Sure, register allocation is mostly solved and memory management is far from solved; thus memory management gets far more of the game programmer's attention (or

Sure, register allocation is mostly solved and memory management is far from solved; thus memory management gets far more of the game programmer's attention (or else your game will play at two frames per second, plus occasional longer pauses). But the analogy is otherwise fine: reviews of your game will mention the performance (because it matters), but they will not mention your memory management strategy (because the don't care and may not even know). They will mention the rules, the mechanics, the story, the graphics and music and sound effects. Those are all part of the actual problem. Memory management is an implementation detail. Don't get me wrong: this implementation detail is so vital that it may very well make sense to structure the entire code base around it, but that doesn't mean it's part of the "actual" problem, at least if you use my definition. (See also my other reply in this thread.)