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Penny-Arcade: "Marketers of the Avenger Controller are thieves and liars".

Card Boy

Banned
Just read the OP, there is literally no way this can be real right? Right? You can almost see the exact point at where Dave (with a V) lost it lol.

On a unrelated note PA forums are awesome. Its pretty much exactly like Neogaf, except unfortunatly they have signatures.
 

Apdiddy

Member
From Frank Shephard's Twitter:

@StewartMS no official statement yet. All "I" can say is that "I" apologize to anyone who has been treated poorly by him. More to come soon

So there ya go

EDIT: Beaten
 

Freki

Member
stolen from reddit:

XpTJo.jpg
 
And if you look at the 5 star reviews, most of them appear to be from shills who only created an Amazon account to give it a 5 star review..
Well this guy was busted for that already, as well using using shill accounts to write reviews trashing his competitors' products. BUSINESS!
 
Absolutely incredible. Not that he doesn't deserve it (and he really, REALLY does) but we're seeing a guy's entire career- no, his entire LIFE literally melt down in less than a day.

He'll never work in anything resembling his field again and will be extremely fortunate if he isn't sued into oblivion.

I feel nothing but pity for this guy's wife and child who will have their lives turned upside down because their father is an incompetent, thieving jackass.
 
This Frank Shephard guy sounds like a real stand up dude. Hope this whole thing hasn't done irreparable harm to his product though.
 

Moofers

Member
I'm not cool with PA posting the guy's phone number like that. There are some fuckin crazy people who will drag his wife and kid into this. Imagine one of them answering the phone to somebody threatening to send them a bomb and they have no idea their stupid husband/dad did all this stuff.

Sure, the guy is a huge tool and deserves to drown in shit, but leave his family out of it.
 

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
I'm not cool with PA posting the guy's phone number like that. There are some fuckin crazy people who will drag his wife and kid into this. Imagine one of them answering the phone to somebody threatening to send them a bomb and they have no idea their stupid husband/dad did all this stuff.

Sure, the guy is a huge tool and deserves to drown in shit, but leave his family out of it.

Wasn't the PA number and info business and office info, not home and personal?
 
I'm not cool with PA posting the guy's phone number like that. There are some fuckin crazy people who will drag his wife and kid into this. Imagine one of them answering the phone to somebody threatening to send them a bomb and they have no idea their stupid husband/dad did all this stuff.

Sure, the guy is a huge tool and deserves to drown in shit, but leave his family out of it.

yup.
 
Absolutely incredible. Not that he doesn't deserve it (and he really, REALLY does) but we're seeing a guy's entire career- no, his entire LIFE literally melt down in less than a day.

He'll never work in anything resembling his field again and will be extremely fortunate if he isn't sued into oblivion.

I feel nothing but pity for this guy's wife and child who will have their lives turned upside down because their father is an incompetent, thieving jackass.

Yup. This dude is gonna be standing in the unemployment line soon enough. And all of this could've been avoided by giving the guy a $10 credit and being polite.

What an absolute fucktard.
 
Absolutely incredible. Not that he doesn't deserve it (and he really, REALLY does) but we're seeing a guy's entire career- no, his entire LIFE literally melt down in less than a day.

He'll never work in anything resembling his field again and will be extremely fortunate if he isn't sued into oblivion.

I feel nothing but pity for this guy's wife and child who will have their lives turned upside down because their father is an incompetent, thieving jackass.

I'm still not sure this is "his" field anyway. He seems like a con artist that whipped together a website and lied to clients about his abilities and talents.
 
I'm not cool with PA posting the guy's phone number like that. There are some fuckin crazy people who will drag his wife and kid into this. Imagine one of them answering the phone to somebody threatening to send them a bomb and they have no idea their stupid husband/dad did all this stuff.

Sure, the guy is a huge tool and deserves to drown in shit, but leave his family out of it.

Was it his home phone number? Or did they list his business number?

...Then again, those two may still be the same thing.
 
I'm not cool with PA posting the guy's phone number like that. There are some fuckin crazy people who will drag his wife and kid into this. Imagine one of them answering the phone to somebody threatening to send them a bomb and they have no idea their stupid husband/dad did all this stuff.

Sure, the guy is a huge tool and deserves to drown in shit, but leave his family out of it.
Eh, fuck him. Besides it's a 1-800 number for Chrissakes. I'm sure it's a business number.
 

Card Boy

Banned
Absolutely incredible. Not that he doesn't deserve it (and he really, REALLY does) but we're seeing a guy's entire career- no, his entire LIFE literally melt down in less than a day.

He'll never work in anything resembling his field again and will be extremely fortunate if he isn't sued into oblivion.

I feel nothing but pity for this guy's wife and child who will have their lives turned upside down because their father is an incompetent, thieving jackass.

