jepsen1977: I think it comes down to time - yes, most people will finish a 200 page book, 2 hour movie or a 20 min. run but how many will finish a 1200 page book, a 7 season/20 episodes pr. season TV series or a marathon? Only those that are REALLY dedicated I would say.
You are correct that we probably should do more to finish the games we start and if it's a 7-10 hour game then most of us can do that. But what about an 80 hour RPG where you get bored after 25 hours and now have to slog through over 50 hours just to finish it. Are you gonna do that?
But if I'm going to be completely honest here I agree that to say gaming is "just" a hobby or is just for "fun", kind of belittles it in a way I don't really like. Gaming means so much more to me than just a hobby or just fun - it's a huge part of my life and identity. But at the same time there is no inherent meaning to gaming - we are not achieving anything by gaming and it is a leisure activity. So yes, I'm a bit torn about this as-well.
Yeah, what I meant to say is that most people here
are "REALLY dedicated", as opposed to people who just play the occasional game as a pastime. That doesn't mean that they grind away just to finish each and every game they buy, of course. At least to me, completing a game just for the sake of completing it is not a very attractive idea either (although for more competitive gamers it might be), so if a game really begins to bore me, I have no problems to abandon it. But that's not really the "problem" I referred to; the issue I was talking about is when you have too many games you actually want to finish because they interest you, but you have trouble splitting your time between them or just can't decide which one to play.
Personally, I admit that nowadays the thought of an 80+ hours RPG kind of scares me off, because I'm almost certain that it won't be able to hold my interest for that long, now matter how good it's said to be. Therefor I've come to appreciate the shorter games.