UPDATE: Penny Arcade Smacks Down Shady PR Dude

[Tselis]

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

Some people's lives only serve as a warning to others. I saw that on a poster somewhere. I think it may apply here.

 

[Tselis]

snip

We've all learned a very important lesson here.

Never.

Fuck.

With.

Penny Arcade.

We didn't know this already?

 

[Flying Dagger]

I think Flying Dagger may be as almost as big a Troll as this douche we're all discussing.

I've stated what I believe in. If you disagree with my views then fine, but please don't try to label me insincere in them.

If you look back at my post I provide proof of the danger mob mentality can pose and what it can drive people to do and also Why people are doing it, and shows why it is a cause for concern.

Trolling is the act of posting without proof or belief in an attempt to get a rise out of people.

Much like you have done.

EDIT: yes I know I said I'd leave this alone and have been posting the same three links, but I don't like being called a troll for this sort of thing, and I feel everyone's answer has been along the lines of "he's a dick and deserves all he gets" and completely ignoring the information presented.

 

[Flying Dagger]

The dangers of mob mentality are well documenter and can be incredibly dangerous even when going against people worth forming a mob to attack

How to create the mob mentality? Lets look here. Apply the first paragraph to what Gabe's actions were - he consolidated flammable material, provided oxygen to burn and lit a spark - knowing full well what the consequences would be.

Or maybe you think this is justified because of some form of vigilantism? (if you have argued along the lines of "if we don't do this he wouldn't be stopped, then you are arguing for this) yet this is disproved thoroughly here

Maybe you think internet abuse isn't really that bad? Well it's punishable by law here(for dark reasons - internet defamation led to a young girls suicide)Or punishable universally in the US here

Please people - do the required reading It's in blue like this before making an argument, there is no adequate defence for this sort of action - and it is this form of righteous knee jerk reactionary crowd mindset that we must be wary of.

 

[Tselis]

There's certainly something to the idea that the backlash here is excessive and out of control but in the larger context I think that's a good thing.

Christoforo thought he could ignore, deceive, threaten and otherwise betray everyone involved in his professional life and that calling it his job left him blameless.

The Avenger guys hired Christoforo because he was cheap and aggressive. They disregarded the warnings of their original PR firm because quality was less important to them than hustle and bottom line. They obviously didn't follow up on Christoforo's "industry contacts" or on how he was representing their company because they didn't want to know and they didn't think it was their problem. They thought that hiring an outside consultant would absolve them of their responsibilities.

Does anyone seriously believe that this is the first time something like this has happened? Are we really so foolish to believe that other companies aren't doing the same thing because it's cost-effective and they don't see any downside? Our society would greatly benefit if Ocean and the Avenger implode so severely that lecturers will talk about them in Business 101 as an example that deniability only goes so far. If there were more stories like this we might not need the Occupy protests because businessmen could look at the evidence and see a legitimate reason for ethical behavior. As things stand today, acting like a sociopath is just good business and that needs to change.

Christoforo's son doesn't deserve what he's getting here but his wife chose to marry an arrogant amoral douchebag. Also it's regrettable that the Avenger product has to go down the toilet along with it's manufacturer but let's not forget the real victims here are the disabled gamers and their friends/family who tried to buy it.

I have very little pity for people who thought they could lie down with dogs and not wake up with fleas.

There needs to be a Youtube style thumbs up/thumbs down option so I can thumb up the holy shit out of this comment. I've been saying the exact same thing about his family. His son (if indeed he has a son. I'm not prepared to believe a damn thing he says) is the only true innocent here.

That being said, the threats do need to stop though. His wife isn't blameless, but her only crime is staying with this meta-**** after the domestic battery incident.

Can I add an enthusiastic thumbs up as well?

