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Millennial and Gen Z Lotería
301 Plays2 years ago
Expressing and celebrating culture can take place in so many ways. It can be creative, meaningful, and fun. That's exactly what Mike Alfaro, does through his hit games, Millennial and Gen Z Lotería. In Episode 38, Mike shares how he came up with a modern twist on the game he grew up playing in Guatemala and how he captures and celebrates cohort culture.
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Transcript
Introduction to Episode 38
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to hashtag Gen Z. I'm your host, Megan Grace.
00:00:18
Speaker
Hello and welcome back. This is episode 38 of hashtag Gen Z.
Shaping of Generational Culture
00:00:22
Speaker
If you tuned in last episode, you know we've officially kicked off season four, and we're starting off by exploring culture and generation Z. In our research, we look at generational culture through the lens of events and movements in society that shape a cohort's values, behaviors, and perspectives.
00:00:37
Speaker
In my mind, a generational cohort draws many parallels to the culture that various identity groups hold. Understanding and celebrating culture makes life richer and meaningful. However, in the generational space, cohort culture is often included in the commentary and narrative about negative stereotypes. Example, any headline that says millennials are killing XYZ industry or young people can't buy homes because they buy too many lattes and avocado toast.
00:01:02
Speaker
These headlines point out a component of culture, but they don't go much further to understand and empower the differences in culture among generational cohorts. In this episode, I'm joined by someone who I think is celebrating culture better than anyone else I know, and not just generational cohort culture, but also his personal culture and heritage.
Meet Mike Alfaro
00:01:21
Speaker
Mike Alfaro is the creator of Millennial Loteria, a modern update to the classic Latinx game that became a number one bestseller and sold out at every target store in America. That's right, every target store in America. With over 10 years of agency experience as an award-winning creative director, Mike also brings a wealth of industry knowledge and Latinx insights to all of his collaborations, including his skills as a video creator, copywriter, and graphic designer. He's really just very talented.
00:01:47
Speaker
Some of his past collaborations include work for Honda, Walt Disney Pictures, DC Comics, HBO, Target, Maker's Mark Whiskey, and even a special commission by President Joe Biden. So please welcome Mike to the podcast.
00:02:03
Speaker
Well, I'm so excited for today's episode. I feel like I say I'm excited for every episode, but I think I'm actually extra excited for this one because it's a little bit of a reunion. Today I'm joined by a good friend that actually met from college and we've been able to reconnect over his amazing work, Millennial Loteria.
Millennial Loteria: A Cultural Celebration
00:02:17
Speaker
We're going to talk a bit, obviously a lot more about that in a minute, but I want to welcome my friend, Mike. Mike, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for having me, Megan. It was so cool for you to invite me.
00:02:27
Speaker
I'm so excited because I've actually been following. Obviously, you've got just this booming online presence with the work you're doing with your Loteria games, but you're also incredibly funny. And I feel like people just picked up on that. I'm like, you all are a decade behind on that because Mike's always been very funny.
00:02:44
Speaker
Very delighted to have you, no pressure to be funny, just be yourself if you need to today. But let's talk a little bit about what it is that you do. I mean, I've known you since college, which is wild to think about, but we were chatting off air. You know, our life has taken us in different directions, maybe some stuff that we studied when we were in college, but what are you doing today? And tell us a bit about the journey of how you got to what you're doing with the work you're doing today.
00:03:09
Speaker
Yes, so I still work in advertising. I went to school for advertising and public relations with a minor in television at Chapman University. And I now work as a creative director and an advertising agency in LA. And then I also have my side business, which is quickly becoming my main business, which is a loteria game, which is a board game that's traditional in Latin America. A lot of Hispanic countries play loteria.
00:03:36
Speaker
Which is It's a really easy game. It's kind of like bingo. In fact bingo came from loteria So it's a very similar process, but instead of numbers it's images and the images a lot of them relate to Hispanic culture So what I did was that I updated this game to be modern to be more millennial and now even have a Gen Z version just to provide a representation of Latinos that it's modern that it's new and that was really lacking in the
00:04:23
Speaker
out there in
00:04:25
Speaker
Like Maker wasn't something that I set out to do. I just kind of fell into it. But I think I've been able to use a lot of what I learned at Chapman to be able to promote the game and basically get a huge following for it. So this is not a Chapman plug, but it does breed greatness. Uh, no, there's, and it's just so funny to me. They're like, it's a side hustle. Like, Oh, I'm sorry. You are, you have an exclusive with Target. Like you're Taylor's lifting a little bit and like having something that is exclusively sold at Target.
