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

legacyzero

legacyzero

Banned
I dont understand why the comments are wanting to lynch Paul. Sure, I hate the guy too. But two wrongs don't make a right.

I thought some of the questions were pretty rough. I'd hate to be Paul right now. The guy has already been crucified, damage done. No need to destroy the guy on a podcast.
 
K

Ketch

Member
Ok just turned off the podcast. Overall I think they didn't a decent job handling it. It is just human decency to be nice to someone on the phone (or emails... maybe). They did ask all the questions, even repeated some more than once.

What they didn't do was call him out when he said stupid crap besides the whole suing for 5 million thing. But he was apologize to them/everybody on the air... If you were on the phone with someone who was apologizing for their actions I bet it would be pretty hard to be like "No you not! I can tell".. especially if your not personally involved.

I felt that Paul might actually have learned something in that he probably won't answer any customer service emails like that again... but I definitely got the distinct impression that he was not sorry for what he said.

It was more like Paul felt the customer was being a jerk and he's not gonna take shit from that guy! So why would he apologize for standing up for himself? Well, because he was doing customer support and you're not supposed to be confrontational like that... but it's obvious that Paul just doesn't see it that way... and even more obvious that he never will.

More like he's sorry he gave shitty customer support, not sorry for being mean to a stranger (in his mind the guy was "comin at him").
 
M

Mario

Sidhe / PikPok
It would appear the host believes his boycott of Black Ops was the only response to Activision's business practises and that every single other gamer in the world did nothing.
 
R

Roto13

Member
Managed to squeeze an almost-apology out of him? Blood from a stone.
Parallax Scroll said:
He's challenging gamers to a match on Xbox Live!

Note: I wouldn't bother, since his CoD clan's page links to instructional videos on how to cheat online.
Click to expand...

Every single thing about this guy is douchey. Everything. The screen names, the steroids, the MMA shit, the tattooes, the shaved head, everything. And that's not even mentioning the megadouchery that lead to all of this in the first place.

It's like that Scumbag Steve meme come to life.
 
D

Deleted member 10571

Unconfirmed Member
but everything i wrote did go live, so it can't be that bad, right?


right?


Roto13 said:
Managed to squeeze an almost-apology out of him? Blood from a stone.

Every single thing about this guy is douchey. Everything. The screen names, the steroids, the MMA shit, the tattooes, the shaved head, everything. And that's not even mentioning the megadouchery that lead to all of this in the first place.

It's like that Scumbag Steve meme come to life.
Click to expand...
WAT?
 
K

Ketch

Member
Roto13 said:
Managed to squeeze an almost-apology out of him? Blood from a stone.

Every single thing about this guy is douchey. Everything. The screen names, the steroids, the MMA shit, the tattooes, the shaved head, everything. And that's not even mentioning the megadouchery that lead to all of this in the first place.

It's like that Scumbag Steve meme come to life.
Click to expand...

The more I learn about Paul the more I feel like he is the infamous "them". John Q. Everyman.... He really is a nice guy, but you'd be stupid not to sue someone if you were guaranteed 5 mil. Is totally into games, but hell yea I'm boostin to Elite in CoD it's so much easier that way.

You know how they say "A person is smart, but 'people' are stuipd."? Well Paul is the 'people' in that phrase.

Edit: In before: Paul ruined Dragon Age.
 
Jamesways

Jamesways

Member
PsychoRaven said:
Oh now show host is getting on all of us for not jumping all over Bobby Kotick for destroying infinity ward while we jumped all over Paul. And they're now defending Paul. smh
Click to expand...

Impersonating your higher-ups is the definition of integrity... er... awesome. Leave him alone, you bullies!
 
K

KageMaru

Member
PsychoRaven said:
ROFLMAO. He actually is showing decency here by speaking up for the guys that make the attachment and asking people not to blame them for his actions. I'll give him that much. This is the first real time he's shown a thought for someone else.

He lost a friend in Kotkin. Kotkin won't even talk to him anymore and they were friends.
Click to expand...

Is it horrible that a part of me suspects he's only doing this to only avoid a lawsuit?
 
ElRenoRaven

ElRenoRaven

Member
Jamesways said:
Impersonating your higher-ups is the definition of integrity... er... awesome. Leave him alone, you bullies!
Click to expand...

