It takes real people years to become that famous - why do gamers feel the need to rush over the journey and get to the phat lewtz?

Charitable reason: because gaming technology progresses so fast that a game's viable lifespan is often less than three years, by which time something newer, shinier and more interesting is likely to have come up.

Less charitable reason: they're a bunch of power-gaming twinks with the attention-span of a deranged squirrel on crystal meth.