00:04:52
Speaker
It's wild, but that is incredible. I saw the video you posted about taking your parents to Target to look at the game and I'm like sitting trying at my house, like trying not to cry because it's so amazing what you've done and what you've created both as a celebration of
00:05:07
Speaker
Not only your personal culture and your personal heritage, but also generational culture. And we're going to kind of talk about that beautiful collision. You have a Bob Ross happy accident in what you've done. And I think that there's so many people that can look at that and be like, wow, what an amazing celebration of the things that have made you you. So you touched a little bit on what the game is.
00:05:30
Speaker
And I am proud to say we played Loteria a little bit growing up in my elementary schools when we were learning about it. So I've got a little bit of a background in it, but you know, tell us more. What is your, what are your Loteria games? How do you play it? And then how did you come up with this concept? I know you said you saw kind of that lack in that market, but walk us through that process of, and do you have that, you've recollection of that moment when you're like, what if I did this?
Nostalgia and Cultural Representation
00:05:56
Speaker
Yeah, totally. So I, you know, the game, like I said, it's a super easy game. It's you play it with boards that have 16 little cards on the board. And there's a caller kind of like Bingo, who's pulling out cards from, you know, a deck of cards. So it could be for our game, it's like,
00:06:13
Speaker
la selfie, el hipster, you know, the hashtag, things that relate to millennial culture. And the images are very reminiscent of the old images that you grew up playing Loteria with. They've just been updated. And so if you have those cards on your board and you're able to get four in a row, kind of like bingo, you yell out, yes, millennial Loteria and win the game. So it's a very easy game, super simple, like really easy drinking game too, if you like to like
00:06:41
Speaker
take a sip every time you get a card. So it's really fun at parties and it's super easy to pick up. And so the question, Oh yeah. And so after that, you know, you kind of know that the game and you know, you played it, I think for me, it was about bringing representation that was modern because I had my old game that I grew up in playing in Guatemala and I was actually
00:07:04
Speaker
in Guatemala in 2017, the summer of that, that's when it started. And I found my Oloteria game. And this is around the time when the Me Too movement was really gaining traction. And the women's march was going on on TV. And I remember seeing all these women marching down the streets in Washington and all over the United States with their boards. I don't know how you say it in English, I guess, the boards that they carry.
00:07:32
Speaker
and basically the signs and I was looking at my game and I saw La Dama which is this very outdated basically the lady and it says outdated sort of representation of women and I was seeing what's going on TV and I was like man like if they did a loteria nowadays this wouldn't be La Dama it would be La Feminist.
00:07:50
Speaker
And I was like, oh, that's a fun little, like, you know, update to this game. I wonder if I could do another card. And so I saw El Catrin, which is the gentleman in Spanish. And he's kind of dressed kind of like a hipster, you know? So I was like, oh, that'd be funny. Nowadays, this would be a hipster. You know, he's got his little monocle and like, kind of like hipster dressed. And so I thought, wow, I could probably, let me see if I could do all these cards. So I started updating each one. And I just started putting him on, you know, on Facebook on for,
00:08:19
Speaker
People to my friends, you know from college to laugh at and then I put him on Instagram And it was just like a fun meme that I was doing it wasn't something that I would wanted to make a game out of it was just you know a fun little side thing I'm always been you know doing little creative projects here and there
00:08:35
Speaker
but it started to blow up on Instagram and I started to get, you know, a lot of followers and all of a sudden I was like, oh wait, now I have like a thousand followers? That's crazy. And I started getting hit up by media. There were a few outlets that reached out to me like Mitu, Remes, Glaveri, Hispanic-centric outlets who wanted to chat about the project and I did interviews.
