Assuming Linear in Gaming means a prescribed path or direction one must take with as minimal options as possible, then I would linear is a bad thing in many respects.
Player Characters need freedom, the more of it they can get the better.
Forcing Storyline, or worse making cut-scenes and forcing countless hours of dialogue on the PC to ensure they fully know the storyline, is just a horrible way to write a module.
Forced Game-play is by far the most annoying thing I encounter on most modules.
Not all players like storyline, truly, in fact many would probably prefer lite storyline, as far as quest/plot goes, those can either be linear or non-linear, as you have a set objective and should obtain it, or the objective may require the PC to think (that part I like).
That's the beauty of quest, they more or less throw away the need for a complex storyline that one must follow to the letter. A quest could be something simple like bring me the head of a ____, or it could be very complex, like find a black lotus, which could entail searching many different areas to find said flower, nothing linear about that at all.
Linear, by and large, is something to avoid whenever possible, freedom & options are far more important in a game than forced or prescribed game-play, but that's my point of view, not everyone will see it that way.
To me the line is crossed when forced (cut-scene abuse) game play takes precedence over freedom. In short that's my answer.
To answer your question more thoroughly, multiple linear quest are acceptable, though completely linear storyline & module however, may be unacceptable to many players. I would say too much linear game play can ruin it for many players, linear can entail an area with only one type of monster in it & only one sort of interractin it as well (like just combat), this sort of linear playing is often frowned upon by many, so it should be avoided.
The more diverse you make areas & adventures, the better!
Just my 2 copper pieces.
Modifié par _Guile, 17 septembre 2011 - 07:43 .
