I don't want to get into the "videogames are art" or "no they are not art" and decided I might as well just throw art out there with entertainment and ask the question.  In contrast to movies, books, painting, TV, radio, music, and other forms of entertainment, do you feel that videogames get less respect, and/or are considered more "childish" than the ones listed above (and others)?

Do you feel the majority of the world doesn't get it, and wish that videogames would get greater respect?

Yep

I think about ten years ago this was for sure the case.  For about the first 20 years video games were seen as either entertainment for just young kids or nerds who just lived in their parents basement.

But I manage at Gamestop and can straight tell you now days the gameing demographic is EVERYONE.  I still get the nerds and the little kids, but now tons of soccer moms, grandparents, doctors, and hot cheerleaders are all buying games alot.  I mean I have customers that come into my store that you would never think would be playing games come into my store and pre-order stuff like Gears, and L.A. Noire and "core" games all the time.

So as a whole no I think the days of gaming being looked down upon for the most part are behind us.  There are still going to be haters and people who dislike games for no real reason but the majority of people are learning just how awesome video games really are.

Talking about the developing of games only...

There are few noteworthy people for sure and I don't think there's a way to change it. It becomes hard to recognize and respect with so many behind it. The same goes for movies and TV but there you have jobs and functions defined in people's minds and acknowledgement of great screenwriters, actors etc. Who makes a game? A multitude of faceless people. But yeah, the few very good names like Miyamoto and Kojima should be respected as any great musician, writer or movie director are IMO.

Kojima is a movie director, IMO.

My understanding is the Video Game Awards, which is currently the most known awards show for the videogame industry, does REAL bad ratings.  That is one of the things that had me wondering about this question.  Also, I have had the feeling the industry tends to suffer from an inferiority complex in terms of feeling respect and they envy the movie industry/Hollywood and want to have celebrities the way the movie industry does.

Is it the amount of money alone that is changing the perception, if it is changing?