UPDATE: Penny Arcade Smacks Down Shady PR Dude

[Moosejaw]

I do not shed a tear for him, but for the way I see everyone around me acting.
For the people acting as if the combined efforts of everyone involved in trying to destroy this man's life was a noble cause.

This is the way society works, for good or ill. The internet certainly isn't alone in this. I'd say the internet is far more lenient than past societies have been - at least the guy isn't being pelted with rotten vegetables, run out of town or even assaulted or hanged. It's just humiliation and harassment, which will go away when folks get bored of him - which will be soon enough. The community will soon forget about him, and he'll have learned a valuable lesson. Oh, will he learn.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

If you look in the cold light of day at a man you have broken, it just feels wrong.

If you're looking over the top of bodies he has broken, it smells of justice.

, but I fail to see how this has relevance to what I am saying.

That, my friend, is why you fail. Look at the evidence before making judgment.

 

[Flying Dagger]

Like the "superior" UK Criminal Justice Act; which allows the police to burn Traveller's houses and charge them for doing so. That's the beautiful law you allude to.

I did also state in another post that the legal system was far from perfect.
However bringing this up adds absolutely nothing to the argument. The comparison of a law that involved the removing of people from places they were unauthorised to be (to shepherd them to places there were allowed to be) has little or not relevance to cases of drug abuse or domestic violence where the resolving of such issues is far better left to the police than to the rabid fury of the internet.

 

[Flying Dagger]

This is the way society works, for good or ill. The internet certainly isn't alone in this. I'd say the internet is far more lenient than past societies have been - at least the guy isn't being pelted with rotten vegetables, run out of town or even assaulted or hanged. It's just humiliation and harassment, which will go away when folks get bored of him - which will be soon enough. The community will soon forget about him, and he'll have learned a valuable lesson. Oh, will he learn.

For good or ill? Certainly for ill. And if something is wrong - it should be changed.

In a months time when he's looking for a job will not the antics of the internet still be abound?

Or how about in six months, when his wife has left him, taken the kids and he still can't find a job?

Or then twelve months, when, feeling a complete failure, destitute and alone, decides to take his own life?

How far do you believe he deserves to be pushed?
How much does he deserve to be put through?

 

[Cenzton]

He's not a nice guy, but he's still a person, just because he's a jackass doesn't mean we should destroy his life.

Uhm.... quite frankly, yes it does. You're usually not able to do it, but if this makes the next jackass stop and think, hey, if I do this jackass thing I usually do, my life may get ruined like that jackass before me, it's absolutely worth it.

I am calling for people to stop baying for blood, to stop clamouring for this guy's life to be ruined. I seek not the heavy handed intervention that SOPA would bring.
I simply wish people to take a step back, think about what they are doing to the man, and question whether it is the right thing to do, or if all they are doing is heaping more and more pain upon someone who has clearly already suffered more than their fair share for his transgressions.

SOPA wouldn't have squat to do with this.

And no, the guy hasn't suffered for his fair share of transgressions. His "apology" only came about when he realized he actually stepped on someone's toes. And, frankly, I wouldn't believe an actual apology from him the same way no one trusts any public apology from public figures who get their hand caught in the cookie jar.

I really do have to wonder why some folks are trying to White Knight on the guy's side. Rather peculiar.

 

[Flying Dagger]

Uhm.... quite frankly, yes it does. You're usually not able to do it, but if this makes the next jackass stop and think, hey, if I do this jackass thing I usually do, my life may get ruined like that jackass before me, it's absolutely worth it.

SOPA wouldn't have squat to do with this.

And no, the guy hasn't suffered for his fair share of transgressions. His "apology" only came about when he realized he actually stepped on someone's toes. And, frankly, I wouldn't believe an actual apology from him the same way no one trusts any public apology from public figures who get their hand caught in the cookie jar.

I really do have to wonder why some folks are trying to White Knight on the guy's side. Rather peculiar.

I'm just going to have to disagree.
I don't believe being a bit of a loudmouth deserves this sort of punishment.
I don't see destroying his life as something noble or worthwhile.
Sorry.

