But the dominant genre during this period was the much more frenetic first-person shooter. With many shooter engines increasingly providing tools to build your own levels or otherwise modify game content, it’s no surprise that many gamemakers began using these tools for other purposes. Many of the earliest walking simulators (including Dear Esther, The Stanley Parable, and Mary Flanagan’s 2003 [domestic]) were originally mods for first-person shooters, and the first-person perspective has come to define the genre.
I love the connection they make to how the walking simulators paved the way for a lot of modern gaming. Many of the root mechanics found in modern first-person games like Call of Duty are seen as deriving from walking simulators and fight back against the notion that walking simulators were useless and had no impact on the gaming industry.