00:08:58
Speaker
and that's when it really started to blow up and I started to get so many followers and so many comments every time I posted a new card because I was posting each card of the deck one by one kind of like a countdown and people were saying you know when can I buy this game where can I get it where how can I buy this and at the time I wasn't making a game so I was like I don't know it's not not for sale it's just for fun but the response was so huge that I was like maybe I should make it a game
00:09:27
Speaker
And so I made the first, I invested all my savings that I had at that point from working in advertising into making the first a thousand copies of the game. And I thought that was going to last, you know, like, you know, six months or five months. I thought I'm going to have to go to like little, you know, fairs and sell them there with my little booth or whatever. Um, but they sold out in like less than a week, like all those thousand copies just sold out for my website. And I was there packaging and like shipping like, like crazy, you know, because millennials, we want things fast.
00:09:56
Speaker
So I was like, you know, had my little sweatshop going and shipping them as fast as I could. And that's when I realized, okay, there's a huge demand for a game like this out there. I need to start mass producing mass distribution. I need to figure out how to scale this up. Um, and that was sort of the beginning of how this started. I love that. I'm like just sitting here smiling because I love to see when good things happen to good people. And, um, I will say that I think I remember you starting, uh, cause we've been connected on social media for awhile, like,
00:10:24
Speaker
when he started to put the cards out. And I think that the art is beautiful on them. I love kind of an old, I'm always the person to buy the old looking piece of art. That's just an old print. I've always loved those vintage prints. And I remember when he started putting it out there, I was like, oh, those are just pretty. Or, oh, that's kind of funny, a little bit tongue in cheek. You've got some that are definitely cheeky. And really, I thought that was such a creative take on it. And I think that the original design of the cards in there, they're kind of true.
00:10:53
Speaker
I would say original fashion still beautiful but what you've done like I don't know if it's you that's doing the art or if you work with an art director like I still think the cards are beautiful and so I love that it was just like that inspiration where you're like this could be
00:11:05
Speaker
for us, like this could be for our generation and taking that into account. And it's just hilarious that you're like, I guess I could sell them at fairs. And then you're like, well, just sell them at Target. I'll just go straight to the Target. Now you're riding that rocket ship to distribution. And that's just incredible. I love that that inspiration moment.
00:11:24
Speaker
Again, I think that some of the most beautiful things in our life we don't, we don't plan for. And I don't know if you necessarily plan for your childhood game to become your, your passion, but I think it's wonderful what you're doing, how you're capturing. Um, I think it's, it's, this is where my like very curious mind comes into this because I'm always.
00:11:42
Speaker
I'm more on the research side of it, like studying the culture of a generation. And, you know, you've started to be like, oh, well, this would be like la feminista and this would be this and this would be this. But as we know, generational culture is kind of malleable and it moves relatively quickly. In some cases, it's what is like, I don't want to be like too heady, but the zeitgeist of young people in what is cool. And how have you been staying up to what is with
00:12:10
Speaker
generational culture to evolve the games. Yeah, I mean, I think you touched a little bit on the nostalgia factor of the images. That was a really big thing for me. I think nostalgia is a huge, huge driving factor in the success of this game, just because a lot of Latinos
00:12:25
Speaker
have this nostalgia for their home, nostalgia for, you know, their heritage. And so I think I didn't want to change the game too much of Millennial Tidia, just because I wanted to retain that feeling that you got when you played it when you were young, because it's such a big motivator for us as well. Nostalgia is huge within the Millennial community. And I mean, also we love to feel young. And so anything that makes us feel young still reminds us of our childhood, is something that
00:12:53
Speaker
that moves us, I think it's a pressure point for us to motivate action. So I think that was something really good for me that no matter how modern things can look at the start, taking things to a modern, you know, not generation, but a modern take on it was very important for me to keep.
00:13:11
Speaker
And so staying up to date with culture now, I do that for my job all the time. I'm always on social media. I think TikTok for me has been a really big driver in to seeing what is going on with Gen Z culture specifically, because now that we have Millennial Octaria, we now have a Gen Z edition for younger generation that is different than Millennial Octaria. I mean, as you've seen, generational change happens fast. And, you know, we grew up in the narrow where Facebook
00:13:40
Speaker
When I was going to college, Facebook was only for college students. Now to think how huge Facebook is now is completely different than how it was then. And I see people doing the same with TikTok. I think to myself now, imagine if we had Uber back in college. I remember walking around trying to get to a party where now we could just call an Uber driver to get us there.
