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Atari's founder won't receive a major industry award


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If the whole "metoo" movement represents a symbolic course-correction of our society, then targeting Nolan Bushnell represents symbolic oversteer, IMO. Unless or until evidence of some kind of real transgression comes to light, this seems awfully frivolous.

 

If the metoo movement results in a society where there is strong accountability for all actions of all people regardless of their position or power, then that is fabulous, and I like to think no reasonable person would say otherwise.

 

But to use the campaign to carpet-bomb vilification on any slightly high-profile male figure who ever made the unthinkable mistake of manifesting his human urges in even the most subtle way... it's counterproductive because it turns otherwise sympathetic people off the cause.

 

In other words: don't fight indiscriminately; fight smartly.

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She wasn't the only one. Frankly the entire #NotNolan tagging lasted less than a day, and has been overwhelmed by disgusted Atari fans ever since. I repeat, this was GDC's mess before Nolan, and will be theirs after. Sadly he and his old company and the people that did great things there were unfairly slandered as a result. This was not their fight.

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Two (1.5, really) other things:

 

When someone you admire does something wrong, it's easy to rationalize it. If Nolan attacked a woman or forced her to perform acts as part of her job, then we have to see that behavior as it is.

 

When someone you dislike does something wrong, it's easy to ignore all facts and call for blood to achieve a desired end. Sexualized work environments were common in the free love era and Atari wasn't any kind of special case. There are still reports today of similar things happening in the technology sector, albeit with more secrecy.

 

I wonder if any of us had been hired at Atari at that time and seen the partying going on if we'd really be indignant about it. Hopefully even the employees at the time would have intervened if a woman was being assaulted.

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We should probably rename the city of Washington, tear down the Washington Monument, remove any monuments and statues of Washington, both Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, etc... all because they owned slaves. It just makes sense.

 

 

Honestly, just want to add in something too... I have no idea what GDC is, nor do I really care what GDC is. I do know what Atari is though... and the name Atari will live on well past whatever GDC is or was.

Edited by 82-T/A
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I haven't read much about this yet, but if I'm understanding correctly, there have been no accusations against Nolan Bushnell from those that actually worked with him, right?

 

If that's the case, then yeah, nothing should have been done. It would be one thing if there were reports of sexual harassment, etc., from employees, but if there weren't any, this should not be an issue.

 

Something like this detracts from the real cases where women have dealt with sexual harassment, which makes this pretty disgusting.

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I haven't read much about this yet, but if I'm understanding correctly, there have been no accusations against Nolan Bushnell from those that actually worked with him, right?

 

If that's the case, then yeah, nothing should have been done. It would be one thing if there were reports of sexual harassment, etc., from employees, but if there weren't any, this should not be an issue.

 

Something like this detracts from the real cases where women have dealt with sexual harassment, which makes this pretty disgusting.

Not only NO ACCUSATIONS, but outright support for actual female employees that worked with and for Nolan, unlike the failed developer/drama engine behind this. I don't believe Wu even cares to or will publically acknowledge the facts from females that worked at Atari in the 70s since they don't meet Wu's "narrative."
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Not only NO ACCUSATIONS, but outright support for actual female employees that worked with and for Nolan, unlike the failed developer/drama engine behind this. I don't believe Wu even cares to or will publically acknowledge the facts from females that worked at Atari in the 70s since they don't meet Wu's "narrative."

 

Ugh. If nothing has surfaced, then amends need to be made to Bushnell. Something like this just damages legitimate complaints. It makes men afraid of sexual harassment claims for just asking women out,and it makes people equate feminism with man-hating.

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Well, the GDC just lost any integrity they may have had, so not anymore, it isn't!

 

I wonder if this was a stunt by GDC from the beginning to grab headlines and gain notoriety.

 

Maybe Nolan's response should have been, "Whew, I thought I was going to have to make more room on my awards shelf!"

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You all make me ashamed to be a gamer. Good on GDC.

Speaking of whiny ass pansies, there's an awful lot of whining in this thread.

There's nothing "free love" about implied threats to your employment as an incentive to sex. And the radical feminists you think are prudish are freakier and more partnered than any centrist I know.

Proof and to how many decimal points.

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From the articles I read, there are no victims coming forward but the source of the outrage was a book in which Bushnell describes Atari corporate culture including a story where he had a board meeting in a hot tub and asked a female staffer to join them after she brought them some paperwork.

