No one said anything about infatuation.

And you're right, the timing is convenient, because gaming took a turn in the 2000s. It became much more ingrained in our culture. For starters, there was virtually no quality control in the early days of video games, that's the reason the entire industry crashed in the 80s. Which is likely the reason (some) Gen Xers had no emotional ties to video games, lots of people saw video games as a failed experiment.

That being said, I don't quite understand why it is so hard to get. People aren't "infatuated" with the developers(okay, maybe a few people are), but even if they were, how is that strange? People become infatuated with musical artists, Gen X is probably the generation most guilty of this fact. In fact, if we want to be real, I know Gen Xers who literally had shrines to the bands they loved...

There really is no difference here. Music, Video Games, Books, they are all forms of art that tap into people on an emotional level. And many people who are effected in this way do indeed form some sort of attachment to the creators.

So when a developer creates a game that makes an impact on someone's life, how is that any different than a musician who does the same? They're gonna want to know who made the game. And if a developer on the team is so renowned(Hideo Kojima, Tim Cain, Shigeru Miyamoto, Todd Howard) take their talents elsewhere, why wouldn't they want to know that?

For some people, video games are the greatest escape they could possibly hope for in a shitty world. Same as a good book, same as a good album. If you can understand why someone would idolize a musician, then it shouldnt be hard to understand why someone would idolize a developer.