When I think linear, I think a straight line making you go from one place to the next, with no backtracking, and no choice as to what you want to do- you have no place to go but forward in the game. I don't associate linearity with changing the game world or effecting the outcome of the game. For me, games are just about having fun every moment you are playing the game. If I am playing XIII, for the majority of the game, I have to do what the game is telling me to do at that moment. In XII, if I get sick of being in a particular dungeon, I can leave, go to an orange crystal and teleport somewhere else and do whatever I want, be it trying to see how many mobs I can chain, hunt some marks, try to gather materials for bazaar stuff, etc. I love going to some cool looking location like the stillshrine of miriam and just trying to chain as high as I can. That has absolutely no effect on the game world, but it's my idea of a fun Saturday night! I think honestly what you are describing as linear...isn't there another name for those sort of very open ended games? I don't play them, so I don't know. I just don't think of linear the same way you do. Maybe I need to look it up.