"Linearity": Why all the fuss?

[rocketpig]

twesterm said:

disolitude said:
I find linear games better than open world games.

Linear games are more focused in providing the gamer with most amount of fun he can have at that moment. also liner games have less filler...

Non linear games give the choice to the player to choose his missions. Players know jack shit. They go to the mission they think they will be most fun...but that is not always the case. Also, they are full of filler to make the games appear longer and to provide the illusion of freedom.

For example...

Ninja Gaiden 2 - challenge after challenge after challenge = fun time after fun time after fun time
GTA4 - fun game broken appart by side missions some of which are tedious as fuck and some which are mildly amusing...10 hours of fun stretched in to a 30 hour game.

It's funny, I've played through Mass Effect twice now and the time I played it more as a linear game I enjoyed it *much* more.

First playthrough -- played the four worlds and did almost no sidequests

Second playthrough -- played three of the words, did all the sidequests I could, and the finished Virmire.

On the second playthrough when I played it as more of an open world game, I hated the game.  I was so sick of it by hour 13 or so and I still had another 10 left.  The pacing was utterly destroyed.  On my first playthrough I made the mistake of not playing Virmire last but I played the four worlds one after the other and the game rocked.

I don't think that has much to do with linearity, T. I think that has more to do with everything not centering around the main story in ME being complete and utter shit.

Oh, yeah! Let's go do a story mission which is fleshed out with great characters, amazing environments, and a tight battle system!

or

Oh, yeah! Let's go do a sidequest where I land on a barren planet, scream for 20 minutes as I try to get this nearly uncontrollable piece of shit Mako to go in the correct direction, and then bombard a small complex that looks the exact same as the complex I raided on (fill in system name here) half an hour ago!