00:14:03
Speaker
food now with all the food delivery services that there are. I don't have to walk all the way down to Taco Bell. We could have just ordered to our room. And so I'm thinking of all these different generational changes that now younger people have that we didn't have and how that sort of impacts, you know, culture. So it's definitely all about staying up today with social media. That's been a huge driver of because that's where our market is really their own social media. That's where all of our advertising happens as well.
00:14:29
Speaker
Yeah, I guess the one benefit of going to college before Uber was the thing is we all stayed pretty fit because we walked everywhere and we were like, we don't money to buy a taxi. You're out of your mind. We were just like, we're going to walk everywhere, which was totally fine. But yes, you can see that dissonance point of the difference and the vantage point. And that's really where our work, my work with the research side of it comes in. It's like, where do we find that vantage point and how do we start to quantify it?
00:14:57
Speaker
But I really love what you're doing to celebrate the difference in vantage points and how you kind of peer into that. I know you mentioned that you're using social media quite a bit to kind of capture, you know, what is, I don't want to say the vibe with the young people today, because I believe that's a term they would use.
00:15:14
Speaker
To what level do people on social media help influence that? Is there ways that they are like, hey, you should make this card or you should include this in the next one? Or are you just kind of as what I would say a lurker? Not in a weird way, but like, are you just kind of like observing or is there feedback channels that you use to source some information?
00:15:32
Speaker
You know, I think I really I definitely try not to use any ideas that come from people because it's such a personal work for me. I still try to keep something. Everything relates to my life. Everything relates to what I do. There's a story behind every single card of how it sort of came to my mind.
00:15:49
Speaker
But for this new Gen Z edition, I definitely, it was very inspired by TikTok trends. What was trending on TikTok at the moment, you know, from 2020, when I joined the platform, I'm up to like 260,000 followers on there. And I've been using all like, you know, the feedback I get from things that I do.
00:16:11
Speaker
that are, you know, post videos and if people think it's funny, I was like, okay, there's a, there's something there for me to, to vibe off of, but it's mostly reacting. I post the cards on social media before they were actually, you know, printed out. And so I can test a little bit of the vibe of which ones are getting the more likes, which ones are getting the more comments, which ones are people reacting to. And that's sort of how I'm getting a little bit more of the feedback. It's not really the,
00:16:34
Speaker
idea, the original idea for the cars, like it does not come from people, but I definitely do see, okay, we should include this one in the game or this one, maybe we should just like post it on social. And that's where it lives because it didn't get enough traction. And so that's where we're, um, where I'm sort of coming from with getting feedback from people. And it's been helpful and I do, you know,
00:16:55
Speaker
With TikTok, it's really easy to get perspective from other people because it's not people you follow.
Impact of TikTok and Gen Z on Game Development
00:17:02
Speaker
It's really just random people popping up on your FYP and you don't feel like you're lurking. You just feel like your FYP is just showing you things. And then that's where I get a little bit of the ideas.
00:17:13
Speaker
This new Loteria has like El Dance Trend or El Thirst Trap, El E-Boy, La Activist, El ASMR, you know, El Cancel, La Red Flag. These are all things that come from current pop culture. You said like 14 words where it's like...
00:17:29
Speaker
This must be on the TikTok because I don't know half of them and I might need you to be my like TikTok guide because I'm so I'm like still there. Like we're three years into it and I'm still like scared. Like I have my handle but I'm scared. I will say that I'm very intimidated by that platform.
00:17:44
Speaker
Uh, so I think it's incredible that you've been in that space and been able to observe. I feel like we do similar work, but our outputs are so different because mine's just like stats and numbers. Your seems a lot more fun. Um, but you know, as a millennial, you've created this game for Generation Z. You know, you've talked about how the, uh, how you've utilized a platform that has so much ownership of Gen Z on it. Um, I'm curious, I imagine because it's kind of like, it's like a respect
00:18:12
Speaker
recognizes respect kind of situation with Gen Z that if you kind of level with them, like they still welcome you in. But there is this element that Gen Z loves to set the tone and share their voice. So how have you worked with Generation Z? I know that you share a little bit about like you do have an intern or staff member that's Gen Z, but how are some ways that you've been working with Generation Z to make sure that their voice is adequately and accurately represented within the game and that it is aligning with them?
