It goes beyond an award though. If all this is false and it isn't called out, every article in the future will have this brush applied to it. Basically tarnishing his reputation forever, which would be unfair if it is untrue.
GDC Rescinds Nolan Bushnell’s Pioneer Award. MOD EDIT: Read OP
- Thread starter daegan
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He admitted, even though in a vague manner, that he treated women inappropriately. We already know its difficult for women to come forward. If he's willing to admit he abused women, I'll believe him.
He also didn't put up much of a fight over his award.
She doesn't care, the email she sent Brad Glasgow speaks volumes, and with her prior in the gaming industry I'm surprised she's getting any traction at all here.
I'm sure the people behind #MeToo wouldn't want this, but the movement has turned into a dangerous witch hunt, and something that is depressing me.
He didn't admit to anything even remotely close to that. You're reading into his statement implicit guilt where he's saying "No biggie GDC, and I'm sorry if anyone I worked with felt like I was at all inappropriate" What in the fuck.
You sure have a way with words, I can't remember a post in this forum I've ever agreed more with. You nailed the point perfectly.
He isn't denying the culture in and around his leadership. Those of us who followed the industry at that point contemporaniously or even just through the wide range of documentary material know how bad it truly was. We can take him at his own word in the response. He's not being slandered in this decision. Without straining details, he acknowedges treating women inappropriately.
Demanding he be rewarded in light of aspects of his work he himself openly recognizes would be tasteless in the current context is an over-reaction. This is not unfair, and what you're saying sounds more like an effort to whitewash the past, while others are open to seeing it for what it was, including Bushnell.
At what point did he acknowledge treating women inappropriately? He just says that he apologizes if his actions have ever caused offense, and it doesnt seem like they have.
In a previous post I acknowledged the environmental differences of the time and I am not excusing that, I am not campaigning for the award to be changed back even. Just it would be unfair to heighten what he supposively has done if it is just not true.
If the environment at the time was loose with how the staff behaved thats one thing, but if everyone was seemingly cool with it at the time and no complaints have actually surfaced..
Yep. If anything, it shows what a gentlemen he is, taking on the burden of responsibility, acknowledging the #MeToo movement as important and above him, even though he appears to be completely innocent of any wrong-doing himself.
GDC shot themselves in the foot and I doubt they'll recover from this massive reputation hit. If they were smart and decent, they'd apologize to Nolan, condemn Brianna Wu and the others who are propagating these lies and give the man his damn award (not that he should even accept it after what they'd done to him)
"Sleazy"? If you're so outraged by the "if" statement, and so certain there was abused parties, then why don't you provide names of all the women he directly dealt with that have spoken out against him and this abuse? You know, not including all those #metoo agenda pushers with pitch forks on twitter who were born 20 years after he supposedly victimized all these women? Why has every woman who was actually there during that time DEFENDED him and not the other way around?
I'll be waiting for those names. It's incredible how so many people (like you) pretend to be such warriors of justice and yet are so quick so smear and tarnish someone's reputation without evidence or a second thought.
He may have abused a hot tub, but there's no evidence of abuse of women. Your wilful disregard of the existing evidence in order to propagate this lie is evil.
This looks so bad for GDC and I somehow feel Brianna Wu will be able to move away from this entirely unscathed. This is a witch hunt, plain and simple.
Bushnell's handling this exceedingly well too, what a guy.
Bushnell's handling this exceedingly well too, what a guy.
I don't think we are talking about the same things friend.
To the point that it is hard to respond to your post.
This is a huge mischaracterization of what he said. He has openly talked about the party atmosphere at Atari for years, as have other employees at the company. That's not an admission of guilt, it's a description of the environment. An environment that multiple women have stated they willingly participated in and enjoyed. Obviously that sort of party environment is pretty inappropriate for the workplace, but there is a huge difference between behaving unprofessionally and harassment.
His argument was that it's well worth it for him to give up an award if it makes the industry better for women. That seems a lot more altruistic and positive than demanding an award, especially when you're already known as a pioneer like Nolan is.
I think you are overreacting. Nobody here is doing anything to Bushnell's legacy, we're anonymous posters on a video game message board.
This is an unfortunate situation, GDC did the right thing pulling the award at least for now, Bushnell is handling it with grace. If the guy at the top of his industry in the environment he admits to never did anything inappropriate st this point I'd be more shocked of that than the inverse. I hope he never did and good on the women speaking up to that effect (and to any effect).
I mean, no proof, not even an accusation?! Sounds like strictly pr move by gdc to avoid the dreaded optics. But I agree Bushnell handling it well as a sacrificial lamb. There's a reason he was at the top of the food chain.
eta- this had me heated. Who is this random person who knows more about what happened than a person who worked there and is an ally to the cause?
It's so unfortunate that a really positive movement for women (and some men as well) in the #metoo movement can get so derailed by issues like this. Genuine cases MUST be investigated and, if relevant parties are found guilty of any assault, they should face the full force of the law. This is most definitely NOT one of those cases, and Nolan has unfortunately suffered as result. Hopefully not suffered too badly, but accusations like this will follow you around forever, and he doesn't deserve to be tarnished with a similar brush in the #metoo movement when assholes like Weinstein and Spacey are around...
