The Programmer Hierarchy

I was really proud of myself for advancing from IT Support to Web Development, but it seems there's an entire hierarchy of programmers and I'm at the bottom... just below game programmers.

So where do I go from here, what do I aspire to?
Where are all the "real" programmers?

being able to create your own tools is good
being able to adapt the tools you use is better
getting the job done is gold

there's no real hierarchy, some things are harder than others but who's to say the wise men won't choose easier jobs? all programming really is is moving data from one place to another, maybe a map or a filter... there's no need to get all academic about it when you just want to make the rent. I guess I have respect for robotics engineers, or people doing semantic research, but I would never want to trade my job for theirs: it would involve years of extra studies, and for what? a deeper understanding?

:-/