This will probably become a lot clearer in the next article when we look at some examples. The reason why people recognized the VGM was because the tracks induced certain mental images: "Oh, that's probably a fight scene!" - "That sounds like Game Over, try again!" - "This one reminds me of a hero sneaking through a magic forest..." - I was surprised myself how amateurs were sometimes even able to recognize the setting!
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Yes, I think people generally are able to create a mental image of a particular scene just by the music. Unless, like you mentioned in your website, the music is more ironic, then it may not be so clear cut (like in the scene in Shaun of the dead where they are hitting a zombie to the music of Don't stop me now") Can't think of any game examples of this off the top of my head, i'm sure there is.
Sometimes in my lectures, we do it the other way around as well. We are given the scene and asked, how would you write the music, foley, sound design etc.
The thing is I wonder how people can decipher the difference between the music from a fight scene in a game, and the music from a fight scene in a film because potentially, the same piece of music could work for both mediums.
(I hope you understand what I mean, i may not have explained myself very well). I look forward to the next article

most games with a bigger budget seem to want to sound like big movies, just like they want to look super-realistic. Larger-than-life orchestra sounds and crisp voice-acting. And then there's phenomenons like Minecraft where a single composer like C418 does minimalistic electro music that somehow manages to sound just like the game looks, and people like it.... both approaches have their audience. I'm just trying to say that even though the divisions are blurring, there's at least a difference in how composers, directors and producers should hear VGM compared with film music,
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I strongly agree with this, but you could argue the same thing with film, the companies with the bigger budget they want something larger then life, whereas the independent film makers are more likely to have a single composer, but that's not the point. The point is it all comes down to suiting the style, which is what you said. You are right, that when it comes to brain storming ideas, there is a difference in how developers think. As a composer, I'm certainly not thinking about multi-tracking when it comes to film music for example. I believe video games and films have been blurred for a long time, I believe that Nobuo Uematsu was the first composer to write in a film music style in final fantasy 1. As the years have gone by, and consoles / PCs have become more powerful, they are able to handle more, and now In my opinion they are at the stage where they have surpassed film music and trying to do their own thing, which is awesome.