 The episode is notable for being written by William Gibson , together with fellow science fiction novelist and long @-@ time friend Tom Maddox . " First Person Shooter " was the second episode written by the authors , after the success of the fifth season episode " Kill Switch " , which first aired on February 15 , 1998 and subsequently made frequent appearances in reruns , encouraging Gibson to continue working in television . According to executive producer Frank Spotnitz , the writing process for " First Person Shooter " was slow . Initially , Gibson and Maddox presented the first two acts of their idea , which was tweaked by series creator Chris Carter and Spotnitz in order to make it feel more like an X @-@ File . After the rewriting process , the writers then returned with the subsequent acts . Gibson and Maddox were fans of The Lone Gunmen and purposely wrote them into the episode . 
