“[T]he paradox is that D&D is a game with no ending and no winners. A game has a winner virtually by definition, and I suspect that sometimes players are off-balance because though they appear to be playing a game, they have no prospects of winning, since there is no victory. Therefore they define for themselves a sort of “winning”, which is going up experience levels as quickly as possible. In a dungeon where this is easy, they feel themselves to be “winning” more than they do in a dungeon where progress is slower. This is missing out on the potential of D&D, which is better thought as a pastime than a game. It can be likened to fishing, in which there is again no winner. The object of fishing is to catch fish, just as the object of D&D is to gain treasure, but the main purpose of a fishing trip is to have a pleasant time whether fish are caught or not. Similarly, one can have a very entertaining D&D session without finding masses of treasure. It’s nice if you do find a haul, of course, but that should be incidental.”
Roger Musson (1983): The Dungeon Architect, part 1. The Best of White Dwarf, p. 32.