Where did the term "first person shooter" originate from?

[cambreaKer]

Seeing the origins of the term first person shooter would be interesting...

[Tetzlaff]

Shooter: Action Game with focus on shooting (and dodging enemy projectiles). First-person refers to the first-person view.

 

[Mr. Freeze]

The phrase "Doom clone" was used for a while for other FPS games like Dark Forces or Duke Nukem 3D. It was around the time of Descent (1995) that the term started wearing off in favor of "first person shooter"

[Tetzlaff]

Doom was undoubtedly genre-defining for the 1990s FPS, but in 1993 the term First-Person Shooter wasn't coined yet. I think it's interesting how id Software described their own game in the manual: Doom is a "lightning-fast virtual reality adventure". http://www.classicdoom.com/doominfo.htm

 

The adventure aspect is definitely there: exploration in rather complex 3D environments and some puzzling (simple key and switch puzzles).

[Jello]

I'm assuming it started being used around 1996/7, when third person shooters started becoming popular. Most notably Tomb Raider, but also MDK. I'm sure there's plenty of others.

 

I didn't really start hearing the phrase FPS until I got the internet in 1998, and by that point it was all over. But I think it was probably just a way to differentiate between third person and first person shooters. Up until that point I just called every FPS a "shooter". 

 

And apparently "Doom is on the run from Rise of the Triad". I'll never forget reading that on the box in Target back in 1995 and laughing.

[Mr. Freeze]

Honestly ROTT probably would have given Doom a run for its money if it was on a different engine. 

[Redneckerz]

It all started in 1973.  - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-person_shooter

Edited January 15, 2020 by Redneckerz

[diosoth]

On 1/14/2020 at 9:17 PM, Mr. Freeze said:

Honestly ROTT probably would have given Doom a run for its money if it was on a different engine. 

 

This I have to agree with. Being on a slightly beefier Wolf3D engine(a remnant from the abandoned plan that it was to be a Wolf3D sequel) compared to Doom having varying floor heights, stairs, elevators and rooms that had actual shapes to their construction other than an arrangement of cubes- visually it didn't stand a chance.

 

Tom Hall's opposition to allowing game mods(an idea that, in hindsight, would have ruined Doom's longevity) also carried over a bit to ROTT when he worked on it which also did the game no real favors. I know there are some levels for it but nowhere near what Doom's modding community offers.