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I disagree. However I will say that I went through the same thing. After one plays around with trying to develop a nonlinear storyline for awhile, one quickly realizes how bloody difficult it is to find something compelling.... let me put forth the notion that knowing the idea is sound is much easier than executing it.

An example: the film TimeCode . In case you haven't seen it, TimeCode is a 4:3 ratio film consisting of four separate panels, each of which contains a continuous 'shot' of video. All four are locked together time-wise, and there are no traditional edits (as such). It was a very clever work, and a new way of looking at a series of sequential events. At first I found it weird, but it only took 5 minutes or so to draw me in. A truly unique film experience, and one that was nonlinear in the shallowest sense; you directed your attention where you wanted it to go, rather than being forced by the director's camera.... or at least between the four shots offered by the director. It did subtly direct your attention through the use of the separate audio track volumes, however.

A more engaging/interactive example of nonlinear storytelling would be Grand Theft Auto . Even though the story itself is on rails, it is definitely mixed with totally freeform gameplay and exploration that has the interesting characteristic of mixing itself with linear plot, in intervals. One can imagine a just-slightly branching verison of a GTA storyline, and you'd end up with a lot of possibilities.

So, my point is, I think there is such a thing as nonlinear storytelling, it's just hard to get to. Don't give up on the notion.

Why would anyone hastle someone from the videogame industry.
I mean it's not like there are games that teach your to kill or games where you kill police officers. I don't see why the government would bother people in this industry.