What field the con-artist field? I'm sure he can operate under a fake name and company if he really wanted to.
 

Vastag

Member
I feel nothing but pity for this guy's wife and child who will have their lives turned upside down because their father is an incompetent, thieving jackass.

Yep, thats the sad part of all this story. The guy is clearly out of his league, does not fullly understand what he has started and posibbly is in the middle of some roid rage episode. It would be funny if he did not have a family to support.
 

GuardianE

Santa May Claus
I'm not cool with PA posting the guy's phone number like that. There are some fuckin crazy people who will drag his wife and kid into this. Imagine one of them answering the phone to somebody threatening to send them a bomb and they have no idea their stupid husband/dad did all this stuff.

Sure, the guy is a huge tool and deserves to drown in shit, but leave his family out of it.

Pretty sure Gabe just posted his public information. Information that was already on his website as corporate contact information.
 
I'm still not sure this is "his" field anyway. He seems like a con artist that whipped together a website and lied to clients about his abilities and talents.

You may have a point. I saw the posts about his site literally being plagiarized from other websites (as well as the tweet from IGN calling him "unprofessional" to deal with) and it was only a matter of time before his business failed.

Still, I feel sorry for his family- no kid wants to find out his dad is a bad guy (especially if/when he hears about this at school), and no wife wants to hear that "oops, we won't be able to make a living anymore."

all his fault and probably inevitable- but this has got to be painful.
 

Pagusas

Elden Member
Absolutely incredible. Not that he doesn't deserve it (and he really, REALLY does) but we're seeing a guy's entire career- no, his entire LIFE literally melt down in less than a day.

He'll never work in anything resembling his field again and will be extremely fortunate if he isn't sued into oblivion.

I feel nothing but pity for this guy's wife and child who will have their lives turned upside down because their father is an incompetent, thieving jackass.

It truly is amazing thinking about how all you know can be so fragile. I hope one day the guy will see where it all went wrong and make a conscious effort to change his attitude and direction.
 
It truly is amazing thinking about how all you know can be so fragile. I hope one day the guy will see where it all went wrong and make a conscious effort to change his attitude and direction.

Doubt it, no way he's having a lesson taught to him at this stage in his life for the first time.
 

SarBear

Member
Doubt it, no way he's having a lesson taught to him at this stage in his life for the first time.

You would be surprised. Especially considering the idea that he's always put himself around people who would perpetuate his beliefs and choices. The wife and friends are the usual candidates for that.
 
You would be surprised. Especially considering the idea that he's always put himself around people who would perpetuate his beliefs and choices. The wife and friends are the usual candidates for that.

So then the possibility of him coming to the realization of how unprofessional and immature he's been is low considering he's possibly built this inner circle of affirmative reinforcement? I hope he does learn his lesson however, it's a bit embarrassing to have learned about business etiquette, professionalism, social media, networking and the internet in one day :(
 

Foffy

Banned
You may have a point. I saw the posts about his site literally being plagiarized from other websites (as well as the tweet from IGN calling him "unprofessional" to deal with) and it was only a matter of time before his business failed.

Still, I feel sorry for his family- no kid wants to find out his dad is a bad guy (especially if/when he hears about this at school), and no wife wants to hear that "oops, we won't be able to make a living anymore."

all his fault and probably inevitable- but this has got to be painful.

Who says the wife wouldn't be able to make a living? It's not going to be the poverty lane for that family because of this, I assume.

This guys' career in this field is fucking done though, that's for sure.
 

SarBear

Member
So then the possibility of him coming to the realization of how unprofessional and immature he's been is low considering he's possibly built this inner circle of affirmative reinforcement? I hope he does learn his lesson however, it's a bit embarrassing to have learned about business etiquette, professionalism, social media, networking and the internet in one day :(

Exactly my thoughts. Most people (in my experience) who behave this way usually obfuscate the issue by blaming everyone else's actions/reactions rather than paying attention to their own choices.
 

Jobiensis

Member
Oh if that's the case, I wasn't aware. I thought it was personal info they posted. Lets hope I was wrong.

I'm surprised his address hasn't been posted on any sites, it's pretty easy to find.


Who says the wife wouldn't be able to make a living? It's not going to be the poverty lane for that family because of this, I assume.

This guys' career in this field is fucking done though, that's for sure.

Right now, I'm not sure SoCal is the best place to be in real estate.
 

Osiris

I permanently banned my 6 year old daughter from using the PS4 for mistakenly sending grief reports as it's too hard to watch or talk to her
Who says the wife wouldn't be able to make a living? It's not going to be the poverty lane for that family because of this, I assume.

This guys' career in this field is fucking done though, that's for sure.

You may have missed the small fact that his wife also works with/for him at Ocean Marketting :p

Her career may not be affected, but her current income is likely to be impacted :p
 

Foffy

Banned
Right now, I'm not sure SoCal is the best place to be in real estate.

