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GDC Rescinds Award For Atari Founder Nolan Bushnell After Criticisms of Sexually Inappropriate Behavior (polygon.com)
The organizers of the Game Developers Choice Awards announced today that they have rescinded the Pioneer Award for Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, and announced the award will not be given this year entirely. "The decision follows a day of outcry after GDC organizers announced that Bushnell, 74, had been tapped for the GDCA's lifetime achievement honor," reports Polygon. "News accounts and histories over the past several years have documented a history of workplace misconduct and sexist behavior toward women by Bushnell, during Atari's early days." From the report: In a statement this morning, GDC said its awards committee "made the decision not to give out a Pioneer Award for this year's event, following additional feedback from the community. They believe their picks should reflect the values of today's game industry and will dedicate this year's award to honor the pioneering and unheard voices of the past." The Pioneer Award is for "individuals who developed a breakthrough technology, game concept, or gameplay design at a crucial juncture in video game history," according to its official site. Nine have been conferred since 2008, none of them women. Bushnell founded Atari in 1972 and installed the first coin-operated video game, Pong, shortly thereafter. He presided over the company's rise to dominate the early generation of home console gaming before selling it off and founding what is today the Chuck E. Cheese line of restaurants. Bushnell issued a statement on Twitter: "I applaud the GDC for ensuring that their institution reflects what is right, specifically with regards to how people should be treated in the workplace. And if that means an award is the price I have to pay personally so the whole industry may be more aware and sensitive to these issues, I applaud that, too. If my personal actions or the actions of anyone who ever worked with me offended or caused pain to anyone at our companies, then I apologize without reservation."
Right or wrong, this Politically Correct shaming is almost certainly going to backfire on women as fewer and fewer men in leadership positions risk bringing this kind of liability on board.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
No one can take away what Bushnell brought to the gaming world and his response to losing this award shows that whatever may or may not have happened in the past, the man is currently a beacon of class.
utter, total, bullshit.
So now, on account of gossip and innuendo, we're going to just strike people from history?
Not 20 years ago Christian fundamentalists were mocked and pilloried for ramming their morals down people's throats and following some stupid rule book. Now we have an entire zombie movement enforcing their morals views and attitudes on a public as a whole.
There's not ONE PERSON ALIVE who's not guilty of unsavory behavior of one kind or another and we've entered an age where "my unsavory behavior" is now considered untouchable but "your unsavory behavior" is damnable.
Fuck that. Make a law and make it a crime through the official processes. Did Bushnell actually commit a crime? Bring him up on charges. This condemning or people to non-existence without even a chance for defense is Orwellian, wrong and downright evil - just as it was 20 years ago.
I think we need to put a bit of perspective on this. While the behavior sounds reprehensible, it's not Harvey Weinstein-level and it sounds like this stuff was going on 35 years ago. Rape is rape, consent is consent, but we have a far more nuanced understanding these days about power imbalances and harassment in the workplace.
If this stuff was going on in the last decade, I think it's fair game.
We need to draw a line somewhere and say it's not reasonable to judge workplace behavior decades ago by the standards of the current era. This doesn't give these folks a pass on everything they did, but let's not crucify somebody who may very well have evolved since then, as many of us have on lots of social issues.
Guess it's time to vilify him too.
FC Closer
'white men'? Are they included in your little game? I bet not.
They don't affect his achievements. But maybe if humans collectively stop glorifying, rewarding and celebrating known shitheads for their shithead behavior (despite the positive contributions they make), the next generation of achievers, contributors and fame/glory seekers won't be such shitheads to people and the world might be a slightly better place.
Anyone care to explain how personal indiscretions affect his achievements in developing "a breakthrough technology, game concept, or gameplay design at a crucial juncture in video game history"?
It doesn't. What it affects is our current decision on whether to laud this person for those achievements and to hold them up as an example.
It is possible to respect someone's achievements while also criticising their manner or behaviour. By only acknowledging the achievements and making no comment on the negative behaviour, once that behaviour has been brought to your attention, then in silence you support that behaviour. Had this award not been rescinded, then the GDC would, at best, be ignoring the problem and at worst would be tacitly supporting the behaviour.
By withdrawing the award, specifically as a response to information about Nolan's behaviour, the GDC is not saying that Nolan wasn't influential or that he didn't achieve what he did. It's saying that his actions outside of those achievements are such that he isn't the person the GDC would like to hold up as a positive example.
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Nolan's tweet in response is ... elegant. 'If' he offended or caused pain, he apologises. He neither confirms nor denies. He praises the actions of the GDC. It's a classy, clever response to an ugly situation. If it's sincere, I don't think you can ask more. If it's not, it's a damn fine piece of spin control.
They don't affect his achievements. But maybe if humans collectively stop glorifying, rewarding and celebrating known shitheads for their shithead behavior...
No one's glorifying, rewarding, or celebrating his shithead behavior here. Hell, I'm sure most of us never even heard of any of this.
I like to do a little game where I replace 'women' with another minority. Blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, Jews. Take your pick.
Women are not a minority.
> See subject: Your MASSIVE FAIL in this life is you're nothing more than a chattering little do-nothing "ne'er-do-well" online & you know it...