 

[Cyrus Hanley]

I feel really sorry for this guy's family, especially the wife and her newborn baby. If this guy really is a roid fueled douchebag, then someone should seriously offer the wife a quiet talk about spousal abuse and whether or not she's been exposed to it in the past or currently. These types of idiots don't put the blame on themselves for screwing up, but instead will lash out at anything weaker in an effort for them to retain their 'control', which is of course in reality totally non-existent. To say the least, the poor woman is not going to be having a very happy New Year, and that just plain sucks. Just think about what she's got to look forward to, a man who can't bring home the bread and because of the roids he's taking probably has no more bacon either...

If you have evidence that he engages in spousal abuse I would suggest you talk to the proper authorities and not engage in puerile internet banter. That's not even funny.

Seriosly, some people need to grow the fuck up.

Here [http://courtindex.sdcourt.ca.gov/CISPublic/casedetail?casenum=DVN14325&casesite=NC&applcode=D] is the evidence.

 

[Tselis]

How the topic changes and evolves over the course of a single day...

I think we can all agree that Paul is an insufferable twat. I think we can also agree that (so far as we know) his family was not involved in his dealings in any way, and as such should be crossed off of 'the hit list'. It also isn't like the internet 'mob' is going through his garbage to steal his bank account numbers or are writing terrorist-style manifestos before calling in bomb threats in his name. So far as the online community has done, they've traced emails to steroid use and a three year old domestic violence case. That's it.

With that said, some will note that I share a number of points of view as Gabe from PA. Paul's family is a definite no-go zone, the product and 'Ocean Marketting [sic]' are two ENTIRELY separate entities, so review-bombing it on Amazon and such is doing nothing beneficial for anyone (or detrimental for Paul). To that end, I have absolutely no problems watching people dig up more proof of Paul's incompetence as a human being.

I've noticed some people accuse that if, theoretically, Paul did remove himself from the equation (you know what I am talking about), the blood would be on the internet community's hands. That statement is incorrect: Any decisions that Paul makes going forward are his and his alone. Like I said above, the worst that the web community has done is make events from his past public, they haven't and can not put a gun to his head and pull the trigger.

To that end, I actually hold hesitation on if Paul's family has actually received any threats against his family's well-being, though maybe against Paul himself. The only person to explicitly state that there have been any threats is Paul himself, and I believe we all know what his word is worth these days. Grant it, we do know the nature of the internet so such a thing as those kinds of threats wouldn't surprise me, but I'd put more stock in the possibility if they came from anyone but the known liar that is the 'victim' (Paul).

To cap it off, to those that say "Well he just shot his mouth off, you can't tell me you never have done that!", I have this to say. Paul consistently managed to insult and demean multiple customers over an extensive period of time (months), with only this latest escapade of his making the headlines. Unless he's been having consistently bad days throughout his employment, which I highly doubt, that excuse holds no water.

There is also a fine line between personally and professionally running your mouth off. Personally, yes, everyone does it. To deny that fact either means you are lying, or that you are a robot and are incapable of emotions. Professionally, over email no less (since it eliminates knee-jerk responses), it is an entirely different matter that any sensible human being understands. Paul didn't just have a bad day at work and shoot his mouth off to a customer in front of him, he has been behaving like the uncultured and spineless antagonistic coward that he is, over an extended period of time, simply because he could.

I think you just summed up my thoughts on this matter.

 

[Tselis]

From Penny-Arcade: "I will personally burn everything I.ve made to the fucking ground if I think I can catch them in the flames."

...am I the only one who is just a smidge afraid of Mike at this point? : )

Samuel L. Jackson needs to give the "Bad-ass Mother Fucker" wallet to Mike at this point. Sorry Mr. Jackson, Mr. Krahulik now deserves the title.

Not afraid, not at all. It's reassuring actually. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who thinks this way.

What a childish, stupid way to behave. Grow up.

You don't have a good grasp of human history, do you? Being extremely vindictive isn't childish, it's human. Ignoring that segment of humanity only makes them more vindictive and less likely to engage you in peaceful discourse. Or perhaps you aren't grown up enough to know that? =)

 

[Nergy]

Mike quite clearly condemned the people who pulled up paul's personal details.