Meh I'm done with Paul. He's a douchebag but he did show just a sliver of humility at the end of the interview so as long as he now just shuts the hell up He's safe from my flaming bus of doom.
 
J

JacksUsername

Member
Disappointing interview - my question got read at least, it was divided a little bit, but the whole question was something like:

How can he (Paul) say that everything was his fault and he's completely to blame and then turn around and say that he would sue PA for 5 million if he could? Statements like that give the appearance that he would walk over anyone to make a buck.

They read the second part first, so the reference to what he was saying was lost a bit - they clarified after and then he dropped the 5 million was a metaphor line.

Was actually going to try and call in, but didn't have Skype installed on my phone. They did try to press him a few times, but did not call out his BS enough. For example, he would say "yeah I learned a lot and I'm going to do things differently from now on", and that would slide without any follow up on what he would actually do to change.

But the ultimate major annoyance was hosts' desire to vilify Dave (the original person in the e-mails) by saying he was just getting this to cheat on CoD and this whole situation was just about someone angry they weren't getting their controller on time - that really ticked me off. Also, they kept saying yeah, Paul just had a bad day, when there have been reports of the same type of behavior recorded months before this broke.
 
W

Wario64

works for Gamestop (lol)
JacksUsername said:
But the ultimate major annoyance was hosts' desire to vilify Dave (the original person in the e-mails) by saying he was just getting this to cheat on CoD and this whole situation was just about someone angry they weren't getting their controller on time - that really ticked me off. Also, they kept saying yeah, Paul just had a bad day, when there have been reports of the same type of behavior recorded months before this broke.
Click to expand...

So now the hosts think this Avenger controller will let you cheat at Call of Duty? Funny considering they've been trying to target this controller to disabled gamers. I also like how the hosts thought Dave ordered the controller in December, as if he placed it like 2 weeks ago.


They're pretty bad hosts for people who've been doing this for 4 years
 
E

echoshifting

Banned
JacksUsername said:
But the ultimate major annoyance was hosts' desire to vilify Dave (the original person in the e-mails) by saying he was just getting this to cheat on CoD and this whole situation was just about someone angry they weren't getting their controller on time - that really ticked me off. Also, they kept saying yeah, Paul just had a bad day, when there have been reports of the same type of behavior recorded months before this broke.
Click to expand...

Yeah, there was that, and I thought it was pretty outrageous that they took everyone's desire to see them spend fifteen minutes reaching their subject matter and interpreted that as a request for a "dramatic" reading of the e-mails performed in a manner designed to vilify Dave. Not cool.

Overall I'd give Paul a C-...barely passing, but passing nonetheless. Hosts were just fail, fail, fail. Awful podcast.
 
D

DerrickH

Neo Member
I'll have the archive of the entire show up in a few minutes and the Interview cut out alone an hour or so after that.

If you didn't enjoy the interview, I apologize. But i tried to ask as many of the chat questions as possible (although many were variations of the same thing) and I did my best to just let Paul talk in his own words without guiding him down a path or badgering him. I did do the research and do know the story. I wasn't reading the emails for the first time. It was a (badly executed) bit.

I think the 2nd half of the interview is a lot better than the first, which is par for the course for DPL because thats when the guests usually relax and are more themselves.
 
S

scy

Member
Dang, go out and miss all the festivities :(

Edit: Alright, caught back up on the last few pages and ... wat. So he apologizes that other people are terrible and he had a bad day (one of those 72 hour bad days, I guess) and the true villain is Dave? $5M lawsuit is both a wishful thinking goal and a metaphor?

I don't know what is life anymore.
 
N

Neuromancer

Member
scy said:
Dang, go out and miss all the festivities :(

Edit: Alright, caught back up on the last few pages and ... wat. So he apologizes that other people are terrible and he had a bad day (one of those 72 hour bad days, I guess) and the true villain is Dave? $5M lawsuit is both a wishful thinking goal and a metaphor?

I don't know what is life anymore.
Click to expand...

More like a 6 month long day (that earlier encounter with that Nate guy back in June).
 
L

Lyte Edge

All I got for the Vernal Equinox was this stupid tag
Listening to that podcast now.

I like how Paul says he was having a bad day and made a mistake, when there's been others who have said/posted similar bad customer service responses from him before this whole thing blew up.
 
T

TheNatural

My Member!
Can't believe I read through all these pages, or at least scanned through most. Basically to sum up.

