Having areas open up accessibility to keep the player from being overwhelmed isn't the same as put on a rail. If you name those CRPG's that do put the player on a rail, it's probably an adventure with RPG elements -- not an RPG any more than adding cars to an RPG makes it a driving game. Deus Ex? Ultima IX? Most the Final Fantasy franchise, and in fact just about every Japanese or Asian 'RPG'? Not RPG's. The last ones especially are responsible for most of the confusion between RPG and adventure-with-RPG-elements. Many excellent games, but as an RPG fan I'm not going to blindly say, "I like this game so much and therefore support its definition as an RPG" as so many of you seem to be doing.The original poster's complaint is just one example of the unnecessary confusion created by marketers grasping for the RPG-label to sell with. Add to that the number of people on this board who have said, "I don't like RPG's but I love this game," and you can see that there's a dissonance going on between what's being sold and what people are expecting. I repeat, It doesn't have to be an RPG to be a great game!