00:18:41
Speaker
Well, it's called, the game is called Millennial of Teria and Gen Z edition. So there is that little bit of, um, it wasn't from a branding standpoint. It was a little bit more complicated to figure out how to do it because I wanted it to be still something that millennials could play. Um, and I could learn from each other, but at the same time, Gen Z felt they could have ownership over it.
00:19:02
Speaker
So it was a little bit of a back and forth in figuring out how much do you make fun of Gen Z, how much do you like make Gen Z a little bit more aspirational. And I think that's the same with the good, with Mileno Teria is that there's some cars that make fun of millennials and some cars that really make them, lift them up in an aspirational way. And some that talk about issues that affect them. So the beauty is that we have so many cards, you know, it's a 42, a 46 card deck.
00:19:31
Speaker
So every single card can have a different point of view. It doesn't have to be one sort of point of view. So I think for me having that many different cards has allowed us to create a product that's not monolithic in terms of how we view the culture and provide different options and opinions for people. There would be maybe somebody who relates to six cards, maybe somebody who relates to 10 cards, maybe somebody who only relates to one.
00:19:56
Speaker
But there's something there for you. So that's sort of what has helped us out because when you're doing a project for generations that are so diverse, like especially Gen Z, you have to have different points of view in your output. I mean, we have a card in our Gen Z that's like those tide pods that's making fun of like that Gen Z trend that was like, oh, Gen Z is eating tide pods, you know?
00:20:18
Speaker
But there's also other trends out there that is like the activists that talk really about the activism behind Gen Z and shows that, you know, generations aren't just one thing where there's positive things about us, there's negative stuff about us. And I think Gen Z really appreciates there's an honesty behind that kind of work. And Gen Z, just like millennials, we can laugh at ourselves and we can also know when it's time to be serious. We're not one thing. And I think that's why this game has been able to
00:20:48
Speaker
connect with so many people because anyone can look at it and find some cars that really speak to them and their generation. I think that's amazing and with yes I think what's so funny about that is that is truly like the tact of
00:21:03
Speaker
of just like generational stereotypes is like some of them are funny and then some of them we like seriously need to pay attention to like we can't think about this generate like with we can't think about Gen Z without accrediting them with like such gargantuan efforts around activists of like it's amazing like I was like I'm gonna care about stuff
00:21:20
Speaker
from the comfort of my home and Gen Z's like out in the streets and I'm like, man, making me look lazy. But that is absolutely true. Like there is that fine line of when is it funny and when is it empowering and when is it a little bit of both? I might start prescribing this game, this special edition to my people that are now millennial managers and they're like, I need to learn Gen Z. I'm like, why don't you play this with your Gen Z
00:21:44
Speaker
student that you supervise or your gens need new employee because maybe this will help you get on their page because there is that there's that cultural value piece of it of like this is what me and my peers think is funny or this is the term we're using and if they use a term you're like I would have never guessed that that's the term they're using it almost makes an older generation feel like you're a dummy but that's not the case it's just we're getting to means by different avenues
00:22:08
Speaker
I love that you're, that you're being intentional and saying like, we can poke a little bit of fun, but we can also say like, here's some great things that each generation does. Yeah, it does. I don't want it to be, the games are never supposed to be like preachy or in any way, like, um, there has to be an element of fun of tongue in cheek of surprise of, uh, you know, of being like, Oh no, they didn't do this one card. You know, Oh my God, that's so like, you know, out there. Uh, so I think there has to be some of those feelings because.
00:22:37
Speaker
um, for our generation. Uh, we are used to, you know, millennials, we grew up getting so much crap from people. We grew up just hearing so many stereotypes about us. Um, but that really pushed millennial did he yet to be where it is because it is a game that celebrates us in all our ways from our good to our bad. Um, and it's.