Yeah, it sucks but I don't know where I land on it. It doesn't sound like he sexually assaulted anyone but the corporate atmosphere seems questionable. The obvious reply to that would be that former employees have come out in support of him, but that doesn't mean it wasn't sexist or an inappropriate atmosphere. My wife for example, she thinks #metoo is stupid and comes out on the side of most men (I've tried to get through to her on this), but that doesn't mean the men are right, it doesn't mean she isn't victim to institutional sexism almost every day because she is. These women may have been very happy but that doesn't mean it was something that should be celebrated, especially in the wake of such a powerful movement.
True, it's both disconcerting and heartbreaking to read for example the unbelievably horrific things even Abraham Lincoln had to say about African-American peoples. People are complicated creatures and times can really change over time, hopefully for the better. Heroes can be found to do or say horrible things, and villains can be found to show compassion or kindness in unexpected ways. It really helps to view history with a dispassionate eye.
Lol I guess everyone has someone they'll go to bat for over sexual abuse. Yours just happens to be someone that made some video games in the past.
Would you Stan for him as hard if someone accused him of anti-Semitism in the 80s. What if his response was along the same lines?
"Oh well sorry if I fucked your life up. Everyone was doing it then though!"
I hope women come forward and expose this monster for what he truly is.
#himtoo
I dunno.. If there isn't any abuse, why murky the waters of such a campaign? The evidence is saying people liked working there and they all indulged in the atmosphere at the time.
This right here is why I won't touch these topics with a 10ft pole on Era or the internet. Scary shit. There are too many people on the right side of the issue acting the wrong way. I don't need to dodge friendly fire... they're doing harm by being craven dumbasses.
What? He didn't sexual assault or harass anybody though? Why are you so eager for him to be found guilty when he didn't do anything related to the #metoo movement?
I enjoy character trolls actually lol.
Hansel is just too damn obvious and their type of trolling is rather easy to do since it subverts moderation policies of this forum. Similar to how long time trolls got away with this stuff on GAF previously.
Holy shit, this is worse than I thought. Wu and her millennial friends are so far up their own asses they're literally telling the women who were there that their voices don't matter...for an award about unheard voices. Not only that but Loni has mentioned a few times that she had her own #metoo experience at another company at a later date, but this Jennifer character is denying her that and acting like she can't be part of the club.
These people are like dystopian charicatures, telling the real people to shut up so they can push a narrative for something that occurred decades before they were even born. Keep this up and these morons are going to erode support of #metoo for legitimate cases by crying wolf over manufactured bullshit.
OP
OP
I just saw this bumper, read the Medium piece, but what it misses - and what a lot of the last couple pages of this thread miss - is that harassment (and also a sexually inappropriate workplace) is not contingent on someone feeling themselves victimized. The demands for women to identify themselves and level specific accounts of abuse are, frankly, disgusting and disappointing. It is wholly and entirely possible for everyone who has come forward to be honest about how they felt about that environment and yet for it to still be something that does not deserve to be rewarded in 2018.
This isn’t complicated.
This isn’t complicated.
So you're going to pat these women on the head - the ones who were alive and worked at the company - and tell them that they don't know what they're talking about and aren't adult enough to be able to distinguish between real harassment and bullshit spun up by people 20+ years their junior, dismissing accounts from women who have also had their own #metoo issues at other companies?
Are you for real? Are you actually discrediting their voices like that to promote an uninformed, borderline libelous narrative?
The nerve you have to tell these women to shut up because they don't know what they're talking about and are apparently too ignorant to know the difference is asinine and disgusting.
First, you miss the fact that #MeToo was based on people coming forward, yet know one has.
Moreover, he's only received praise and character commendations from women who did work with him intimately. It's rather ironic that the spirit of #MeToo, us as a society, listening voices from women that were either ignored or hand waived away. That same noble cause is now being used against the women coming to Nolan's defense and vouching for his character. That's not intellectually honest. You can't say you're listening to women's voices if you flatly dismiss those who are speaking up.
https://twitter.com/Gaohmee/status/959675122796777472
She's a clown, I recognize her profile from other sensational and factually incorrect tweets. Hear that? Loni hasn't EARNED the right to find out who exactly was harmed by Nolan, even though she actually worked with him at the time. Apparently that secret information is only known to a select few twitterites, who just happen to be the ones spearheading the campaign against him.
Wow. This post is something else. You do know he was being awarded for his contributions to the industry and not the lax sexually charged workplace he and both the men and women who worked there mutually participated in, right? Continue to infantalise women and take away their agency by telling them what they were and weren't victims of 40 years ago.
Jesus.
OP
OP
I support me too and am anti harassment but this was unjust toward Bushnell. If there is actually evidence I am willing to look at it but so far the opposite is true. It has been very upsetting to see the way folks are accusing Bushnell without facts.
So you and others get to decide the lived experiences of other women because... reasons?
Holy fuck, what am I even reading. You're basically shitting on the women who worked there. And you think you're the good guy?!
So, you're saying there's no need for victims to have a sexual harassment crime, but a crime without a victim isn't a crime. At that point you're just passing down your moral judgement on a situation you weren't part of and can't possibly comprehend.
Every democratic judicial system is based around the idea of innocent until proven guilty, there isn't even one accusation moved against him, so what are we arguing about again?
Believing victims is very important, but condemning people when they're proved guilty also is, and here there aren't even victims to believe. This whole thing is crazy.
It's for their own good. Phrase sounds familiar for some reason...