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This is about how your goal in a game can change. Where you find something self-contained within it that becomes your focus, rather than going to town Y to complete quest X. It's about how I played Pokémon Black to a certain point as a trainer and then, independently of the game's arc and pretty much accidentally, started shipping out battery-farmed Pokémon to trainers around the world. It couldn't have happened with any other game - not just in terms of the specifics, but the personal history you sometimes build with a series. One of the criticisms of Nintendo with a grain of truth is that the company relies overly on established franchises and models. This is particularly true of Pokémon which, until this year's X&Y at least, has remained more or less identical since its Gameboy debut in the late 90s.
The point of Pokémon is to become the very best, like no-one ever was. What this means every time is you begin as a novice trainer with a single 'starter' Pokémon and have to defeat eight gym leaders to earn the right to take on the Elite Four - beat them, and you're a Pokémon master. I've done it seven times over the years, and you're damn right I'm proud.
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