GDC Pioneer Award pulled for Atari founder Nolan Bushnell after sexist comments from 2012 resurfaces - Sensationalist Headlines

[quote]A prominent video game industry conference is pulling an award for Atari founder Nolan Bushnell following claims of inappropriate behavior. In a statement Wednesday on Twitter, the Game Developers Choice Awards Advisory Committee, which works with the annual Game Developers Conference, said it would no longer give out its Pioneer Award — for individuals who "developed a breakthrough technology, game concept, or gameplay design" — to Bushnell. GDC originally planned to award Bushnell during a ceremony in March. Backlash to the honor appeared through the Twitter hashtag #notnolan, detailing public examples of sexist behavior. Among them: a 2012 profile of Bushnell in Playboy magazine, which details how he would hold meetings from the hot tub in his home. Also, the code name for hit Atari arcade video game Pong was "Darlene," an employee Bushnell described as "stacked and had the tiniest waist." Many critics questioned the timing of Bushnell's honor with the rise of #MeToo, which has shed light on inappropriate sexual behavior or misconduct in the workplace. Bushnell founded Atari, one of the most important names in the video games business and a pioneer of the home gaming system. Bushnell also founded the kid-friendly restaurant chain Chuck E. Cheese’s.[/quote] [url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2018/01/31/games-conference-pulls-award-atari-founder-after-outcry/1083856001/]USA Today[/url] GDC's official comment [media]https://twitter.com/Official_GDC/status/958736758094680067[/media] Bushnell's official comment [media]https://twitter.com/NolanBushnell/status/958770585433120768[/media] [url=https://www.playboy.com/articles/sex-drugs--video-games]Playboy article in question, note that this article is slightly NSFW[/url]

Huh, his apology sounds pretty earnest.

virtue signaling is getting out of control

[QUOTE=FurrehFaux;53098088]virtue signaling is getting out of control[/QUOTE] In this instance? How? It would be nice if people stopped churning out words like "virtue signaling" on reflex like some sort of robot just because it's the latest set of meme words. [quote]Among them: a 2012 profile of Bushnell in Playboy magazine, which details how he would hold meetings from the hot tub in his home. Also, the code name for hit Atari arcade video game Pong was "Darlene," an employee Bushnell described as "stacked and had the tiniest waist."[/quote] This is not professional behavior from an employer and if the GDC doesn't want to give him an award, then hats off to them.

so he's getting punished for comments he made 6 years ago about a situation that happened almost 40 years before? [QUOTE]To inspire creativity, Bushnell began holding raucous beachside retreats and company meetings in the hot tub behind his hillside home. The San Francisco Chronicle ran a profile of Bushnell along with a photo of him soaking in his tub with an attractive — and seemingly topless — woman. “It was a wild environment,” he recalls wistfully. “It was post–flower revolution, women’s liberation, no AIDS yet and lots of company romances.” The engineers began code-naming their projects after women — including Darlene, a beloved employee who, according to Bushnell, “was stacked and had the tiniest waist.” “Darlene” was the project name for Atari’s breakthrough home version of Pong for TV sets. While the Magnavox Odyssey was the first home console, Pong got a huge boost from a giant distribution deal with Sears, the great American department store chain. The pairing of Sears and Atari perfectly symbolized the transition from the old titans to the next generation of start-ups burgeoning in Silicon Valley.[/QUOTE] i dunno. I think this is just making a big deal over nothing especially considering certain leaders of the free world have gotten away with saying and doing a lot more vulgar and disgusting things

[QUOTE=LZTYBRN;53098129]so he's getting punished for comments he made 6 years ago about a situation that happened almost 40 years before? i dunno. I think this is just making a big deal over nothing especially considering certain leaders of the free world have gotten away with saying and doing a lot more vulgar and disgusting things[/QUOTE] The trend of people having to deal with these massive scandals over non-major shit from years and years ago needs to fucking die. Unless you did some heinous shit back then, or if the problematic behavior is a trend continuing up to recent months, nobody should give a shit. If all you can dig up is stuff from 5+ years ago, the only rational interpretation is "that guy used to be a bit of an asshole". It's just looking for shit to drum up drama over. As much as I hate Cenk Uyger, I could not care less about his comments from like 20 years ago because he obviously doesn't hold those positions now, for example. EDIT: Like if you looked back far enough in anyone's history you would find some questionable shit. I used to be a huge misogynist when I was a teenager, for example. My brother used to be a total racist. Neither of us are those things at all at this point, we haven't held these positions for 10+ years, and when we did we were still kids. If we were major names, should we be dragged over the coals for these opinions we haven't cared for for over a decade, regardless of if we apologize for it, regardless of if we clearly state that it's wrong? I don't think so, yet I see this same kind of shit rehashed out constantly.

