Not inherently, but the nature of non-linear games gives more room for awesomeness.

That said, many linear games are much better than non-linear games and it ultimately comes down to what you are aiming to do for the gamer.

No, but I do believe that a game can be overly linear if it begins to get to a point where you feel like you have no agency or you feel like you are playing a corridor shooter.

But no, linearity is not inherently bad, and as I've said many times, it is ofter used in somewhat of a misnomer-esque fashion.

I like them.

Linear is such a broad word, just like sandbox can be used broadly in today's gaming world.

The problem, and often its a combination of the baggage that comes with linear or non progressive games. In recent years, the main ''linear'' games have been psedo cinematic experience that just dont deliver on the gameplay. They have a look but dont touch asthetic to them, and its just not right in 2015.

You can have a great linear game experience, if the gameplay does the talking, not the visuals or so called cinematic experience.

Just gonna go out there and say it. Order sucked, Ryse sucked, not only because they were linear, but gameplay was a mare afterthought. They dont even offer a 10th of the creativity and gameplay satisfaction that games Infamous SS or Sunset Overdrive delivered.

Linear games are better than open-ended ones most of the time anyway. Not to mention, a lot more fun to replay.

Yeah, it was a bit unfortunate. To not mind and to like are different thing. The first implies you are simply neutral and dont particularly like or dislike.

On that note though, i like both. I think it would be bad if we only had one type.

If you show me a big world to explore, but only one way to get around it, then I'd say yes. I'm not very good at explaining this XD But look at Metroid: in most instances, that game is linear, but you can get out of your way to do other things (explore, collect items). That's good. Now look at Mario Galaxy: the game shows a big "space" world, but it's all essentially a straight line (except for the hungry lumas, which showed variety in the game).

But Mario Galaxy is awesome, so no, linear games aren't bad by themselves. It's how that one corridor the game has makes you feel (long and dull or fun and neverending) what makes a linear game good or bad.

EDIT: re-reading what I wrote, and now I understand why my literature teacher told me I have an inconclusive mind...

I don't really care if a game is linear as long as it's still fun.

I actually preffer linear games.

Yes, it's horrible.

Jokes aside, it can be a bad thing but it doesn't have to be. Half-Life games aren't generally considered bad, for example. Final Fantasy XIII is.