True, but I really doubt that his family has been on such a fringe that this will collapse the entire house of cards.

Unless he's lied and scammed about money and payments, too. :p

You may have missed the small fact that his wife also works with/for him at Ocean Marketting :p

Her career may not be affected, but her current income is likely to be impacted :p

What would she do? Play PR? I can't see how both of them can be doing the same thing to make a living..especially with the job we know the husband does.
 

Subitai

Member
So, will the OP keep things updated? I don't think this guy will make it to tomorrow let alone the end of the week.

Sometimes the interwebs will do the right thing in regulating jerks.
 

Jobiensis

Member
The web site text could be marketing boilerplate that everybody got from the same source. Although seop looks like a legitimate company.

Lulz, and now I'm getting ads for seop on GAF.


Kotaku running the story of searched out hotmail address on a steroid forum.

You called it, whoever called it!

Unless you are a big guy I think I'd nix the plans on giving him a dictionary. Looks like he has self control issues, I think it could end badly.
 

Osiris

I permanently banned my 6 year old daughter from using the PS4 for mistakenly sending grief reports as it's too hard to watch or talk to her
What would she do? Play PR? I can't see how both of them can be doing the same thing to make a living..especially with the job we know the husband does.

According to her LinkedIn:

LinkedIn said:
Director of Operations
Ocean Marketing Inc

April 2010 – Present (1 year 9 months)

Oversee sales floor and the training of new employees. Company sells Social Media Packages, SEO, Web design , Mass email campaigns, ppc advertising etc.. check out the site we offer it all!
 
Exactly my thoughts. Most people (in my experience) who behave this way usually obfuscate the issue by blaming everyone else's actions/reactions rather than paying attention to their own choices.

I'm afraid this guy is gonna go postal one of these days(aside from the internet version of going postal).
 

DaBuddaDa

Member
The web site text could be marketing boilerplate that everybody got from the same source. Although seop looks like a legitimate company.

Lulz, and now I'm getting ads for seop on GAF.

My thoughts exactly. I don't think it's stole per se. More likely it came pre-packaged in one of those "make money on the internets!" scams sold on TV.
 
kotaku linked him to steroids abuse via email adresses - I'm so close to literally rofling :-D

From Kotaku article

It's been a heck of a day for Paul Christoforo, whose flippant email to a customer asking about his Avenger controller order has made Christoforo a walking memetic punchline. But maybe we should cut Christoforo a break for his overly aggressive emails: he could just be feeling the effects of roid rage.

We asked for official comment from "Brandon Leidel, Director of Marketing" using an email address with which we've previously corresponded in the past. (Brandon@AvengerController.com).

Hey guys,

Is Ocean Marketing a third-party agency for you guys or in-house?

Thanks!

Joel Johnson
Editorial Director, Kotaku

We got a quick reply from Brandon.

Hey Joel,

3rd party agency we were using to help us through the Holidays . I think things are a bit blown out of proportion on this today.

Brandon Leidel,
Director of Marketing
brandon@avengercontroller.com

Strangely, though, the email came from "cstrophic@hotmail.com". A cursory Googling of that email reveals that it's one of the addresses used by Mr. Christoforo. It's even listed as a contact address in one of his "@oceanstratagy" tweets from last year. (If it is Mr. Christoforo's email address, he also enjoys collecting tropical fish.)

That same Hotmail address is also used as a contact address in a post on Steroid.com, a internet message board for people who used anabolic steroids. Under the alias "TheAngryPimp", someone who lists "CSTROPHIC@HOTMAIL.COM" as their contact address asks:

Guys whats up we have been here already im comming off a 16 week Test cycle its been almost 3 weeks my levels are almost back to normal i can post actual labs if you like im taking tamox 20mgs a day but my energy levels are shot im tired no motivation to go to the gym the past week whats the deal what do i need to do slap myself in trhe face and push or get some clen, winny or something else help and advice would be awsome i need my energy levels back and i need to get my ass in the gym asap, please get back to me anyone if you have advice im on msn CSTROPHIC@HOTMAIL.COM or post your advice here please. Thanks alot

"Tamox" is a common shorthand for Tamoxifen, an estrogen receptor antagonist used as "post-cycle recovery" compound for those coming off of a round of anabolic steroids. While we cannot confirm that "TheAngryPimp" is Mr. Christoforo, looking at other posts by the user yields a wealth of salient advice, including this especially trenchant gem given by "TheAngryPimp" to a forum newbie: "Your a real tough guy huh , relax with the roid rage lol,".

Note: Earlier today, Christoforo ditched the "@oceanmarketting" Twitter account and started "@oceanstratagy" instead, leaving the former Twitter account available for the taking; it is now being promoted by a new person as a parody account that promotes indie video games.
 
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