I'm also not "white knighting" for the hell of it.
It just scares me the way people act in a mob.

 

[Adultratedhydra]

Ah. The sweet sweet smell of justice. Let the smouldering ruins of his life serve as a warning to those who would do wrong.

 

[joe-h2o]

I really can't see this as vigilantism in the strictest sense - Paul was given the opportunity to deal with it at an early stage, before it all went public and instead of handling things professionally he essentially dared Gabe to post on PA.

My bet is that he simply didn't believe Mike was Gabe and that his bluffing and bullying would work (it certainly gets you a fair distance until you meet someone who has the time, energy or real credentials to call you on it).

As it happens he finally tripped over someone who called his bluff, and in doing so his whole tawdry history of virtually identical poor customer service/PR came to light.


He basically walked right out in front of the Internet Gaming Community and said "come on then, I'll take you all on!"

I've not ruled out that he didn't know how big PA actually was (I know he said he loved it, but I'm not sure I believe anything he wrote) and that he thought "some no name guy called Mike" would whine on his "insignificant blog" and that he would pump some more iron in victory while chugging down some more steroids.

It reminds me of the Cooks Source debacle, where the editor really didn't know who she was dealing with - assuming it was some no-name blogger, when in reality she was messing with an Internet Blog Celebrity and that many, many people would pick it up an run with it.

 

[woodaba]

Penny Arcade is absolute shit. All webcomics are absolute shit. OP was TL;DR.

Trolling much?

OT: I think I agree with Dagger on this one. We, the internet, have essentially burned his house to the ground and ruined his life because he was a dick. I have very little sympathy for the man, but if he does end up taking his life because of this, the blood is on our hands.

 

[FamoFunk]

What makes me sad is the poor guys who made this controller are going to be really effected by this. And by what I've read it's actually a fantastic piece of equipment.

There's no need for the low rating on the product on Amazon and places, just because of this one arsehole.

 

[Nergy]

Penny Arcade is absolute shit. All webcomics are absolute shit. OP was TL;DR.

Trolling much?

OT: I think I agree with Dagger on this one. We, the internet, have essentially burned his house to the ground and ruined his life because he was a dick. I have very little sympathy for the man, but if he does end up taking his life because of this, the blood is on our hands.

If he does take his own life, It will be because he wasn't willing to pick himself back up, learn from his mistakes and rebuild his reputation among society. You know, what everyone else has to deal with.

 

[a ginger491]

It makes me angry that people are giving one star reviews and a rant on how bad the company's PR is on amazon. This product is going to fail because an employee at a PR firm that was hired by the company that makes the controller add on sent out some nasty e-mails. Talk about secondary liability. I guess one person really can make all the difference. Way to kick the biggest hornet's nest you could find, Paul. And in the words of the all powerful Yahtzee "Go team retard!"

 

[snagli]

I simply don't understand how he could claim himself to be the president of a company... multiple companies, even. If he were really the president of such a mighty group of people that should not be fought, then why in the hell is he himself dealing with small fry orders? You have people representing you if you are the head of such a mighty and awesome company, so it's not bloody likely this guy has anyone working for him.

 

[Nergy]

Uhm.... quite frankly, yes it does. You're usually not able to do it, but if this makes the next jackass stop and think, hey, if I do this jackass thing I usually do, my life may get ruined like that jackass before me, it's absolutely worth it.

SOPA wouldn't have squat to do with this.

And no, the guy hasn't suffered for his fair share of transgressions. His "apology" only came about when he realized he actually stepped on someone's toes. And, frankly, I wouldn't believe an actual apology from him the same way no one trusts any public apology from public figures who get their hand caught in the cookie jar.

I really do have to wonder why some folks are trying to White Knight on the guy's side. Rather peculiar.

I'm just going to have to disagree.
I don't believe being a bit of a loudmouth deserves this sort of punishment.
I don't see destroying his life as something noble or worthwhile.
Sorry.

I'm also not "white knighting" for the hell of it.
It just scares me the way people act in a mob.

