Acctually I would go so far as to say… if it doesn't have choices and consequences it is not really a roleplaying game. Just linar story telling with stats & battles.
There's some truth to that, but we like to call it "old skool" or spreadsheet gaming.
It's just a different approach to the genre.
Again, it comes back to understanding your target audience. If you want to sell to Wiz8 and MM7 fans, you're wasting your time with deep branching story because iz all about character development. If you want to sell to Gothic fans, atmosphere (the living world) is king and character development is relatively pointless. If you want to sell to Morrowind fans (and I'd recommend counselling if that's the case
) then you've got to build a good sandbox and
everything else is totally pointless. If you want to sell to Witcher fans, your story has got to be complex and branching, but the gameplay can stink.
If you try to sell to all of those groups at the same time, you will fail. There's conflicting priorities between the things that must be great and the things that only have to be semi-functional. Decide what type of game your vision is, and then identify the sub-sub-subgroup of gamers that want it. Cater to those folks and accept that others will be unhappy. For example, if your vision is Morrowind Redux, you need to listen to Jaz and Sammy for advice and you should probably put me on ignore. They "get" that game and they
understand what's important in a game like that. If your vision is Wiz9, I love you and I might have a few constructive thoughts to offer between washing your car and mowing your grass, but Jaz probably won't buy your game.