Congressional hopeful Brianna Wu, Opaque Space design lead Jennifer Scheurle, Worcester Polytechnic Institute professor Gillian Smith, and other feminist activists in the tech industry attempted to get the hashtag #NotNolan to trend in order to prevent the founder of Atari, Nolan Bushnell, from receiving a pioneer award during the Game Developers Conference set to take place this year in San Francisco, California.

The online campaign is being called the video game industry’s version of the #MeToo movement, in order to use social media to shame men out of the industry and out of a job… or in the case of Bushnell, out of an award.

Journalist Brad Glasgow spotted the tweet from the official GDC account, which confirmed that Atari founder Nolan Bushnell would not be receiving an award at this year’s event due to changing times and the fact that Bushnell’s fraternity-style behavior in the 1970s wasn’t something that aligned with today’s politically correct culture.

If you’re unable to read the tweet, the GDC wrote the following message on January 31s, 2018…

“The Game Developers Choice Awards Advisory Committee, who vote on the Special Award winners for each show, have made the decision not to give out a Pioneer Award for this year’s event, following aditional 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 of voices of the past.”

This came after tweets from social agitators made their way around the social media circles of the progressive clique. This was instigated first by feminist Brianna Wu just a day before on January 30th, 2018.

2/ Atari held board meetings in a hottub. There, the board would invite the women employees they wanted to have sexual with up to the suite, and pressure them to strip naked with the men. This is by Mr. Bushnell’s own admission in the book “Ultimate History of Videogames.” — Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) January 30, 2018

3/ I’ve never read a history book on Atari that interviewed many women. It’s been men interviewing men – but this is just the stuff Bushnell bragged about. Can’t imagine what you would find if you dug deeper. Bushnell is an important figure. But this isn’t the year to honor him. — Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) January 30, 2018

Many people asked exactly what sort of behavior warranted this sort of response toward Bushnell? Well, The Verge recounted interviews conducted in Playboy that described Bushnell as cultivating a frat-like atmosphere during the early days of Atari. Apparently they had board meetings in the hot tub; they named some of their projects after women they were fond of; drank heavily, experimented with drugs, and Bushnell once wore a T-shirt that read “I love to fuck”.

The sex-positive nature and masculine-embracing personality of Bushnell no longer aligns with today’s anti-masculine culture and hypersensitive media atmosphere that has geared itself toward puritanical political correctness when it comes to hetero-male sexuality.

In light of this new cultural trend, those who grew up in an era of sex-positivity and “free love” are now viewed by the Intersectional Inquisition as “toxic”. So even though Bushnell never actually committed any sexual related crimes and was never charged nor convicted of sexual harassment or assault, the simple act of not being feminist enough back in the 70’s for today’s social media-governed industry means people like Nolan Bushnell can no longer be revered for pioneering companies like Atari.

[Update:] Nolan Bushnell has apologized for offending feminists. He posted the following tweet on January 31st, 2018.

A statement from me pic.twitter.com/OfsrgaCmgW — Nolan K Bushnell (@NolanBushnell) January 31, 2018

For those of you unable to read the tweet, Bushnell wrote…

“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.”

This now concludes the Bushnell saga.