Just looking at the line-up for this year’s Game Developer Conference (GDC) happening in San Francisco at the moment, it’s clear that the gaming industry is maturing.

In addition to sessions where noted game developers speak about traditional topics like graphics, maths, sound engineering, virtual reality, animation and programming, there are sessions dealing with far more difficult – and even controversial – topics.

On the roster are talks covering how to write more sexually-desirable male characters so as to make gaming more appealing for straight women and gay men, new approaches to relationships that make in-game relationships less predictable (and thus less boring), the myth that women don’t want to work in the game industry and a round table discussion on how to attract and hire more women.

Ten years ago, nobody was even thinking about “desirable male characters” in videogames, yet in today’s maturing environment, such things are de rigueur.

But perhaps even more relevant and sensitive are panels that will be discussions things like how to battle depression at game studios (an apparently common phenomenon), how to design games for sight-impaired gamers and how to tackle toxic online behaviour and destructive mob mentality in online game communities.

That last one will be particularly interesting as it will be chaired by controversial ex-Microsoft employee Adam Orth, who famously told gamers to deal with the fact that the Xbox One would have an always-online component via Twitter, a comment that inspired much online vitriol and ultimately cost him his job.

There’s even a panel that will talk about how game developers can avoid falling into the traps of creating potentially misogynous, racist and homophobic game content through their dynamics and narrative depictions. That’s a tough pill to swallow, for sure, but the panel’s outline claims that addressing those issues will ultimately lead to better game quality in the long run.

The world has changed quite a lot since games started their ascent to popularity 30-odd years ago, and these changes to the mentalities of the people making games is not only inevitable, but welcome as well as it will lead to even more games that are willing to ask – and possibly even address – difficult social questions.

For a full rundown of what talks are happening/have happened/will happen at GDC 2014, check out the conference’s main schedule page.