There were a few more bent engineers, more techies gone seriously dingo, than you'd see at any SFWA gig. As a group, they're busily recapitulating arguments that SF had decades ago. And then there's the ever-popular struggle over terminology and definition. Simple, Hot, and Deep. An hour to learn, a lifetime to master.
Game design is an iterative process.
Games should be hammered into shape, tested, hammered again, tested again. There are other issues of artistic expression. There is, for instance, censorship, both external, and self- imposed. There was an earnest panel on ethics in graphic violence. And then there's pornography, already present in the burgeoning CD- ROM market.