Yeah right. Because of course the owner of a very popular website and expo among geek internet culture/gamers commands no respect among the very people responsible for this 'mob justice' incident. Everyone's a winner here!

Posting up priovate emails on a public site makes you a **** in my book. Plain and simple.

If he wanted to privately email Mr PR 2011 and tell him he's not welcome at PAX that's cool. But did he think about the actual product and it's owner in all this? Fuck no.

Mike DID send him an email saying he wasn't welcome, that was when Paul started his douchebaggery. I don't work at PA, so i can't speak for them, but i assume the product is allowed to come to pax, just without Paul, who was originally going to be hosting the booth. Enough people have said the product shouldn't suffer.

These emails were not in any way private, they were exchanges between a customer and a business that currently had his money. There isn't any law saying you have to keep emails private (the only exception is emails that contain private information like address and so forth). Dave had every right to send those emails to Kotaku and the other gaming blogs (i assume you forgot Dave sent it those FIRST before Mike got a hold of it).

Also, thanks for ignoring the rest of my post.

 

[Caliostro]

The dangers of mob mentality are well documenter and can be incredibly dangerous even when going against people worth forming a mob to attack

How to create the mob mentality? Lets look here. Apply the first paragraph to what Gabe's actions were - he consolidated flammable material, provided oxygen to burn and lit a spark - knowing full well what the consequences would be.

Or maybe you think this is justified because of some form of vigilantism? (if you have argued along the lines of "if we don't do this he wouldn't be stopped, then you are arguing for this) yet this is disproved thoroughly here

Maybe you think internet abuse isn't really that bad? Well it's punishable by law here(for dark reasons - internet defamation led to a young girls suicide)Or punishable universally in the US here

Please people - do the required reading It's in blue like this before making an argument, there is no adequate defence for this sort of action - and it is this form of righteous knee jerk reactionary crowd mindset that we must be wary of.

Just to point out that I, for one, am well aware of the effects of mob mentality, how groups influence decision making (generally towards a more extreme, and usually riskier/more dangerous, choice), and can guarantee you I have a perfectly legitimate and unbiased reason to be thoroughly enjoying the destruction (assisted suicide, one might call it) of Paul Christoforo, and surprisingly it has little to do with his rudeness towards Dave:

Paul Christoforo betrayed, and nearly destroyed, the very company that believed in him and gave him a chance. He was unprofessional. Extremely incompetent. And nearly took everything from the company who hired him. Even now, he's still trying to extort them for his own incompetence.

This wasn't a professional having just one too many bad days and losing it. This was someone who never amounted to anything more than an incompetent. I do not forgive that.

I find compassion to be mostly underrated and illogical. I have very little place in my heart for forgiveness in things that matter. Paul Christoforo nearly destroyed his employers for the sake of stroking his own ego. He is incompetent, and useless, and the kind of person that is a waste of everything in this world.

You may say this is cruel. I'm ok with that. But I have no place in my heart, or in my world, for people like him, and I'm gonna enjoy every minute I watch him burn in his own mess.

 

[Flying Dagger]

The dangers of mob mentality are well documenter and can be incredibly dangerous even when going against people worth forming a mob to attack

How to create the mob mentality? Lets look here. Apply the first paragraph to what Gabe's actions were - he consolidated flammable material, provided oxygen to burn and lit a spark - knowing full well what the consequences would be.

Or maybe you think this is justified because of some form of vigilantism? (if you have argued along the lines of "if we don't do this he wouldn't be stopped, then you are arguing for this) yet this is disproved thoroughly here

Maybe you think internet abuse isn't really that bad? Well it's punishable by law here(for dark reasons - internet defamation led to a young girls suicide)Or punishable universally in the US here

Please people - do the required reading It's in blue like this before making an argument, there is no adequate defence for this sort of action - and it is this form of righteous knee jerk reactionary crowd mindset that we must be wary of.

