Yes? Completing objectives in the order I feel like at the time can absolutely be a better experience than a forced sequence of objectives that are misaligned with how I feel at the moment.

Minecraft made a bajillion dollars.

Breath of the wild and jet island were able to create this feeling of curiosity where I’d go “huh, that think in the distance looks cool, let’s check it out!” and then, as I was checking it out, it turned out it is relevant to story and progression and also very cool.

Open world plus mods. Ever heard of Skyrim?

The Witcher 3. Linear as hell story, super fun open world. It was literally gwent simulator for me by the time I finished that game.

I’ll just mention Star Citizen and fetch the popcorn.

NFSU2

I pretty much always prefer open world, or at least something interconnected like a Metroidvania. Linear makes me feel like my back is against the wall.

Elden Ring did it very well.

I would definitely say Gothic 1 and 2. Cannot imagine the games being better without it.

Open world =/= giant map

Take resident evil games, Control, Batman. Some larger maps than others, but the key is open. Most of the map or level is available to you to explore how you like, with a linear story guiding you through as well, and then progression opens smaller locked areas and new levels.

Yes. Many. Stop playing Ubisoft checklist simulators.

Generally, good open world games have a lot more emergent content - situations that emerge from the interaction of agents and simple mechanics (in the style of how simple rules create complex outcomes in the “Game of Life”) - whilst good linear games have highly curated set-pieces scenarios which were created by level designers directly.

For an example of the former, imagine you’re running around the Game World looking for a special kind of plant to create a potion that you need. You come across a battle between bears and a bandit group. When they die their drops are free for the taking and both groups are too high level for you to take on your own. None of this was setup to happen when you crossed some trigger line, it literally just happened because those the entities in those groups are part of enemy “factions” and the patrol route of one group (a route which might itself be procedural rather than fixed) passed near enough the position of the encampment of the other.

This kind of thing randomly happen is just not something you get in linear games which are generally just set-pieces and even the ability to pull on group of high level enemies to another group has to be designed in (mainly by making the restricted game area big enough for it in that section and placing the groups in the right places).

This is also why in a linear game if you die and restart you get the same fights in the same places you had before up to the place were you died unless that section of the game was designed with enough alternate paths of mechanics (say, hide mechanics) that you can go around and avoid certain fights.

Emergent content is also why Multiplayer can be a lot of fun, though in this case the “agent” whose interactions can give rise to all sorts of situations are other players.

Not much. Open-world is often a design for a looooot of space without intention. It used to be a technical prowess, but now it’s mostly for bland chores simulators. Generic open-worlds and mobile games have hurt game design a lot, especially in the 2010’s, but IMHO, Fromsoft has saved us from that by creating a semi-open, interconnected world design that felt vast and intentional. Elden Ring was their first modern open-world and they nailed it with all that Souls experience.

I play Fallout 4 like Sims with guns.

Also, mods.