PA Comic: Wednesday, Dec 28, 2011 - Real Talk

Remington

He hasn't lost his other accounts? I wish I knew what they were. I wouldn't want to accidentally purchase something this guy was involved in.

fightinfilipino

Stilts wrote:

"If I had known he was important I wouldn't have been such a huge dick."

Yeah, that's a...great...apology?

read: customers are NOT important, but people with "actual" power and connections are important.

good work on your wwebsite, Paul.

THESPOOKY

He keeps saying that he's sorry about the way things turned out, but has never once said that he's sorry about what he DID.

What a shitlord.

NATIK

Centipede Damascus wrote:

MSNBC article Mike tweeted:

http://ingame.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/28/9770514-chastened-gaming-rep-responds-to-internet-infamy

Referring to the email thread that started the whole mess, Christoforo said that he didn't know who he was talking to in his initial, flippant response to Penny Arcade's Mike Krahulik.

"I didn't know who that guy at Penny Arcade was," he admitted. "If I had known, I would have treated the situation a little better. PAX is a great show. What he does is what I've been idlolizing since I was a kid. It's admirable he's put that together. He has a lot of connections, ones I want too."

Yet while admitting he handled things badly, Christoforo said he also felt the situation could have been different if Krahulik approached the situation differently.

"He called me a bully, but he was being a bully ... especially when he emailed me out of the blue, saying 'That's f***ing s***ty, you're banned from PAX,' I was like 'Who the f*** are you? That's how you introduce yourself? ... I dont want to call him out, but he could have gone about that a totally different way, he could have said, 'Hey, I run the show, that email was a little unprofessional, if you don't do something to apologize I don't want you at my show.' But he just came at me and said, indirectly, 'Hey, f*** you, you're banned from PAX.' Is that what you'd call professional? I wouldn't."

This guy has really poor communication skills. "I don't know who that guy at Penny Arcade was, I love Penny Arcade, I'm not a bully, he's the bully."

Dude still have no bloody clue what he did that caused this, reading anything he says in that article proves it.

If I were able to control the customer it wouldnt have happened

Reading that quote, Jesus man, what?

Yes if your threats and bullying had worked and the customer had caved I am sure this wouldn't be an issue, but your trying to "control" the customer is what brought you into this mess in the first place.

TheOtherHorseman

the faces in this comic are my birthday gift; they are the best birthday gift

DMAC

I like:

"I don't know the mayor of Boston," he admitted. "That was taken totally out of context, I was just joking around. I am from Boston, though, and I know a lot of people who own clubs. I know some influential people, like the guy who runs the door at the convention center."

chuckleberryfinn

That MSNBC interview is fucking ridiculous, I can't believe I was beginning to feel a bit bad about the huge amount of negative attention the bloke got.
Seriously, what a complete arsehole.

Michael, you sir, are a legend.

jackal

"That was taken totally out of context..." Seriously, the context being the entire text of every email in the exchange? That context? Wow, this guy.

SkeleVader

I really hope this guy is not able to make money off this. The hate of the internet is a powerful force that, if harnessed, can be very profitable.

Lars

"The Paul Christoforo Sttory"

Maximum

Lars wrote:

"The Paul Christoforo Sttory"

Starring Nicholas Cage.

THESPOOKY

SkeleVader wrote:

I really hope this guy is not able to make money off this. The hate of the internet is a powerful force that, if harnessed, can be very profitable.

If he really does start doing comedy videos on Youtube, we--as in, the entire human race--are fucked. The amount of ad money he would make off people going to leave Dislikes and snarky comments would be enough for a whole fleet of loud ass motorcycles.

Centipede Damascus

Maximum wrote:

Lars wrote:

"The Paul Christoforo Sttory"

Starring Nicholas Cage.

no no, Vincent D'Onofrio. he even looks like the guy a little.

iolo

SkeleVader wrote:

I really hope this guy is not able to make money off this. The hate of the internet is a powerful force that, if harnessed, can be very profitable.

I already booked him for my six year old's birthday party. Was that wrong?

muckymucks

Centipede Damascus wrote:

Maximum wrote:

Lars wrote:

"The Paul Christoforo Sttory"

Starring Nicholas Cage.

no no, Vincent D'Onofrio. he even looks like the guy a little.

Ebert would give it 4 stars but that's only because Christoforo is a personal friend of his.

facetious

ArbitraryDescriptor wrote:

Rim Fangdango

Holy shit.

This is the greatest post to have ever existed.

EzraCold

I'm just a little curious as to these "other" clients of his that take such an affront to to customer service as a laughable event. He claims he still has clients, and I want to know who they are so I can deny my financial support from them and whatever product they have. His attitude in interviews and his attempt to brush this off is an insult to the community. I do hope that his wife leaves him as his general attitude and apparent uncontrolled anger issues make me worry for his wife's physical safety. His is the personality and attitude that is detrimental to the gaming community he claims to have been a part of for decades. If he so much as makes it in the door of ANY Expo again I will be saddened by it.