I find compassion to be mostly underrated and illogical. I have very little place in my heart for forgiveness in things that matter. Paul Christoforo nearly destroyed his employers for the sake of stroking his own ego. He is incompetent, and useless, and the kind of person that is a waste of everything in this world.

You may say this is cruel. I'm ok with that. But I have no place in my heart, or in my world, for people like him, and I'm gonna enjoy every minute I watch him burn in his own mess.

Ahh a [Insert Gender here] after my own heart!

It is refreshing to find more people who can see "Paul" for what he is.

I'm sorry, seeing him for what he is? the guys a petty thug, there are people out there who rape and murder children and you're sitting here telling me this is guy is the real evil?

The guy is a nobody - completely worthless, proven time and time again he has absolutely no power to back up any of his more increasingly ridiculous claims.
It isn't compassion driving me to say stop going after him it's the fact that whatever he is, we should be decent people.
If you've no desire to be decent then fine, but don't belittle me for trying to persuade people to be. The people hounding him are no better than bullies themselves. I've been on both sides of that coin and know how hard it is to make that realisation that just because people are nasty people that setting out to ruin their lives isn't right.

Usually I'm against people telling others to not be hypocritical - but this situation...
How can we ask others to hold rules that we believe we ourselves should not be accountable to?

 

[Flying Dagger]

I think you need some glasses Mr (or miss/es) Dagger.

I never said there that he is worse than a person who rapes and murders children, just that I agreed that he is a useless bag of flesh. You yourself say he is completely worthless. So we are in agreement here.

And...I never belittled you or called you a name or anything, that part confuses me. I have re read my two lines of text about ten times now and...I cant quite make that same connection, because I think he is worthless and this undeserving of any compassion whatsoever does not belittle you or your views, just that they are different.

I can not say I have ever been bullied or been a bully, but even still, rules only apply when among civilized people, this person has shown himself for what he is thus he can not expected to be treated like a civilized person any longer.

I am not hypocritical either, I am just honest, this guy is meat, he could off himself tomorrow and I would probably just shrug and think no one the worse for him doing it. I know there are others out there far more sympathetic to the bullies plight than I am, but I dont begrudge them those feelings, thats what makes us different people.

Sorry - I was extrapolating from your agreement with @caliostro

To declare that you wish to see a man burn is a horrific statement, to then denounce my disgust at such an expression as mere compassion is to belittle what I am saying.

If I was motivated by compassion I'd egg people on - Christoforo is doubtlessly enjoying every second of attention, and the bigger his name becomes the more he enjoys it.

Spoiler: Like when Russell Brand was in that scandal for harassing andrew sachs

I feel no compassion for him - though I care how a large group of people act. I care how the group is seen and most of all I care that people do not exact pleasure out of others misfortune.
We have made so many progessions from the years - from banning gladiatorial combat to eliminating public execution, as a rejection of deriving pleasure from seeing another suffer.
There is no reason to turn back on this now.

 

[Flying Dagger]

I quoted the part that I agreed with, namely that he is a worthless excuse for a human being.

But hey, if he burned and I got to watch I would probably have a few chuckles at his expense, because again he doesn't rate high enough for me to give a single care about his well being. Its horrific sure, but not everyone has to agree with me. but your disgust is compassion, that is a factual statement as compassion is defined as concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.

You obviously are concerned about the mobs treatment of this individual so you have compassion for him. And most people exact pleasure from this idea, every single person I have talked to in my daily life from various walks of life, have expressed entertainment at this mans plight.

And I dont know, public executions would bring back some entertainment.

Also, you are lying to yourself if you think gladiatorial combat has gone anywhere... :\ People pay hundreds of dollars to see people beat the ever-loving-fuck out of one another in MMA matches and boxing. It may not be to the death any more and we may not get to watch people punt tigers in the face, but gladiatorial combat is alive and well.

