I see Gone Home as working similarly to many mystery books, which could be the reason why many people craving the familiarity of structured games may not enjoy the walking game genre. The player is somewhat forced to piece things for themselves instead of to follow the game's plot. Even in horror games, the goal is often to "survive" or to "not get scared," yet Gone Home didn't fall into any obvious category at first glance.

Really mazes can come from a variety of different settings, is this why they are probably one of the most popular form of in-game storytelling?

The reason for why mazes are so interesting is that there are reasons to uncover every corner of the 3D landscape you are exploring, with a risk reward factor involved.

I think this is an interesting idea. When Murray mentioned the story telling allure of the Odysseus story, she mentioned how Odysseus finding his way out in a seemingly impossible situation was what made the story so powerful. Even if the story only led to one ending result, it still excited readers. However, the maze's shortcoming was this very aspect of the adventure--that it had only one end result.