00:23:00
Speaker
It feels honest because of that. It's not something that you would see and you're like, oh, this is just like millennials trying to make themselves look good. There's an element of like, I'm not, I'm just reflecting culture. And that was a bigger thing because people also with changing a game that looked at, yeah, which is a beloved game you grew up playing, there is that risk of people getting upset, um, of like you're changing culture. But I think for me, I've always told people, like I'm not changing culture. Cultures already changed. All I'm doing is reflecting it. Um,
00:23:28
Speaker
how we are, we're not our parents. There's absolutely no millennial out there who thinks they're exactly like their parents and they have the same beliefs, they have the same, you know, views on certain things. And the same can be said for Gen Z. And there is that generational gap that these games can fill, because millennial ateria was really played by millennials with older generations too. So when you play with your grandpa or your mom or dad, I think you could see them being like,
00:23:57
Speaker
not get like, what's a hashtag, you know, or like what's gender fluid. And so at some points when you're playing the game, millennials have to explain to their parents or their older peers what certain terms mean. And there's like that, that exchange of ideas and people can learn from each other. And that was something that's really beautiful about millennial ateria game that you can explain to your parents that, okay, yeah, this is what Tinder is. You know, this is what, uh, all these other things that were on there and they get to learn from, from you.
00:24:27
Speaker
Which was in a way how we play Loteria growing up because there were certain things in Loteria that were so outdated for me Even when I was a kid that I would ask my dad like what is Las Haras? What does that mean? And they would kind of teach me about this older generation of
Cross-Generational Learning with Millennial Loteria
00:24:40
Speaker
older things And with Gen Z there is that new way of doing it where you can play with Gen Z person teaching a millennial Okay, here's what Chugi means, you know, here's what a what ASMR means for me or how important that is in my life
00:24:55
Speaker
and you get that exchange of ideas. So it's a really good way to start a conversation with somebody of a different generation and learn from each other. Yeah, it's going to be my new prescription to everyone, really. Because what you've just described is the component that I really work with usually older generations of being like, how do I create harmony? And it's a willingness to learn. Truly, it's a willingness to learn from a younger generation and think, just because I'm older, I know everything. That's such a damaging thought.
00:25:23
Speaker
and how we get those generational riffs. And I think that what you've given is a really fun tool. I don't know if it's necessarily was the first reason you created it, but a fun tool for, I would say, cross-generational harmony to exist and allow for people to connect in and to talk about things that are relevant to young people or are relevant to a generation.
00:25:46
Speaker
and important to that culture without it being like, well, let me tell you about how like ridiculous avocado toast is or whatever the thing is that we're bagging on somebody about these days. And it puts it in this frame of like, well, we're just playing a game as a family. And I think that that's really beautiful.
00:26:02
Speaker
a really beautiful thing that you've created for people. You've allowed people to bond over something that's fun, but also meaningful. And I think that that is, whether, again, whether it was a happy accident or just the universal calling you to do it, I think that what you've provided for people is something really special.
00:26:23
Speaker
I mean, yes, you're like doing such incredible stuff with this. And again, I think that this is, if anything, it is not only a visually stunning game, I think that the artwork is beautiful, but the way in which it celebrates culture, both your personal heritage, the heritage of Latino people.
00:26:39
Speaker
as well as your age culture and the identity that you bring into that, the Gen Z that you bring into that. It's really, I think that you've created a model for, and I've shared about it with other people that are like, who's doing a good job at like sharing culture well? And I'm like, actually, check out this game. Because I think what you're doing is you're allowing other people to appreciate and come into your culture, come into culture of a generation in a way that is informative, it's celebratory, but it's reclaiming the things that matter and sharing those values.
00:27:09
Speaker
You're doing so in a way that people can respectfully engage. And I think that's so important. So that's me being a huge fan over here. And I'm really excited to see where this takes you. I think that you're really onto something and it's important.
00:27:26
Speaker
I always have one last question because this is a Gen Z focused podcast and we're just a bunch of two millennials sitting around being old people. But I know that you work with Gen Z and you are on their favorite platform. So I know you engage with them in a number of ways. And this might be hard for a hard question for you, but what is your favorite thing about the Gen Z that you engage with and that you work with?
00:27:49
Speaker
For me, it's that they are incredibly curious about other cultures. It is a very different take on other generations, where you sort of focused on your own culture and your own, you know, your own people, I guess, even with
00:28:11
Speaker
who you're friends with, who you're relating with, this Gen Z generation is incredibly the most diverse generation there's ever been. And so it's only normal that they are attracted to people of different races than their different cultures. And it's that willingness to be open and
00:28:30
Speaker
be learning from other cultures and not being like, my culture is the best, but also realizing that there's so many things about other different cultures that are amazing and they need to be celebrated and you want to learn from them. Tamina's been my favorite thing. It's, you know, they, Loteria, we made this game obviously open to having different people from different places. For the longest time, it's just been a Latino game, but I think millennial Loteria.