There's three easily identifiable parts to being "Concerned with the mob (1)'s treatment (2) of this man (3)."
I'm concerned there is a mob mentality at all - it NEVER brings anything productive to the fore.
I'm even more concerned that the mob is behaving in an abysmal way. If your child beat up another child you could express that it was wrong for him to do it without caring a jot about the other kid. You don't need to support the individual to realise the behaviour is wrong.

As far as the man goes? He's enjoying it, as stated.

In terms of gladiatorial combat - In the old days they forced petty criminals into the arena with the express intention of seeing them die, which is barbaric.

If you have access I'd advise the reading of this - http://www.jstor.org/stable/2250234
It explains the difference and the importance of the difference between moral and immoral pleasures.

 

[Kadoodle]

Am I the only one who's wondering what the hell is up with that controller? Yeah? Okay then.

OT: Yeah, that dude fucked up. Not much else to say. I mean, it does seem unlikely comical that these series of events actually happened, but, to put it simply, he fucked up.

Basically, the controller allows you to use the face buttons with your index and middle fingers near the triggers so that you don't have to take your thumb off of the stick to press A, B, X, or Y.

 

[josh4president]

This is going to get better for us and worse for him

 

[Versuvius]

I am SO enjoying him watching him fail and flounder and flop around like a washed ashore fish.

 

[Tselis]

The dangers of mob mentality are well documenter and can be incredibly dangerous even when going against people worth forming a mob to attack

How to create the mob mentality? Lets look here. Apply the first paragraph to what Gabe's actions were - he consolidated flammable material, provided oxygen to burn and lit a spark - knowing full well what the consequences would be.

Or maybe you think this is justified because of some form of vigilantism? (if you have argued along the lines of "if we don't do this he wouldn't be stopped, then you are arguing for this) yet this is disproved thoroughly here

Maybe you think internet abuse isn't really that bad? Well it's punishable by law here(for dark reasons - internet defamation led to a young girls suicide)Or punishable universally in the US here

Please people - do the required reading It's in blue like this before making an argument, there is no adequate defence for this sort of action - and it is this form of righteous knee jerk reactionary crowd mindset that we must be wary of.

I find compassion to be mostly underrated and illogical. I have very little place in my heart for forgiveness in things that matter. Paul Christoforo nearly destroyed his employers for the sake of stroking his own ego. He is incompetent, and useless, and the kind of person that is a waste of everything in this world.

You may say this is cruel. I'm ok with that. But I have no place in my heart, or in my world, for people like him, and I'm gonna enjoy every minute I watch him burn in his own mess.

Ahh a [Insert Gender here] after my own heart!

It is refreshing to find more people who can see "Paul" for what he is.

You see, I'm not alone. Ignorance can be forgiven so long as there is an eagerness to be educated. Sheer incompetence cannot, and should not be forgiven. It is like a virus. If people see that it is tolerated, then they themselves begin to perpetuate it. It goes back to that 'mob' mentality' that's been spoken so much about. That mentality is a well documented part of the human psyche, both in the micro (pitchforks and torches) and the macro (local, state, national politics). Really, it comes down to the old adage, "Monkey see, monkey do." The man needs to burn, because one burnt asshole and nine less douche-y assholes is better then ten of them swaggering around damaging anyone they come into contact, and thereby society as a whole.

 

[Tselis]

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/nw1vm/ama_the_guy_who_replaced_paul_christoforo_and_is/

Is there anyone left that feels like defending this jackass? Really?

 

[MpSai]

I like how he apologizes to Mike just because he "didn?t know how big" his site is or that he was the guy who runs PAX (and he evidently didn't realize PAX was tied to Penny Arcade.)

So basically it's like "I'm sorry, if I knew you were a big deal I would have been a brown-nosing toadie instead!"

 

[Comando96]

We're gonna kick ass and create comics...

And we've made all our comics for today >:|

*ruins assholes life*