If you think about it, nearly every video game is basically a linear story. A lot of them try to disguise this with numerous side quests, and maybe two or three alternative endings, depending on how the rest of the game was played, but they're still largely linear. Most digital RPGs are essentially interactive stories and, like paper and ink stories, there's almost always a definite beginning and a definite end. Some day, with more system memory and faster processing speeds, programmers may be able to craft a more open-ended game but we're probably not going to see one anytime soon.
Also, since you can usually save and reload often, there's very little danger involved in video/computer games. It's not like the old days where you had a few 'lives' and, once they ran out, you had to start over from scratch. I think that this would be a cool feature to bring back. Allow saves, but once a character dies a few times, the saves are all erased and you have to start over again.
Pen and paper/tabletop games, especially sandboxy ones, can avoid some of the former, while the real risk of losing a PC to death certainly overcomes the latter.
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