turtles (or Hero Turtles officially for us thanks to ridiculous censorship rules at the time) until about 1989.
Brit born in 1982 here, and I was a bit young for the ZX Spectrum and others of the time like the Commodore 64 myself. For kids my age, they tended to be things older brothers had, or you got as a cheap hand me down later.
Not sure if you've ever seen Ashens on YouTube, but Stuart Ashen (born Dec 1976) is the right age for this and one of what I think of as the first generation of UK gamers.
I had an Amiga in it's final years so do have some experience of the whole copied games on disks scene.
Am American Xennial and that was my first computer.
Rampage, Battle Chess, Carmen Sandiego, Hybris (nobody remembers that one) - buncha fun games for young me.
New Zealander here that had an Amiga 500+.
I used to have a catalogue and a PO Boz address in Auckland that I would send $5 per disk to, and cracked games would arrive in the post shortly thereafter.
Monkey Island, Lemmings, Rainbow Islands, Cannon Fodder, James Pond 2, Zool, Speedball 2, Turrican 2, Syndicate, The Chaos Engine, The Settlers, The Fairy Tale Adventure, Populus 2, Fury of the Furies, The Lost Vikings. Some amazing games showed up in the post.
>New Zealander here that had an Amiga 500+.
>
>I used to have a catalogue and a PO Boz address in Auckland that I would send $5 per disk to, and cracked games would arrive in the post shortly thereafter.
>
>Monkey Island, Lemmings, Rainbow Islands, Cannon Fodder, James Pond 2, Zool, Speedball 2, Turrican 2, Syndicate, The Chaos Engine, The Settlers, The Fairy Tale Adventure, Populus 2, Fury of the Furies, The Lost Vikings. Some amazing games showed up in the post.
The timing of a few key pieces of tech (Apple II, NES, AOL (early dial up inernet)) are what differentiate the subgeneration, but these were largely worldwide without major gaps between places.
I'm not sure I understand this particular distinction between videos games as toys or video games as entertainment.
A toy is just an item used in play, which is what video games are. They are different from other media in that you are actively involved in controlling outcomes.
Playing with toys is something you grow out of.
Adults don't play with Legos, or Hot Wheels, or Barbies, or Video Games. That is, if you see video games (esp console games) as a toy. Virtually everyone older than Xennials does. There are sporatic gamers here and there, but they are very much exceptions.
Whereas when seen as entertainment, its just something else to do other than watching tv.
Video gaming has always been a core component of the boomer vs millennial cultural war. Gen X largely agrees with boomers.
I get Lego's Every year for Christmas since I turned 40 I am 45 now. I Play mostly old Video games but threw an Emulatore on my Gaming Computer. I have A pretty Big Collection of Transformers. I don't Play with my kids any more becouse there adults now
perhaps they mean it graduated from the kids table, and blossomed into a more lucrative and pervasive societal experience than movies-- its entertainment for everyone, rather than something you use to keep kids occupied.
You Can see it try to get more Grown up in the way Each Gen was Advertised From NES VS Sega Geneses. Sega Wanted to to think The Nintendo was for little kids and the PlayStation seemed even more for older kids
Toys are commonly associated with children, whereas entertainment can be for all ages. Xennials commonly caried their interest in gaming into their adult years, although certainly not all did. I would say some X'ers game as adults too, but widespread acceptance of video games as an adult activity (provided all your responsibilities are met first) largely started with us.
Ok so what you're saying is that video games are now widely accepted as adult entertainment.
I guess, I mean my parents played our Sega Genesis a lot, though that's admittedly a small sample size.
My Mom only Played Tetris on our NES. I Went From NES to Playstation by that time i was not Living at home. I have friends with Genesis or Super Nintendo
What is a Xellenial? Also, now that so many of us are gathered, can we choose one good name and stick with it? The options suck and I dont want to call myself that 😅
I'm from Canada, definitely a Xennial. My friend who is the same age and grew up in Argentina relates more to X'ers with the lack of technology she was exposed to.
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