Weekend Confirmed 74 - NHL 12, Toy Soldiers: Cold War, El Shaddai

I wonder, do we put too strong an emphasis on the supposed virtues of "finishing" games these days?

I understand that the modern design philosophy is for the game to tell some grand story, so logically, it stands to reason that seeing the story to it's conclusion would be the main objective thereof, but isn't it missing the forest for the trees, just a little bit, to make that big a deal out of reaching the end? Shouldn't the point be to enjoy the game along the way? And if that be the case, then isn't the endpoint just an arbitrary distinction anyway?

What I mean is that, suppose you get about 97% of the way through a game, and then watch the last 3% on youtube, what difference does that make? You've played the game up to the point where you personally felt finished with it, and then stopped.

Or, let's put this another way, I've been playing a number of bullet hell shooters, now these are games that, when played well, take about 20-40 minutes to beat, but they're also HARD AS FUCK, and so, it's very possible that for all the hours I've spent on Ikaruga or Chaos Field or whatever, I might never actually develop the skills necessary to beat those games. Not that I would feel as though buying those games was a waste of money, because I've had (and continue to have) a great time playing them.

A game in this vein that I did beat, however, was Jamestown, but I wound up using both of my continues on the final boss in order to do it, so by the established rules of the hardcore shooter community, my victory technically doesn't count.

It's easy to dismiss the 1cc shooter rule as genre snobs turning their nose up at the unwashed masses, but what about playing a game on easy, or power levelling in an RPG, or the bane of Garnett's existence, buying an advantage with real-world money? If the story is the point, and the goal is seeing the story to it's end, then what's so bad about taking the path of least resistance?

Meanwhile, I chat with a guy sometimes who doesn't consider a game truly beaten until he's gotten 100% completion and unlocked every trophy/achievement, and he's not alone in this mentality.

I guess my point is this:
You play a game until you feel like you're done playing that game, and beating the game is just a particular point on that timeline. Sometimes you don't get there, other times you do and then go on to play another 50+ hours in multiplayer, or go for a speedrun or whatever. No official endpoint has ever been set in stone.