Who Says Linear Games are a Bad Thing?

[Bodhesatva]

I'm strongly opposed to linear gaming, and I can tell you precisely why. The great strength of video games -- as opposed to movies, books, music, scultpure, painting, opera, stage drama, or any other medium we might compare them to -- is that the audience makes choices. The sequence of actions in a movie is predetermined by the film makers; the next word in a book is decided by an author; the lines in every aria are decided by the composer; the way each join in a finger articulates and connects to the next joint is decided by the sculptor.

The singular thing that separates games from other mediums is that interactivity, and linear gameplay specifically and consciously muffles this  unique aspect. It is the decision by the game designer to force you to go in a line that they define; you cannot go left, you cannot go right, you must go straight -- straight, as the game designer decides to define it. 

To repeat for emphasis: linear gameplay directly stifles the unique characteristic that defines video games as distinct from all other similar mediums. If you don't have a problem with that, you're welcome to your opinion. I personally believe that the best pieces in any medium play to the strengths of that medium, and don't try to be something else (a book trying to be a movie, or a stage drama trying to be an opera, and so forth).