Gothic III Interview, Part Two

RPG Codex has published the second installment of their Gothic III interview with Pirahna Bytes' Kai Rosenkranz. A snip:
Q: It's been mentioned that Gothic 3 is very non-linear. Considering the story-driven nature of the first two games, how does that concept work in Gothic 3?

A: Blending the story-driven nature of the series with a non-linear gameplay is a challenge indeed. Our first attempts in Gothic 1 & 2 already provided three different paths with special quests for each character class. In Gothic 3, we're taking this to the next level. The nameless hero can tackle most of the quests out of sequence and the world reacts to it, but still the game has a certain logical chronology. Figuratively speaking, in theory the game player can walk straight to the big red button which ends the game. Question is, where is this button? To find it, the hero needs one of the magic red-button-seeking-gizmos. To get a gizmo, he has to talk to someone who... and so on. This leads to a natural sequence of events, admittedly a linear development of the story, but it won't seem artificial for the player after all. Apart from this central thread, there are many side-stories and smaller quests which are absolutely non-linear.