While it's true that games don't necessarily have the same impact on people's lives as other, more "important" work, for me, making a game or studying how a game works is such a fun process that it's worth doing anyway.

I spent some time trying to make games in my high school years (NeHe's tutorials helped me a lot)and trying to understand how other games work (I remember the sense of achievement when I managed to switch textures in some crappy FPS game).

Today I deeply regret that I didn't put enough effort to study this field properly... I like my current gig, but I will always look at real game developers with a sense of envy.