Sidenote: From my own personal experience of the gaming industry (granted it isn't a whole lot) its very very hostile. To the degree where you even get recruiters treating you like shit; Even though you're a potential payout to them. Which just makes me think that the people who actually work in it either don't have a huge amount of self respect or they're too smitten with the idea of being a game developer.

They're smitten with being a developer, so supply is higher than demand and the employer gets to treat the employee like crap. The animation industry is the same thing, from a secondhand source.