However I do think that threats against his wife and child are unwarranted as they already suffer enough being around such an insufferable excuse for a bi-pedal mammal. A howler monkey could have shown a customer more respect and courtesy while fisting a large fecal projectile and taking aim.

Maximum

Can't believe this guy has own page on wikipedia now.

What the hell is wrong with this world.

muckymucks

Maximum wrote:

Can't believe this guy has own page on wikipedia now.

What the hell is wrong with this world.

It's a Wikipedia article documenting why he's a douchebag. This little event isn't going to blow over like Christoforo said. This will haunt him until the day he dies and beyond. This is permanently bonded to him like a child.

Kushana

Paul's problem is that he doesn't understand the difference between regretting his actions, and regretting his action's consequences. He regrets the threats to his family, his loss of face in the game community, and the reveal of his seeming lack of any PR skills. Those are all consequences. Apologizing because you regret those are what Mike is talking about when he says Paul regrets getting caught.

A real apology shows regret for your actions, regardless of personal cost. Out of sympathy for Paul, I will write an apology for him. (Paul, if you're reading this, feel free to use this as a template. Copyright is waived.)

"I want to apologize to Dave, to Mike, and to the gaming and Internet community for my actions. I treated Dave badly, in terms of delivery of his goods, customer service, and in how I communicated with him when he made earnest inquiries about his intended Christmas gifts. I then compounded my errors by treating Mike badly. I regret all of it, and hope to use this as an learning experience in how not to do PR in the future.

I have attempted to make real and tangible redress to Dave and Mike by (respectively) paying for Dave controllers personally, and making a contribution to Child's Play. Again, I apologize for my actions."

DMAC

Yeah, that would be the right way to handle this. I think that's what's most galling about the whole thing. He just sees it as "I fucked with the wrong person" not "I should not fuck with people regardless of who they are".

Cambiata

Kushana, I think the problem is that he doesn't regret his actions, not even a little bit. As you and Mike have said, he only regrets that he got punished for them. Looking at that MSNBC article, he apparently thinks that "intimidation" is a good customer service/sales tactic. Apparently he thinks he's in the mob or something.

The guy is a joke and I'm actually a little sad that he even got that platform on MSNBC to continue spouting nonsense. I sincerely doubt he has any other clients - that is, like everything else that has come out of his mouth, a bluff to act like he's more of a big shot that he actually is.

Hey Paul, here's a little hint: Real VIPs don't have to keep reminding everyone that they are VIPs.

Cambiata

Kushana wrote:

I have attempted to make real and tangible redress to Dave and Mike by (respectively) paying for Dave controllers personally, and making a contribution to Child's Play. Again, I apologize for my actions."

This is something I'm surprised that Avenger hasn't yet come out with yet. "Here's a $XXXX donation to Child's Play, and Dave gets his controllers for free." Avenger needs to apologize too. They are kind of sharing in the douchiness by not making their own apology. Because even if this was all the act of one huge asshole, Avenger still somehow thought it was a good idea to work with said asshole and put him in front of customers, and they need to make amends.

admanb

Cambiata wrote:

The guy is a joke and I'm actually a little sad that he even got that platform on MSNBC to continue spouting nonsense. I sincerely doubt he has any other clients - that is, like everything else that has come out of his mouth, a bluff to act like he's more of a big shot that he actually is.

Chasing a story like this without getting the perspective of the other side would be horrific, tabloid-level journalism.

The fact that he used the story to the opportunity to make himself look even worse just makes the story that much better.

cherylharrison

Kushana wrote:

Paul's problem is that he doesn't understand the difference between regretting his actions, and regretting his action's consequences. He regrets the threats to his family, his loss of face in the game community, and the reveal of his seeming lack of any PR skills. Those are all consequences. Apologizing because you regret those are what Mike is talking about when he says Paul regrets getting caught.

A real apology shows regret for your actions, regardless of personal cost. Out of sympathy for Paul, I will write an apology for him. (Paul, if you're reading this, feel free to use this as a template. Copyright is waived.)

"I want to apologize to Dave, to Mike, and to the gaming and Internet community for my actions. I treated Dave badly, in terms of delivery of his goods, customer service, and in how I communicated with him when he made earnest inquiries about his intended Christmas gifts. I then compounded my errors by treating Mike badly. I regret all of it, and hope to use this as an learning experience in how not to do PR in the future.

I have attempted to make real and tangible redress to Dave and Mike by (respectively) paying for Dave controllers personally, and making a contribution to Child's Play. Again, I apologize for my actions."

This should be plastered on his wwebsite above the "Your brand is no stronger than your reputation- and will increasingly depend on what comes up when you are Googled" quote. He has a knack for copy-pasting. Is that a hireable marketing skill these days?

Daebunz

Cambiata wrote:

Kushana wrote:

I have attempted to make real and tangible redress to Dave and Mike by (respectively) paying for Dave controllers personally, and making a contribution to Child's Play. Again, I apologize for my actions."