[quote]To inspire creativity, Bushnell began holding raucous beachside retreats and company meetings in the hot tub behind his hillside home. The San Francisco Chronicle ran a profile of Bushnell along with a photo of him soaking in his tub with an attractive — and seemingly topless — woman. “It was a wild environment,” he recalls wistfully. “It was post–flower revolution, women’s liberation, no AIDS yet and lots of company romances.” The engineers began code-naming their projects after women — including Darlene, a beloved employee who, according to Bushnell, “was stacked and had the tiniest waist.”[/quote] What's that? People were frisky in the 70s? Shocking!! Not exactly appropriate behavior but really damn mild to have a completely unrelated award pulled over. Not to mention it was forty years ago in a time where people wouldn't even think twice about stuff like this.

People should be more accepting of human, and perhaps especially male, sexuality and mental exploration (drugs). I guess they just aren't interested in having an honest depiction of humanity and instead want to have faux-positivity everywhere.

[QUOTE=Tetracycline;53098242]People should be more accepting of human, and perhaps especially male, sexuality and mental exploration (drugs). I guess they just aren't interested in having an honest depiction of humanity and instead want to have faux-positivity everywhere.[/QUOTE] Don't you know that making people uncomfortable is a crime now?

[QUOTE=Jim Morrison;53098119]In this instance? How? It would be nice if people stopped churning out words like "virtue signaling" on reflex like some sort of robot just because it's the latest set of meme words. [/QUOTE] but that's literally what they're doing. the only reason they're doing this is so they look good which is the textbook definition of virtue signalling.

revoking an award to someone who "developed a breakthrough technology, game concept, or gameplay design" because of sexual comments from 6 years ago lol its not like its the perfect human being award

[QUOTE=SAULSBASHWALL;53098179] EDIT: Like if you looked back far enough in anyone's history you would find some questionable shit. I used to be a huge misogynist when I was a teenager, for example. My brother used to be a total racist. Neither of us are those things at all at this point, we haven't held these positions for 10+ years, and when we did we were still kids. If we were major names, should we be dragged over the coals for these opinions we haven't cared for for over a decade, regardless of if we apologize for it, regardless of if we clearly state that it's wrong? I don't think so, yet I see this same kind of shit rehashed out constantly.[/QUOTE] It's such a paradoxical and disturbing mindset. You're supposed to admit when you're wrong and adapt your beliefs, but everything you say or do is written in stone and cannot be forgiven. Banishment for who you used to be despite promoting the progress of one's beliefs.

Everyone just should grow a pair of balls and stop bringing up moss covered crap for attention - there are 1000 more apropriate ways to deal with this, and taking away award is not one of them.

[QUOTE=Anax;53099585]It's such a paradoxical and disturbing mindset. You're supposed to admit when you're wrong and adapt your beliefs, but everything you say or do is written in stone and cannot be forgiven. Banishment for who you used to be despite promoting the progress of one's beliefs.[/QUOTE] There scary thing about these is that it sets the precedent that not only do you need to behave with with what is acceptable now, but you must [i]also[/i] know what will be acceptable in the future. A joke or remark now may be considered offensive 20 years from now. How dare you for not being progressive enough. Use common sense some would argue, but common sense 40 years ago said it was okay to make sexist remarks about women or disparage homosexuals openly. Alan's description is literally how people felt back then. A bit in bad taste, but hardly "wow he's was completely out of line". I think context is something that is really important that we need to start taking into consideration. Shitty behavior is shitty, but if that shitty behavior was the societal norm, punishing someone really feels more like a feel good measure, hurts someone who may no longer behave that way.

This is such a ridiculous thing to do, when Nolan Bushnell pushed video games into the home with the Atari 2600. He apologized for the remarks and that should be recognized and he should have the award reinstated

[QUOTE=Jim Morrison;53098119] This is not professional behavior from an employer and if the GDC doesn't want to give him an award, then hats off to them.[/QUOTE] Then they shouldn't have given him the award. Oh wait they already gave him the award? Okay well no take-backsies.

People thinks here that was ok to behave like that 40 years ago should remember that even in those times this behaviour would be critized as well, only not publically known. Plus the fact the people affected by him has been always critizing this yet always being ignored.