I have credits on several PC games and I think this nonsense is bullshit. The guy wasn't perfect but that doesn't erase his legacy. Political correctness has put us into 1984 territory where the Ministry of Truth is here to sanitize and erase the past.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
He's not stupid. He's genius. He's pointing out the clear double standard here. Under the intersectionality regime, EVERYONE can be a victim except "the man". Although it doesn't matter if "the man" is also as much a part of the underclass as anyone else.
The whole thing about "progress" is that you can live long enough to see standards and expectations change.
That means potentially harsh judgements for even the previous generation of people.
That doesn't mean you try to erase anyone from the last generation or older. You just need to get your panties untwisted and come to grips with the full implication that things have changed.
You simply can't handle the reality of the situation. You need a safe space.
Life is too complicated and disordered for you.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
All those kids who got awards for participation should be prepared to have them rescinded when they don't toe the politically correct line.
They don't affect his achievements. But maybe if humans collectively stop glorifying, rewarding and celebrating known shitheads for their shithead behavior...
No one's glorifying, rewarding, or celebrating his shithead behavior here. Hell, I'm sure most of us never even heard of any of this.
But now you have heard of it. And you can't glorify his achievements from that era without glorifying that shithead behaviour.
I stole this Sig
How did 'the market' decide in this case? A small number of loud, perpetually-offended twitterers, along with the organizers of this award, do not make up anything resembling 'the market'. This actually sounds like the opposite of a free market. To me it sounds like a small politburo acting based on the yelling of some agitators.
Given that you are replying to me ...
And here is the problem with SJW's
I answered the GP assuming a genuine question and without pejoratives. If you disagree with what I say, please criticise it, don't claim that my argument makes me a member of a group, then go on to create a straw man and attack that.
I have never heard of this organization, nor the guy who the award was taken from, nor have I played any of the games he made
And yet you seem to feel you are qualified to comment on this situation.
I DO know that a mere accusation without proof is not sufficient for me to pass judgement
Do excerpts from biographies written about Nolan qualify? This isn't 'he said/she said'. This is people pointing at well-documented behaviour and objecting to someone who engaged in it being honoured.
Given that this is some decades old story about a bunch of people I've never heard of, it's unlikely I will do the required research to develop an informed opinion
Not even reading the linked article, it seems.
but I don't have the facts to comment on it either.
and yet, here you are accusing those who have of belonging to some group you wish to vilify and of engaging in behaviour that only superficially matches the one you are ranting about.
How about you go live your life in the way you see fit, and leave the rest of us the fuck alone to do the same.
A question was asked. I offered an explanation. You've seized on that to declare your ignorance on the topic, label me an SJW and make some implications about the quality and/or lack of evidence.
I'm using a 'tactic'. I'm using reason, evidence and argument. I'm not trying to persuade you - you've made it abundantly clear that you aren't interested in information; that you are happy in your ignorance. I'm using this opportunity to try to highlight some of the problems with your position in the hope that other people reading this can engage in a better class of discussion.
and leave the rest of us
Appeal to popularity. You responded to me. I'm responding to you. There's no 'us' and your position isn't improved by appealing to it.
To summarise - you are ignorant, happy in your ignorance and from a position of ignorance think to argue against a straw man of 'SJW tactics' that you seem to object to.
I look forward to your reasoned and considered response.
As much as I respect that position, just like the award was rescinded because of conflating his behavior with his accomplishments, the rescission has now caused a schism between the meaning of the award and accomplishment.
I was a kid when the Atari VCS hit the store shelves. It was the first mass-consumer microprocessor-controlled computing device in history. Yes there were other computers for sale at the same time, some even before, many more powerful. But the Atari was the one that became ubiquitous in people's homes. It was most people's first experience with a programmable computing device at home. It was the one that introduced the masses to the idea of one device serve multiple functions (different games in this case) simply by switching the program it was running.
If the guy who made that possible isn't worthy of your lifetime achievement award in computer gaming, then your lifetime achievement award in computer gaming is pretty meaningless. It's like denying Wernher von Braun's contributions to space exploration because he originally built the V2 for the Nazis which killed thousands. Sometimes a person's achievements and contribution to advancing the state of technology completely overshadow the negative things s/he may also have done. I get the feeling the people protesting him getting the award either weren't around in the late 1970s, or didn't care about video games so completely missed what an important milestone the Atari VCS was in history.
There is no such thing as "white privilege" or "male privilege". There is, however, affluent privilege. Suggesting that white janitors and white CEO's enjoy the same level of "privilege" is absolutely deranged. Identity politics is the ruling-classes desperate attempt to keep the people from waking up and realizing that the primary bigotry of the last 40 years is class-based. It's still better to be a wealthy woman than a poor man. The former has more power. By an order of magnitude. Wringing our hands over the imperfect lives of priviledged women, when half the world still lives on less than $1/day, is the height of narcissism. Women make up nearly 80% of consumer spending? Think that would be reversed under the matriarchy? 90% of Titantic survirors were women, as men willingly went to their death so that women could live. Think under the matriarchy 90% of men would have survived. This entire thing is more divide-and-conquer by the ruling class. Given that "abstract thinking" begins at an IQ of ~110, and about 66% of Americans are below that, it's not hard to see how the majority of people got taken. The "War on Women" is a fraud, and so is the current moral panic. It's the preschool Satanic Sex scare all over again, only this time, the supposed victims are a coveted advertiser target, and the is much to be gained by seeing the emporer's fine new clothes. History will judge this as it's judged every other moral panic. When that happens, you'll all swear it was everyone else. Count on it.