This is something I'm surprised that Avenger hasn't yet come out with yet. "Here's a $XXXX donation to Child's Play, and Dave gets his controllers for free." Avenger needs to apologize too. They are kind of sharing in the douchiness by not making their own apology. Because even if this was all the act of one huge asshole, Avenger still somehow thought it was a good idea to work with said asshole and put him in front of customers, and they need to make amends.

pretty sure they both apologized for his actions and stated the company would no longer be representing them

there's more info in the D&D thread if you want to pursue it

Cambiata

Blackbeard7 wrote:

Cambiata wrote:

Kushana wrote:

I have attempted to make real and tangible redress to Dave and Mike by (respectively) paying for Dave controllers personally, and making a contribution to Child's Play. Again, I apologize for my actions."

This is something I'm surprised that Avenger hasn't yet come out with yet. "Here's a $XXXX donation to Child's Play, and Dave gets his controllers for free." Avenger needs to apologize too. They are kind of sharing in the douchiness by not making their own apology. Because even if this was all the act of one huge asshole, Avenger still somehow thought it was a good idea to work with said asshole and put him in front of customers, and they need to make amends.

pretty sure they both apologized for his actions and stated the company would no longer be representing them

there's more info in the D&D thread if you want to pursue it

Yes, but apologizing for "his" actions is similar to Christoforo apologizing that his career is ruined. It's a bad apology, because it's saying "I didn't do anything wrong, but I sure am sorry that I'm in hot water right now!" A real apology would have been: We, as a company, failed you, because we hired this turd sandwich. We promise to do better in the future. We hope with time we can restore our cred, but in the meantime here's $25k (or whatever they could afford) for Child's Play.

I mean even in some of the apology Dave Kotkin is like "he was rough around the edges, but we wanted to give him a chance." No. He was not rough around the edges, he was and is a douche, and every word he has said confirms it. Trying to defend your terrible decision just makes you look worse.

THESPOOKY

Not only that, but it was totally their fault that this even happened in the first place. Paul Christoforo was never in charge of shipping units on time(which is apparently a recurring issue for the manufacturer), just in charge of being a nice person for the manufacturer's sake. They both fucked up.

Cambiata

THESPOOKY wrote:

Not only that, but it was totally their fault that this even happened in the first place. Paul Christoforo was never in charge of shipping units on time(which is apparently a recurring issue for the manufacturer), just in charge of being a nice person for the manufacturer's sake. They both fucked up.

Yes, this too.

Jasconius

i want that dvd

Fandeathis

Gotta love it when someone thinks they are way cool with so many connections, when they are actually just a little shit. Too many of them exist in Hollywood and LA unfortunately. I end up putting up with them way more than I would like.

MuddBudd

It's called Bubba-Hotep

lordlundar

Beautiful, simply beautiful.

And yeah, Mike's more akin to a psychic vampire than a Robin hood, but at least he's hunting the ones that deserves it.

Karl

I'm genuinely surprised that he used the phrase "smear campaign" in a email to PA.

I always seem to be saying this but Jesus wept, what the fuck was he thinking.

Zachary Amaranth

As good as panel 1 is, I really like how he's smiling in panel two as he's talking about being a vampire who feeds off assholes.

Granted, I doubt he had that same meaning in mind, but....

Muggins

It's a xmas miracle

SabreMau

Cambiata

So, the link from Paulie's twitter account leads to http://www.oceanmarketinggroup.com

And that website has a contact for the president and CEO of Ocean Marketing Group, here:
http://oceanmarketinggroup.com/contactus

I don't know if he changed the link to someone else's company or what, because that website looks different than the old one did. However, I sent both contacts on that page a simple email stating that I think they should fire Paul Christoforo, and that if they don't want to then will they please give me a list of his clients so I know who I shouldn't do business with.

Cambiata

Yeah, ok, that link may be a troll on Paulie's part. This is the original website he was linking to: http://www.oceanmarketinginc.com/

Wow, what an incredible dick.

Hamju

Here's an important lesson for everyone who runs any company: don't hire someone who's illiterate to be head of PR. I have no sympathy for him or the company because they both should have known better and are now feeling the consequences.

Edit: that's not his worse sin, but it should someone seriously should have clued in that "Hey, every one of this guy's e-mails are incomprehensible gibberish... maybe we shouldn't hire him?" I guess he was just really cheap.

edit2: hahahaah I found this on his website under "Reputation Management"

A prospective client Google’s your company’s name. What does he find? He finds negative publicity about you. Will he associate with you? Chances are that he would skip your name in the searches and hire your competitor.

Every day, Google receives over two billion search requests and this evidently proves that people want to learn and investigate on the net. Irrespective of their field of business, most of the companies or individuals search the whereabouts of any company on the net before starting a new business venture with them. The ones who search also look for the testimonials provided by the clients/customers of a company. For buying products, people check out the product reviews. Bad product reviews translate into lesser sales.

We help you to displace or remove the negative search engine results and listings about your organization or company. We use an effective lineup of techniques to dilute and eliminate the search engine results about you that are negative.

Yeah, good luck with that.