tl-dr version is i'm not talking about Sandbox/open world games so i recommend reading.

okay, so i've given a lot of thoughts on why exactly that i don't like what a lot of people love about popular games, like Call Of Duty, Uncharted, Gears of War, and before you just throw me down and show me pictures of how good uncharted looks and how so good is the shooting of Gears, or tell me i'm a fanboy blah blah blah, please, i'm going to try the best i can to not "insult" your precious games, i'm also going to make it much easier to read this by making comparisions so here goes!

one thing about a lot of popular video games that are highly regarded by games, is linearity, a lot of people talk about the storyline, the graphics, the campaign the online, but are missing an important factor here, nope, its not RPG elements, nor character interactions, or lots of sidemissions and content. and before you guess, NO! i'm not talking about gameplay , yup i got you, its not the gameplay in a sense. but its the linearity of the gameplay, or better yet, the ability of the game to be played over and over without it feeling the same or repetitive, for example! lets compare some games for better understanding, and i'll start with one of the dearest games around.

Uncharted series.

yes, to me the Uncharted series is never going to be a classic, why's that you-filthy-fucking-hipster-asshole-trying-to-get-attention you say? , well its because this game's replay value is very slim, the game is very linear, it hand hold the player a lot... or should i say all the time actually, for example, drake finds himself in a burning factory and you have to get out, so what does the game do? show you the exit and create an invisible hallway for you to just move forward and mow down everyone infront of you, you only  have one place to go, BUT thats not the only linear thing about it, you only have ONE way to do it, you don't have to think of way yourself, the game actually tells you how to do it, and THATS what i mean by linearity, now imagine you playing it again, it won't change. you will do the exact same thing you did last time, and if you play it again you will do it again and again and again, so the game is just one time play and just forget it exist and move on to the sequel, its NOT a classic, and once you play it you've played it, unlike for example Half Life which you can mess around with stuff, and can do a lot of stuff that don't involve one single mechanic.

Now this is common on other games like Gears Of War, Call Of Duty, Mass Effect,Assassins Creed....

Wait Wtf asshole how come you compare these games together? , they're not the same! , and WTF you idiot Assassins Creed is a sandbox , and Mass Effect has multiple choices to make! , its not linear at all!

Well to answer that last bit, Mass Effect is VERY linear, if you actually broke it down to pieces , like all bioware ganes, you find it actually very linear in it's gameplay, since the only nonelinear is the character interactions and conversations, the way you do the missions is always the same, either you pick whatever class, you still have to go from point a to point b, you can't stategize (Valkyria Chronicles) and thinking outside the box about how to accomplish the mission (Deus Ex)

But i also mentioned Assassins Creed, now thats a tricky game to explain since to most people being a sandbox game means its not linear, which isn't true, how? , you see in ass creed when you play you are actually put in city you are free to explore around and jump around, but when it comes to doing the quests themselves , the game becomes just another Uncharted/Gears/whateverlineargame, but thats not all! , Assassins Creed is very known for telling you EXACTLY what you have to do, like a mother hand feeding her child, you will have all these cool gadgets and gizmos that you want to use and manupilate, but the game forces you do to one thing because it thinks you you are dumb and can't think for yourself, its true that some missions offer a bit sense of freedom of doing things, but they all have a very specific way of doing it, UNLIKE for example the HITMAN series, you see that game, they never exactly tell you what to do and where to go , and where you do it, you just have to play around with stuff and with each time you play a mission you discover a new thing you haven't seen before because the game didn't say "HEY LOOK THERE IS SHIT HAPPENING IN THERE, ISN'T THAT FREAKING COOL!?!?!"

and thats about what i think about linearity, feel free to discuss, and sue/flame/troll/hatemeforlife.

now i'm off to bed see you guys , and here is a good song to listen to while you read this wall of text.

yes, yes , this song was in Alan Wake , just so that i can't reply to anyone asking me while i am "in dreams" Pun intended lawl

OK

mario is linear - i was under the impression that one was a classic.

in fact, i would argue that non-linearity largely makes a game less popular. the majority of the gaming audience needs guidance on how to play or they will get lost, confused and then bored, frustrated.

While I agree with most of your points, in theory, I still found Uncharted 2 fun enough that I played the game 3 times from start to finish. I'm not sure why the linearity didn't bother me in that game, maybe because you can at least change the way you fight the enemies you encounter (stealth, cover, rambo-style).

What I really got out of reading your post though is an urge to dig out my old Hitman games and play them.

Well, It depends on the game.

I preferred the Mario Galaxy series over the older series simply because of the linearity, it was much better to have a single objective than to be lost and have no idea what to do next, or I actually preferred Metroid: Other M's linearity over Prime 3's being lost and having to explore very single corner and backtrack a TON.

But in a good RPG I prefer it to be kinda open, or in an adventure game like Zelda.

Mario Bros. 3 is not linear. You can choose which stage you play and using power ups you can change how you play each stage

every game is linearity

they all allow you to do only wht the developer designs it to do. there are no open ended games. its like life. you can go anywhere in the world, and the moon but the ability to travel into space and the farthest reaches of the Galaxy have not been made yet, and then after that where do you go?

once you reach the end thats it. you go back home, or stay on the planet you liked the most, and repeat the day not doing much different from yesterday.

The OP makes a really great point and I agree with it.

I hate the linearity in games. Uncharted 1 and 2 are both fantastic and amazing games to play through, but their replay value for me is insanely low due to the fact that there is only one very specific path to take the entire game and only one way to do everything. There is no exploring. You keep going in the same direction and jump from rock to rock..shooting guys as you go.

The second Uncharted game did an amazing job at working around this, however. They did it a lot better, and I felt like I was exploring the world even while I was on an insanely linear track. It's weird.

I definitely do enjoy games that let you explore the worlds and wander around more. I love Super Mario 64 for that fact. In Super Mario Galaxy, you are restricted constantly in everything you can do depending on what star you get. There are very few stars were actual exploration is necessary. in SM64, you had the entire world in front of you and you could bounce around and do anything you wanted in that world as you completed the stars.

Linear is such an ugly generalization - a term easily applied to games that take you from points 'a' and 'b'.

I do not define games that allow for different options to get from-and-to those points as linear. Great examples are the Halo series, Uncharted etc. Also, games that provide different approaches to levels, such as stealthily maneuvering through obstacles and enemies should never be classified as linear. I'm sure you will find that Logan, Snake and Sam Fisher would agree with me on that. Lastly, games that have mini games and side quest (in a free environment) are automatically 'explorable' games.

Theoretically, all games are linear. There's a start and there's a finish. It is what lies inbetween (or in the paragraph above :P) that truly distinguish linear games from others Unfortunately, people are not making (or don't want to make) the distinction between linear and explorable games. Instead we have the same argument applied to all games that-God forbid- gamers did not enjoy.

The only game I can call linear without hesitation, is Final Fantasy XIII, and I play dozens of games a year. That's why when people loosely call games linear, it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth... not so much that I lose sleep though XD