【Secret Confessions (2025) Spongkey Episode 44】

#TimesUp for video games. Finally.

Atari founder Nolan Bushnell will no longer receive the prestigious Pioneer Award at the annual Game Developers Choice Awards in March. He had previously been announced as the recipient for 2018,Secret Confessions (2025) Spongkey Episode 44 but backlash from the community stemming largely from Bushnell's past comments and behavior compelled the change.

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A Wednesday morning announcement from the show's advisory committee, the group that votes on the special award winners each year, confirmed the change. The statement never mentions Bushnell by name; it merely confirms there will be no Pioneer Award for 2018.

"The Game Developers Choice Awards Advisory Committee ... have 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."

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The backlash began on Tuesday, shortly after a press release went out naming Bushnell as the Pioneer Award recipient for 2018. It has long been known that a frat-like culture dominated the early days of Atari, back in the 1970s and 1980s when the brand was still a major player in the gaming world.

While Bushnell hasn't been chased by the sorts of allegations that have surfaced about men like Harvey Weinstein or Kevin Spacey, his well-documented past behavior -- in news reports, interviews, and books -- is cause for concern.

In one anecdote from The Ultimate History of Video Games, a book that includes details from the early years of Atari, Bushnell held a board meeting in his backyard hot tub and tried to cajole a woman who delivered legal documents into joining.

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As he told The San Francisco Chroniclein a profile: "Some ladies feel comfortable around me, and some don’t. I find the aura of power and money is very intimidating to an awful number of girls."

As many pointed out after GDCA's Tuesday announcement, handing the Pioneer Award -- which celebrates individuals who brought about significant breakthroughs for the games industry -- to a man like Bushnell in 2018 rings as tone deaf.

Many of the criticisms leveled at the Atari founder collected under the #NotNolan hashtag, which built up a mountain of responses throughout Tuesday and into Wednesday.

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Officials from the Game Developer's Conference organizer UBM, which also oversees the awards, told The Verge on Tuesday night that they were unaware of Bushnell's history but would re-examine the decision.

It's important to point out here that timing matters. No one is disputing Atari's important place in the history and development of the modern video game industry. But to honor a man in 2018 for achievements that grew out of a toxic culture like Atari's means ignoring all the important changes that are happening in our society on a much broader scale.

The GDCA statement is clear enough on this point: "They believe their picks should reflect the values of today's game industry..." (emphasis added).

While the conversations around #TimesUp and #MeToo have made headlines and spurred significant changes in a broad swath of industries, the gaming world has largely skated by without notice. There are many different possible explanations for why that's been the case, but none of them are "the games industry puts men and women on equal footing."

The same issues that exist everywhere else also exist in games. Perhaps even moreso, since games are fundamentally tech and tech is widely known as a male-dominated space. The Guardian's Keza MacDonald explored the reasons #MeToo hasn't really touched games in an excellent op-ed written earlier in January.

The GDCA turnabout on Bushnell isn't a fix for everything. More than anything else, it's a start. It's a sign that key figures in the industry not only recognize what's happening in the larger world, but are willing to act when it's in their power to do so.

Let's all hope there's more of this to come. It's overdue.

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