Game Developers Conference revokes Atari co-founder, Nolan Bushnell's award; he applauds GDC's stand

While Hollywood, sports, and Silicon Valley are thriving with stories of #MeToo and #TimesUp movement, the latter not so much maybe; the gaming world either has been oblivious to the situation or it chooses to be one.

Nolan Bushnell. Reuters.

But, finally, taking cognisance of the situation, Game Developers Conference (GDC) has withdrawn the Pioneer award which Nolan Bushnell was due to receive for his contribution to the gaming industry.

Known as “the father of video gaming industry” he has applauded GDC's decision and has apologised for inappropriate behaviour in the past.

According to The Verge, Nolan was due to receive the award. This created a host of criticism coming out from Twitteratis. #NotNolan was the trending hashtag.

@ubm This is not the time to turn a blind eye and say "Oh things were different then, it was a different time". If it's in fact a different time now, then why are we rewarding someone who's behavior is now deemed inappropriate and unacceptable? #NotNolan

— Nick Bermes (@nick_joebgen) January 30, 2018

UBM: don’t give the Pioneer award to anyone this year. Or rather, award it symbolically to all of the women who built this industry and are no longer here, in large part due to men like this.#notnolan. — Elizabeth Sampat (@twoscooters) January 30, 2018

This is wrong. And if anybody who claims to care about us is actually willing to do the hard work of actually standing with us, it has to be #notnolan

It’s time we do the hard work beyond only saying that we care about the women in this industry.

— Jennifer Scheurle (@Gaohmee) January 30, 2018

I love all the men popping in to tell me to wait to hear both sides on #notnolan. The problem with that is we happen to have an inside source: Nolan Bushnell himself. There aren’t any women involved in these allegations, we’re just quoting all the sexist **** he said. — Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) January 31, 2018

Reportedly, Bushnell had created an environment in Atari, the company he co-founded, which was nothing short of impenetrable bro-culture. Pervasive sexism was not only rampant in the way they dealt, but also the way they treated women in the company.

A statement from me pic.twitter.com/OfsrgaCmgW

— Nolan K Bushnell (@NolanBushnell) January 31, 2018

So much so, that when talking about a female employee named Darlene, whose name was used for a gaming code as well, Bushnell had reportedly said in a Playboy interview that Darlene “was stacked and had the tiniest waist.”

This has created a crack in the video-gaming industry which has seen maximum representation by men over the years.