I think it is better you utilise your game programming experience to the more saner versions, mainly 3D graphics/3D scientific visualisation kind of roles.
They are almost on par with giving you the same satisfaction that your best gamed experience gave you with better pay and should I say most likely better working conditions as well!
If anyone has a strong background in 3D graphics and is interested in Counterstrike please do send me a message -- I'm building 3D analysis utilities for games[1] rather than games themselves which cuts out much of the complexity while maintaining many of the same technical problems. Email in profile.
They are almost on par with giving you the same satisfaction that your best gamed experience gave you with better pay and should I say most likely better working conditions as well!