Well, there is one specific thing not common to other types of programming: large amount of small-to-large binary files to handle. Most of those files are in pr

Well, there is one specific thing not common to other types of programming: large amount of small-to-large binary files to handle. Most of those files are in proprietary formats which makes it hard to automate stuff. I believe OP was asking exactly about managing these files. I have to agree with the rest you said. Discussions I had with game devs show that most of them are clueless about databases, web technologies (aside from HTML5 JavaScript) and tend to invent their own sub-optimal solutions. What's the real problem is that some of them share those and get adopted as standard in the gamedev community - because they don't know any better.