 

That scenario is rather tame but still clearly inappropriate by today's professional standards. However, that interpretation would ignore the fact that second wave feminism was still an ongoing movement at the time of the occurrence. From a societal perspective there was no clear line in the sand yet, they were still being drawn. Criticizing Bushnell here is like chastising a WWI hero who didn't believe women should have the right to vote. In that time period the public was still debating the issue and sometimes public figures were misled and end up on the wrong side of history.

 

It's easy to argue that there is a consistently right and wrong way to behave which spans across all time and people should just know which side is right regardless of their time period. But I feel that expectation is unreasonable, it takes time to bend the public consciousness on these issues that we previously didn't pay attention to. People who meant no harm will end up on the wrong side of history because they were operating within the bounds of what was tolerable at a particular point in time.

 

Bushnell may have been on the wrong side of history then and GDC may be on the wrong side of history now. But GDC have their reasons, today we have the extremely sensitive issue of women being exploited in various entertainment industries. I think GDC got spooked and worried about the possibility that they might give an award to someone and then have accusers come forward the day after. Reneging on an award based on those grounds is acceptable today, just as asking your secretary to join you in the company hot tub was acceptable in the 70s. Which side was right is something history will have to decide.

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I wonder if this was a stunt by GDC from the beginning to grab headlines and gain notoriety.

 

Maybe Nolan's response should have been, "Whew, I thought I was going to have to make more room on my awards shelf!"

 

 

Exactly my thoughts too. I have absolutely NO IDEA who or what GDC is, and don't even care to look it up. But I know VERY WELL what Atari is, and Nolan Bushnell. I've known what Atari is since I was first able to retain memories. My mom bought An Atari VCS in 1977 and played it while I was still in the womb. I've known who Nolan Bushnell is since at least the mid to late 1990s.

 

To this day, I still have no idea who the GDC is, nor do I really care, other than the fact that they're trying to discredit someone who was revolutionary in society.

 

 

Do we also erase Bill Clinton, John F. Kennedy, and Donald Trump from all history because of #MeToo?

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My feeling is that Nolan will eventually receive this award - but not this year - probably next year. This will give plenty of time for his defenders to have their say and put his past and present conduct in proper context. Hopefully, by then things will have quieted down a bit, for the snowflakes to be melted away, and for Wu to be discredited enough to render her irrelevant. And if any leftover snowflakes try to put a damper on things GDC should have enough proper information on Nolan to tell them to go fuck off.

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Same here. This is the kind of thing that really turns people off from liberalism, and it is *not* liberalism. At all. It's just prudishness and revisionist history. Also, a lot of people quick to outrage, which seems to be a bipartisan affliction these days.

 

 

Progressive/leftist and liberal are the same thing. These people are definitely not that. This is a whole separate movement at this point. When it starts taking down other known liberals like Al Franken, who also was taken down by stuff that was public knowledge and that he had no chance to defend against (I mean, news flash: he worked at SNL in the 1970's), then that is not a liberal/progressive/leftist movement. It's just an outrage movement.

I equate modern feminism with anarchists. People who have an axe to grind and who don't care how much damage they cause to make their point.

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I equate modern feminism with anarchists. People who have an axe to grind and who don't care how much damage they cause to make their point.

 

And this is how situations like this are damaging. Because feminism gets used as an excuse for separate agendas or because misguided people act in unacceptable ways under the guise of feminism, others get alienated and feel like it's an "us versus them" scenario.

 

Feminism should be about equality. That's it.

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And this is how situations like this are damaging. Because feminism gets used as an excuse for separate agendas or because misguided people act in unacceptable ways under the guise of feminism, others get alienated and feel like it's an "us versus them" scenario.

 

Feminism should be about equality. That's it.

Absolutely. If it were just that then it wouldn't be an issue. The problem is so-called "radical" feminism. Many feminists don't realise that they fall under that category, while others proudly describe themselves as such. We have a serious nut job here in the UK that goes by the pseudonym of Jean Hatchet. She conducts witch-hunts against individuals via Change.org and winds up her followers into such a frenzy that they'll make death threats against individuals and businesses seeking to help her targets. And yet she has been given numerous media interviews and even had the backing of politicians. I decided to check out her blog a while back and the first thing I saw was a bizarre rant about the wording on a condom machine in a women's toilet.

 

Don't get me started on Anita Sarkeesian.

 

As someone said, it's a very vocal minority. So my 15 year old daughter, who classes herself as a moderate feminist, can be forgiven for saying that only 10% of feminists want equality while the other 90% want to be in a better position than men. It's because of this kind of stupidity and overreaction. The true message of feminism is being lost by the actions of these loud few who have the ear of the media and politicians.

