Imagine what your perspective on gaming would be like if the N64 was your first system, or worse yet, the XBox. A whole generation that thinks Halo invented the FPS genre... how crappy.
I came from the generation that thinks it stems from Wolfenstein primarily (if there is such a generation), although I think games like Doom, Strife, and Duke Nukem 3D (and Quake, of course, but it had a jump-start thanks to its predecessors) really gave it the boost it needed to become as popular as it is today.
Then came Unreal and the highly overrated Half-life and it sortof exploded, I suppose. Shame Daikatana didn't live up to the hype. Oh well, just goes to show that one game that sells loads doesn't make you a game design God (Romero's hair.. god save us).
Um, rambling done.