00:28:55
Speaker
and Jansi Loteria has opened up the floodgates for other people from whether you're black or Asian or white too that you can play this game and it's acceptable for you to come into this space, celebrate our culture, be part of it.
00:29:11
Speaker
and learn from it. And I think that's been my favorite thing that they're just so open and not just open, but they really do seek out like purposely go out of the way to find stuff from other cultures that is interesting and fun and worthy of being celebrated. That's really one of the biggest things I see from Gen Z. That's really cool.
00:29:32
Speaker
I agree with you. I think that they do, again, I don't want to give them a completely umbrella review, but I do think that this idea of respecting and celebrating other cultures and learning
00:29:45
Speaker
is something that they do very well in a manner that is, I think, reverent to other cultures without being appropriative. We all know that that's the situation that they're especially mindful of. I mean, they don't always 100% get it right. It's hard for anyone to 100% get it right all the time.
00:30:02
Speaker
being a human is hard but i think that they are especially conscious of that and that's something that is they don't get enough credit for i think it's a lot of people just like oh gen z is diverse they know how to be diverse like there's still the learning elements of being diverse while also being respectful and um and being mindful and conscious of other cultures so
00:30:24
Speaker
I agree with you. I think that that's a really good take on the ways that they're not only being diverse themselves, but celebrating that diversity. Well, Mike, this has been such a fun conversation. I have absolutely loved watching this kind of journey unfold for you and the ways this quote side hustle has really been a huge part of both your online presence and what you're doing in
Closing Remarks and Cultural Impact
00:30:47
Speaker
life. But the way you're bringing people together, the way that you're celebrating culture,
00:30:51
Speaker
I think it's just so wonderful. And I can't speak highly enough. I'm just so proud of you and everything that you're doing. But thank you for being here and sharing a little bit more about your work that you've been working on with the games and how you've been kind of engaging in your own generational culture studies yourself. Yeah. Follow us on Millennial Atria on TikTok and Instagram and get our game on target. It's really fun.
00:31:16
Speaker
Yeah, get your game at Target like just wild stuff. That's amazing. Yes, I'll be sure to include links and be able to share tags and everything so you can follow along with Mike and his really honestly very humorous journeys with the games.
00:31:31
Speaker
thousand percent i encourage it so thank you again mike it was wonderful to chat i want to thank mike for joining me in this episode while i've known mike for a while it's been absolutely incredible to watch this journey unfold for him he's worked to bring to life art in a game that truly celebrates culture in a meaningful and relevant way the literary a game celebrate not only is guadamal and heritage
00:31:52
Speaker
in the childhood experiences he had playing Littoria with his family growing up, but they also provided an important update that showcases generational cohort culture while encouraging productive dialogue across generations. The Littoria Games create a space for generational cohorts to celebrate and feel empowered about the aspects of their cohort culture that make them an important group in our society, while also poking a little fun.
00:32:16
Speaker
And I think that's the perfect summary of why people love talking about generations. It's fun to create connection and meaning about your cohort's vantage point on society. Whether it's trends of the time or underlying motivations and perspectives, each generation brings something special to the table. Going beyond the headlines allows us to see generational culture with more clarity and build stronger relationships within and across generations. So again, thank you, Mike. Your insights and your take on generational culture is something we can all learn from.
00:32:45
Speaker
And be sure to follow Mike on social media at millennialloteria and check out his games online at millennialloteria.com. You can also find his games at Target. Be sure to pick up your set soon. And thank you for tuning into this episode. As always, if you enjoyed this show, please rate, review and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. This is not only to help me improve the podcast, but it helps other listeners find the show. I have some more great episodes on deck where we'll continue to explore culture in Generation Z.
00:33:13
Speaker
However, if there's something you want to learn about, I'll happily be the one to help make that happen. So if you have something you want to share or a topic you'd like me to explore, please reach out via my website, meganmgrace.com or on social media. Thank you again for stopping by for this episode. Let's continue this conversation. We'll chat soon.