Edited by Tickled_Pink
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If the whole "metoo" movement represents a symbolic course-correction of our society, then targeting Nolan Bushnell represents symbolic oversteer, IMO. Unless or until evidence of some kind of real transgression comes to light, this seems awfully frivolous.

 

If the metoo movement results in a society where there is strong accountability for all actions of all people regardless of their position or power, then that is fabulous, and I like to think no reasonable person would say otherwise.

 

But to use the campaign to carpet-bomb vilification on any slightly high-profile male figure who ever made the unthinkable mistake of manifesting his human urges in even the most subtle way... it's counterproductive because it turns otherwise sympathetic people off the cause.

 

In other words: don't fight indiscriminately; fight smartly.

Problem with Metoo is it's mob justice. Sure I was happy as anyone when it exposed some real monsters like Weinstein. But even before Bushnell there were some questionable claims under metoo. Everyone is supposed to be innocent until proven guilty and have due process. But metoo can be used to wreck careers without any of that. Some deserve it, but some don't.

 

Yes I get fighting powerful people is tough, and that's what keeps people silent. I like middle-ground solutions, but I don't see what that is cases like this.

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From the articles I read, there are no victims coming forward but the source of the outrage was a book in which Bushnell describes Atari corporate culture including a story where he had a board meeting in a hot tub and asked a female staffer to join them after she brought them some paperwork.

 

That scenario is rather tame but still clearly inappropriate by today's professional standards. However, that interpretation would ignore the fact that second wave feminism was still an ongoing movement at the time of the occurrence. From a societal perspective there was no clear line in the sand yet, they were still being drawn. Criticizing Bushnell here is like chastising a WWI hero who didn't believe women should have the right to vote. In that time period the public was still debating the issue and sometimes public figures were misled and end up on the wrong side of history.

 

It's easy to argue that there is a consistently right and wrong way to behave which spans across all time and people should just know which side is right regardless of their time period. But I feel that expectation is unreasonable, it takes time to bend the public consciousness on these issues that we previously didn't pay attention to. People who meant no harm will end up on the wrong side of history because they were operating within the bounds of what was tolerable at a particular point in time.

 

Bushnell may have been on the wrong side of history then and GDC may be on the wrong side of history now. But GDC have their reasons, today we have the extremely sensitive issue of women being exploited in various entertainment industries. I think GDC got spooked and worried about the possibility that they might give an award to someone and then have accusers come forward the day after. Reneging on an award based on those grounds is acceptable today, just as asking your secretary to join you in the company hot tub was acceptable in the 70s. Which side was right is something history will have to decide.

I don't think there is really a "right side/wrong side" of history, it's all one big circular cycle, and this case proves it. Back in the 60s/70s it was "progressive" to be sexually liberated, these days it's "progressive" to be sexually restrained. Full circle.

 

But I agree it's wrong and unfair to judge people who were born in a different era with different norms by your standards. How many people really care what people 50 years from now think of their actions? How can they even know? Most people only care what their peers think.

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Exactly my thoughts too. I have absolutely NO IDEA who or what GDC is, and don't even care to look it up. But I know VERY WELL what Atari is, and Nolan Bushnell. I've known what Atari is since I was first able to retain memories. My mom bought An Atari VCS in 1977 and played it while I was still in the womb. I've known who Nolan Bushnell is since at least the mid to late 1990s.

As I said before, Nolan shouldn't care about the award, but he SHOULD care about his name and reputation being dragged through the mud with a metoo allegation.

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I think this thread is deep in the "political" zone and frankly I'm surprised it hasn't been closed already.

 

Since it isn't, I think I'll weigh in with something besides what I see here as many "me too" dudes who seem shocked, shocked to think that a powerful man should be challenged in this way. Remember: Nolan himself is 75 years old and has plenty of other sidelines. Atari is ancient history to him. He's doing fine, he doesn't need this award to validate his accomplishments. He gets it. I'm sure he'd rather be working on his next business thing than being the subject of controversy.

 

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GDC, however, has something to lose. GDC conferences have been justifiably called out as nasty places for women. You might think it's funny to laugh at safe spaces, but harassment is so ingrained in the dominant culture that someone made a game and presentation about it. They're trying to change that image, and they should have anticipated #notnolan. For years now, they've had sessions about advocacy and you can see presentations from long before #metoo took off.