- Dude acts like a total prick to a customer, Penny Arcade gets involved, dude gets what he deserves

- Guy turns out to be a roid rager and all kinds of other shit

- Maker of control damage controls the situation before their whole company gets brought down

- Random white knighters want to complain that the guy faced consequences to his actions

And after all of this, apparently the guy isn't actually contrite or actually getting he was in the wrong, so he deserves anything he gets for acting like a dick.

Also another thought, for me and the rest of the 99%, it makes me sick that this guy somehow had a fairly lucrative (it appears) marketing position with basically no understanding of the English language. The former marketing company made it clear that it seems like the controller maker had delusions of grandeur about trying to make some money getting this supported in stores, and also in the past marketed it as a turbo controller for pros, and not the handicap. Sounds like they're as much to blame for the damage they've taken as well for bringing this guy on without due diligence and their head in the sand over promises.

Either way, the guy's 15 minutes of fame are about up, and he had to deal with his family now.
 
E

elohel

Member
TheNatural said:
Can't believe I read through all these pages, or at least scanned through most. Basically to sum up.

- Dude acts like a total prick to a customer, Penny Arcade gets involved, dude gets what he deserves

- Guy turns out to be a roid rager and all kinds of other shit

- Maker of control damage controls the situation before their whole company gets brought down

- Random white knighters want to complain that the guy faced consequences to his actions

And after all of this, apparently the guy isn't actually contrite or actually getting he was in the wrong, so he deserves anything he gets for acting like a dick.

Also another thought, for me and the rest of the 99%, it makes me sick that this guy somehow had a fairly lucrative (it appears) marketing position with basically no understanding of the English language. The former marketing company made it clear that it seems like the controller maker had delusions of grandeur about trying to make some money getting this supported in stores, and also in the past marketed it as a turbo controller for pros, and not the handicap. Sounds like they're as much to blame for the damage they've taken as well for bringing this guy on without due diligence and their head in the sand over promises.

Either way, the guy's 15 minutes of fame are about up, and he had to deal with his family now.
Click to expand...


amen

lock her up

we're goin home
 
E

elrechazado

Banned
TheNatural said:
Can't believe I read through all these pages, or at least scanned through most. Basically to sum up.

- Dude acts like a total prick to a customer, Penny Arcade gets involved, dude gets what he deserves

- Guy turns out to be a roid rager and all kinds of other shit

- Maker of control damage controls the situation before their whole company gets brought down

- Random white knighters want to complain that the guy faced consequences to his actions

And after all of this, apparently the guy isn't actually contrite or actually getting he was in the wrong, so he deserves anything he gets for acting like a dick.

Also another thought, for me and the rest of the 99%, it makes me sick that this guy somehow had a fairly lucrative (it appears) marketing position with basically no understanding of the English language. The former marketing company made it clear that it seems like the controller maker had delusions of grandeur about trying to make some money getting this supported in stores, and also in the past marketed it as a turbo controller for pros, and not the handicap. Sounds like they're as much to blame for the damage they've taken as well for bringing this guy on without due diligence and their head in the sand over promises.

Either way, the guy's 15 minutes of fame are about up, and he had to deal with his family now.
Click to expand...
Nice summary, and I'm done too. It was quite a fun thread I have to say :)
 
P

pslayer666

Member
I haven't read any other thread here on GAF for the last three days, this thread just kept on giving and giving.

It was a great read especially during the first/second day.

Paul dude was/is an utter douchebag, glad to see justice got served.
 
B

blitzcloud

Banned
If what Moises says is the truth, Paul is really stupid to not finish this off. He probably knows he's gonna be unemployed for a long time though, so he's trying to get wealthy before that lol.

p.s: judging by the update, he's now cooperating and surrendering.
 
G

gdt

Member
Can someone summarize the entire thing from the begginining? I skimmed by the first page when it was posted, but it wasn't that notable to me. At that time, anyway.
 
B

Bizazedo

Member
Pureauthor said:
So, um, has the fact that Paul's been holding the Avenger Controller domain hostage been raised? Because apparently...

https://twitter.com/#!/AvengerControl/status/152547340828422145

NControl's new PR guy has a Ask Me Anything on Reddit:

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

But, guys, we have to not attack him. He's human and therefore must be treated with the kindness and passivity one would give a puppy.
 
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