Your definition of "loudmouth" is taking someone's money and telling them they are a dick for asking where their product is? Read the emails, not just these ones but the other documented ones between Paul and his customers. You don't get away with treating people like dirt and threatening people (re-read what he said to Mike Krahulik and tell me he's not calling some sort of faux-mafia connections on him).

If he is able to pick himself up, rebuild a better reputation and act like a decent member of society, then i'm sure nobody would be hostile toward him. This isn't people being a "mob". It's calling someone on their bullshit.

 

[fundayz]

"The internet is srs bzns" ... it used to be a joke, ha

 

[Beryl77]

Wow, this has gone really far compared to yesterday when I first read about this. At first I agreed but people are taking this way too far. Of course it's much easier to hate one little asshole and distract yourself from other much bigger and more important problems.
Of course this is the internet so you can't expect any less, since they're also all just normal people but with the additional help of anonymity.
I personally don't see how it's worth getting so worked up over one idiot's mistakes. Oh well, if you're unhappy with your life, hate some elses life and destroy it to feel an acomplishmend.

 

[TheGuy(wantstobe)]

update
Spread the word he's changed his twitter to @oceandeepsea

 

[Shjade]

Man. People like this guy make me wonder if I'd be living a much more financially vibrant life if I had no morals, since I'm clearly more intelligent than he is, just unwilling to do the kind of crap he's done to profit himself. Hhh...probably better not to think about it. (Edit: Interesting timing for post 666. )

In other news, this is what I like most about Penny Arcade. The comic, ehh, it's alright, but this kind of Internets Justice is what they do that entertains me most. Child's Play progenitors and cyber vigilantes. What's not to like?

 

[RJ 17]

Seriously, this article gets my nomination for Funniest Article of 2011 (because the moron actually thought he could come out on top in a fight against Penny Arcade) while the article itself is about a man who should clearly be nominated for Biggest Douchebag of 2011.

The absolute BEST is when he completely underestimates Penny Arcade. At first he's all excited to be in contact with Mike, trying to play it off and be cool. When it becomes apparent that Mike isn't buying any of his BS, he just flips the coin and starts talking about how tiny and amateurish Penny Arcade is.

While his spelling, grammar, and lack of punctuation clearly define how stupid he is, picking a fight with Penny Arcade is essentially walking up to the internet and saying "Please, I beg of you, drop your pants and sh*t all over my face! I NEED IT!!!!" Which is actually almost literally what Paul says in one of his emails with the "We like drama gets good blood flowing" comment. It's like Dave pointed out in one of his emails: "Gamers are vindictive and very hardcore, however the tradeoff is that we're extremely loyal and more than happy to just throw money at companies that offer good products" (paraphrasing). So really all you have to do is NOT be an out-right dickhead to us and we'll keep your pockets lined with cash. So in short, Paul broke the number one rule in the gaming industry (and most likely ANY industry): don't piss in the faces of your customers and expect everything to be fine and dandy.

He kept talking about how big he is, all the people he knows, all the connections he has...he clearly failed to realize that PA is one of the most gamer-visited websites on the net. By stiring up a hornets' nest there he pretty much signed his own death sentence in the gamer industry. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if a picture surfaces in the next few days of Paul sitting on a street corner holding a homeless sign and begging for change. Maybe he can get his vast network of connections to help him out...though apparently after this whole thing was exposed there's a race to see who can disassociate themselves from this guy the fastest.

 

[Sixcess]

Snip

I suggest you go back to TheGuy(wantsobe) and my post before making a completely incorrect statement like this. He did more then just give terrible PR to his company and act VERY unprofessional to his customers, he lied, he cheat, and stole on many different occasions. This douche is going to face many charges and will be sued to oblivion that his jailtime clock will look like a freaking phone number.

I very much doubt that.

I can see that it's tempting to try and build this guy up as some kind of major felon in an attempt to justify what's being done, but that's not what this is. This is a minor nobody having his life ruined for the lulz.

The internet isn't Batman, and even if it was in the real world vigilantism is just another word for lynch mob.

I'm not defending the guy, I'm sure he is an asshole. I'm attacking the mob mentality on show here.