 

No one is being forced to agree with the particular brand of feminism espoused by Anita Sarkeesian (who has presented at GDC herself), but if she doesn't talk about the "tropes vs women," who will? The dude-bros aren't going to do it. Last year's GDC had 27,000 attendees. It's a powerful force in the industry. Such power should be used for good.

Don't like Brianna Wu? Well, don't support her congressional run. The whole point of a political campaign is to get your name, face, and ideas out there. I think the death threats she received from gamergate trolls, who used tactics now embraced by the alt-right, are truly upsetting, culturally important, and worth talking about. Is #notnolan a stunt? Yeah, maybe ... but I think it's well deserved, and it worked. You're talking about it, after all. She probably wouldn't change your mind, anyway. I think Brianna is a lot more qualified than Chelsea Manning, who is running to be my senator. I think we can expect more unorthodox candidates in this cycle.

 

Former Atari employee Loni Reeder's story is her own, and I'm glad her experience was positive. Let's not pretend this "proves" anything one way or another, she's one voice of one woman who chose to stay in that environment, it worked out for her. How many women stayed away from Atari or felt uncomfortable? We'll never know. Nolan doesn't have to be a serial rapist to have contributed to the popularization of the hot tub culture we no longer enjoy.

 

Yes, it was "another time" when Nolan was wearing his "I Love To Fuck" T-shirt to work where he was the boss, and code-named their projects after women, including one who was "stacked and had the tiniest waist." Would you think it was OK if he acted that way today, wearing that, or giving his GDC acceptance speech from a hot tub?

 

That's exactly why we don't need to choose to honor him as a hero at GDC 2018.

 

This book review from today's NYT about the "Brotopia" book might be illuminating. There's a longer segment at Vanity Fair if you're interested.

 

Maybe I should start a GoFundMe to get Nolan a different kind of Major Award.

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I think this thread is deep in the "political" zone and frankly I'm surprised it hasn't been closed already.

It's intrinsically related to Atari, and due to the nature of it, it's impossible to separate the politics out of it.

Since it isn't, I think I'll weigh in with something besides what I see here as many "me too" dudes who seem shocked, shocked to think that a powerful man should be challenged in this way.

Again, show us the actual wrongdoing and most of us will change our minds. I'm fine with metoo taking down actual monsters like Weinstein, but we can't let it become a witch-hunt.

 

 

Don't like Brianna Wu? Well, don't support her congressional run. The whole point of a political campaign is to get your name, face, and ideas out there. I think the death threats she received from gamergate trolls, who used tactics now embraced by the alt-right, are truly upsetting, culturally important, and worth talking about.

Well That's Brianna's side of the story. The other side claims that she latched onto gamergate as a way to use the controversy to promote her game and she helped create the narriative that gamergate is nothing but a group created with the goal of harassing women. People supporting gamergate would be quick to tell you they want nothing to do with any harassing campaign and their only mission is/was to keep the gaming press honest.

 

I'd suggest people listen to both sides and make up their own mind.

 

Is #notnolan a stunt? Yeah, maybe ... but I think it's well deserved, and it worked. You're talking about it, after all..

Tarnishing someone's reputation for one's own political gain is well-deserved? if you say so.

 

Former Atari employee Loni Reeder's story is her own, and I'm glad her experience was positive. Let's not pretend this "proves" anything one way or another, she's one voice of one woman who chose to stay in that environment, it worked out for her. How many women stayed away from Atari or felt uncomfortable? We'll never know.

She may be one voice, but she wasn't the only one, there are a handful of others. There are more women defending him than accusing him? Does that not count for anything? If there ever was a time to speak up against him, it's now.

 

That's exactly why we don't need to choose to honor him as a hero at GDC 2018.

I thought this award was about videogame pioneers, not a canonization to sainthood? If you can't give one of the biggest pioneers a pioneer award, what good is your award?

Edited by zzip
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https://venturebeat.com/2018/02/02/the-deanbeat-with-bushnell-award-history-became-herstory/

 

This was a really good piece, and I think the author hits all the points and viewpoints without making a judgment.

 

To me this is not a political fight. The game publishing industry supposedly employs less than 1/4 women. This is pretty ridiculous, and fairly obvious and glaring. One thing he brings up was that Nolan preached AGAINST violent games. His vision for gaming is largely dead, being superseded first by the Japanese old guard, and several times over since then. In any event, I think the strict interpretation of history without context clearly has not gone over well.

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