George "The Fat Man" Sanger has written a book on game audio, called, um, "The Fat Man on Game Audio". There's an excerpt here, which talks about setting one's goals higher than... well... wherever it usually seems to be.

On one game to which I had been assigned, I was asked to do "normal game music" (which, for this kind of game, meant Techno) and when I suggested some different approaches, I met with a brick wall. The developer actually wanted not to do something that was unlike other games. I was asked, "George, did it ever occur to you that there is a reason that all movies use the same kind of sound for certain types of scenes?"

Extreme close up: The Fat Man's face remains polite.

Zoom in, fade to flashback of The Fat Man at USC Film School, sweating his nuts off studying film and music with every bit of devotion he can muster. Split screen. The game developer who asked the question is gargling beer at a frat party, and he's still wearing diapers. He shouts out drunkenly that he wishes he could be just exactly like John Travolta, then he passes out in the punchbowl. Fade back to The Fat Man's face, and zoom out. Reality begins again.

Quite amusing. And a familiar experience, even if you didn't sweat your nuts off at USC Film School.