[QUOTE=Maestro Fenix;53100537]People thinks here that was ok to behave like that 40 years ago should remember that even in those times this behaviour would be critized as well, only not publically known. Plus the fact the people affected by him has been always critizing this yet always being ignored.[/QUOTE] Whoops, guess we better invalidate everything else he's ever done.

[QUOTE=1/4 Life;53100550]Whoops, guess we better invalidate everything else he's ever done.[/QUOTE] No, but we can stop consider him as a referent. Just like Gandhi or Mother Theresa, which did good deeds but were terrible persons.

[media]https://twitter.com/karenallen/status/958824878991335424[/media] it seems like no matter how someone writes an apology for something it's never considered good enough

[QUOTE=Maestro Fenix;53100618]No, but we can stop consider him as a referent. Just like Gandhi or Mother Theresa, which did good deeds but were terrible persons.[/QUOTE] He wore a dumb t-shirt and had hot tub parties. In the 60s-70s, when wild and libertine behavior was widely encouraged by social progressive types. Clearly he's worse than fucking hitler

[QUOTE=Maestro Fenix;53100537]People thinks here that was ok to behave like that 40 years ago should remember that even in those times this behaviour would be critized as well, only not publically known. Plus the fact the people affected by him has been always critizing this yet always being ignored.[/QUOTE] I don't think anyone here would agree that it was normal to behave like that. But at the same time, would you want every single event and mishap in your life follow you to the grave and hold you back from anything else you've ever accomplished because you had made mistakes? Everyone does stupid shit in their life. The advocacy I'm picking up here is that not only is this extremely petty to bring up so long past it happening, but also that this man has extremely important accomplishments and he's even aware/apologized about his previous mistakes. As long as he knows what he did was wrong and he's ackowledged that and is working on fixing it/has fixed it, then what exactly is there to this story besides witch hunting at this point?

[QUOTE=TheHydra;53100633][media]https://twitter.com/karenallen/status/958824878991335424[/media] it seems like no matter how someone writes an apology for something it's never considered good enough[/QUOTE] That's because you can't tell them they're now the colossal asshats, without them screeching at you that you're morally wrong too. There's no governing of any kind, so they hype each other up constantly which results in unrealistic standards.

[QUOTE=TheHydra;53100633]it seems like no matter how someone writes an apology for something it's never considered good enough[/QUOTE] [video]https://twitter.com/lonireeder/status/958922473101078529[/video]

[QUOTE=Demache;53100371]There scary thing about these is that it sets the precedent that not only do you need to behave with with what is acceptable now, but you must [i]also[/i] know what will be acceptable in the future. A joke or remark now may be considered offensive 20 years from now. How dare you for not being progressive enough. Use common sense some would argue, but common sense 40 years ago said it was okay to make sexist remarks about women or disparage homosexuals openly. Alan's description is literally how people felt back then. A bit in bad taste, but hardly "wow he's was completely out of line". I think context is something that is really important that we need to start taking into consideration. Shitty behavior is shitty, but if that shitty behavior was the societal norm, punishing someone really feels more like a feel good measure, hurts someone who may no longer behave that way.[/QUOTE] Political correctness always burns out when people stop giving a shit about someone you're never going to meet dictating what your behavior is supposed to be, which is inevitable at this point.

Nolan Bushnell is on the board for our school's business incubator, and he usually comes out at least once a year to talk to students. The man is still at it, and hearing him talk is an absolute treat. He's also incredibly humble. He was always quick to thank the people he's worked with over the years. I think pulling this award is a disservice to his legacy, yet his response continues his trend of remaining aware and humble.

I'm not going to go and claim #MeToo isn't largely a good thing. It's been hugely important in exposing all the actual creeps in Hollywood and elsewhere, and I hope it continues until every single one of them is outed. That being said, it shouldn't surprise anyone that terrible individuals are using it to promote their own agendas, whether it be sex-negative feminism or outright misandry. If our society was more discerning, we could separate the wheat from the chaff and let #MeToo carry on without allowing it to be used as a weapon against anyone a woman has ever disliked. But apparently that's impossible and even "offensive," because now the mindset is that since some men are harassers and perverts, the rest of us have to hang our heads in shame for the sins of our gender.

So apparently someone did some actual journalism and made an article refuting the claims about Nolan Bushnell by interviewing former Atari employees. [url]https://medium.com/@Brad_Glasgow/the-metoo-fueled-character-assassination-of-nolan-bushnell-2405452b635d[/url] It's definitely worth a read. Accompanying video: [video=youtube;MOD-ghZZtK8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOD-ghZZtK8[/video]

This shit was kicked off by Brianna Wu, if that isn't a sign that it's overblown bullshit, then I don't know what is.