When did gaming become so much work?

So with the 4th of July holiday here in the US, naturally our first thought goes to all the gaming we can get done while we have some spare time. Today I was playing some Vice City (a game I don't often pick up) and just started fooling around, killing time. After a while, I noticed I felt guilty about gaming without a purpose. After all, I have so many other games that I'm only halfway through, shouldn't I be working on those?

I started thinking about my childhood, spending hours playing my NES, either with a friend or alone; sure, we beat games back then too, but we also just played to *play*. I didn't give a second thought to going "Hmmm, I'll think I'll play Skate or Die for a bit," then putting it down after a half hour. No progress was made, but I didn't feel I had to. These days I always feel that if I'm going to play a game, it should be to make progress, to get somewhere further towards the end goal.

My mind reels with the number of half completed games that lay scattered around my room - how could I play a game just to play when these games need completing? I don't know when gaming become something other than playful, but I kind of miss those days of my youth, when it didn't matter if I played for an hour then put it away, no save or anything, just playing to play.