2

12/27/2011 5:06:50 PM

Quote :

"The hilarity is amplified since they still link to the original Twitter account on their homepage (top right). edit: Geezus, the new account that Christoforo created is called "OceanStratagy". And no, I did not spell "strategy" wrong. AerialAmphibian What a moran. He can't even spell "strategery" right. shitpplsay The hilarity is just keeps getting better pgomez And after he did that, some other guy created @OceanStrategy. Yes, that means the handle was available and Christoforo registered "OceanStratagy" voluntarily. And there's also https://twitter.com/OceanMarketingg"

lulz

12/27/2011 5:07:22 PM

http://kotaku.com/5871400/cut-paul-oceanmarketting-christoforo-a-breakhe-probably-just-has-roid-rage

Quote :

"Hi Joel, I have been following this story since this morning when someone notified me about what was going on. I did not write that response to you. Yes, in the past I received email at brandon@avengercontroller.com but even then we were an outsourced marketing agency for N-Control. I no longer receive email at that address because we fired N-Control as a client about 8 months ago due to constant shipping delays (which we had to deal with) and their association with Paul Cristoforo who is a street thug masquerading as a self proclaimed "Marketing Professional". This guy is a complete fool and somehow strong armed his way into working with the company so we walked away. I am not surprised in the slightest bit by what's going on right now. In fact, we told the owners of the company on many occasions that this would eventually happen. I wasn't going to chime in but since he is replying as me, I can't resist. I personally can't stand him. Brandon _____________________________________________________________________ Brandon Leidel - CEO, Director of Operations The HAND Media, Inc."

lololownt.

12/27/2011 5:22:47 PM

damn!!

12/27/2011 5:24:23 PM

haha unfortunate timing... lots of bored-as-hell nerds at their parents home this week with nothing to do except dig dirt on this poor guy

12/27/2011 5:34:05 PM

and play skyrim

12/27/2011 5:39:34 PM

lol tru dat

12/27/2011 5:47:06 PM

skyrim is saving him from the wrath of many a nerd

my brother is in hiding as we speak

12/27/2011 5:49:11 PM

I want Skyrim

12/27/2011 7:44:29 PM

An update from Mike Krahulik of Penny Arcade:

Quote :

"I just wanted to post an update with some of the stuff that has happened over on my end with regards to all this Ocean Marketing stuff. Around midnight last night Paul sent me a mail saying that I could expect to hear from their attorneys. As of right now that still has not happened and honestly I don’t expect it will. Our attorneys (who are real people with an office and everything) are ready should it get to that point though. At 7:12am this morning I got another mail from Paul. It was one line and simply said: “You have the power Mike Please make it stop” The reality is that once I had posted the emails I didn’t have the power anymore. The Internet had it now and nothing I said or did was going to change that. An hour later I got a more complete apology: "Hey Mike, I just wanted to apologize for the way our emails progressed I didn’t know how big your site was and I really didn’t believe you ran Pax , So for what’s its worth I am very sorry. Your post has obviously made my life very difficult and I have not slept yet dealing with all the spam and personal information intrusion as well as my family being smeared on the internet. If you can please accept my apology and anything you can do to help if not me my son and wife please do. I have apologized to Dave and apologized to you what else can I do please tell me so I can make things good. I obviously care or I would not be emailing you." I think there is a big difference between being sorry and being sorry you got caught. I have a real problem with bullies. I spent my childhood moving from school to school and I got made fun of everyplace I landed. I feel like Paul is a bully and maybe that’s why I have no sympathy here. Someday every bully meets and even bigger bully and maybe that’s me in this case. It’s the same thing that happened with Jack Thompson. It might not always make the most business sense and it is a policy that has caused us some legal problems, but I really don’t give a shit about that. When these assholes threaten me or Penny Arcade I just laugh. I will personally burn everything I’ve made to the fucking ground if I think I can catch them in the flames. -Gabe out"

I can only hope that Penny Arcade (and their Child's Play charity) receives a lot of positive traffic as a result of this happening.

12/27/2011 8:28:54 PM

Quote :

"I will personally burn everything I’ve made to the fucking ground if I think I can catch them in the flames."

lol omg he is the patron saint of internet trolls

12/27/2011 8:32:15 PM

Quote :

"Our attorneys (who are real people with an office and everything) "

hahaha

12/27/2011 8:32:29 PM

how are you guys getting to penny arcade? seems to be down

12/27/2011 8:36:20 PM

The internet has swarmed their site, so they are having server trouble.

I accessed that article via Krahulik's twitter, @cwgabriel

12/27/2011 8:37:14 PM

I was able to get it to load. Maybe I just got lucky.

12/27/2011 8:39:11 PM

Loading now, slowly.

12/27/2011 8:57:17 PM

Assuming this is him (which all signs point to yes) he hasn't learned shit.

http://twitter.com/oceanstretagy

12/27/2011 9:52:50 PM

I don't think that's him, that looks like a "fan" account. I doubt he would be that active and that belligerent.


Apparently, despite the misspelling, this is his real account:

https://twitter.com/oceanstratagy




But yeah, appears as if he hasn't learned a thing.

[Edited on December 27, 2011 at 10:01 PM. Reason : Well. Maybe that is him, too? ??????????? If so, wow. WOW]

12/27/2011 9:59:32 PM

I just love Amazon's status on ordering the product.

Quote :

"Currently unavailable. We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock."

12/27/2011 10:19:06 PM

from his website (front page)

Quote :

"Your Brand is no stronger than your reputation-and will increasingly depend on what comes up when you are Googled"

LOL

12/27/2011 10:26:53 PM

i love this thread

12/27/2011 11:28:12 PM

I love Penny Arcade.

12/27/2011 11:29:12 PM

i was expecting this thread to be about GeniusXboY

12/27/2011 11:37:13 PM

Deleted all his roid-rage tweets from today.

It's too late dude.

12/28/2011 1:19:37 AM

I can't be the only one who thinks Penny Arcade completely overreacted. Can I?

12/28/2011 7:36:45 AM

^6 lol sounds like something Greg Higher would say.

^ How so? By posting all the emails on their website? I mean unless they've done something else I'm unaware of simply posting the emails doesn't seem like much of an overreaction.

[Edited on December 28, 2011 at 8:58 AM. Reason : a]

12/28/2011 8:57:33 AM

Well, typically private correspondence is just that... Private. I do think that blasting an email chain to the entire Internet is a little dramatic, at the minimum. No?

12/28/2011 9:29:34 AM

no

12/28/2011 9:35:26 AM

Personally I don't really consider customer support emails private. They're a way for me to get in writing whatever is being discussed so the company can't later claim that whatever was said wasn't said. Maybe I've worked for too many douchebag companies over the years that like to tell their customers one thing and do another.

12/28/2011 9:37:15 AM

I feel bad for Dave, he's probably never going to get his controller thingie now

12/28/2011 10:16:28 AM

I read that the actual inventor of the controller thingie is reaching out him directly.

12/28/2011 10:44:37 AM

Man if I were the inventor I'd be pissed as hell that my marketing guy was acting like a complete ass.

12/28/2011 10:46:16 AM

The company that makes the device is pissed cause its bringing them bad publicity.

http://kotaku.com/5871479/pr-trolling-ocean-stratagy-out-of-business-avenger-controller-maker-asks-for-forgiveness

12/28/2011 10:52:34 AM

I feel that Paul Cristoforo brought this on himself by lack of spiritual capitalism. If only there were a social marketing expert who could help pull him out of this before it's too late. Someone such as **** ****.

12/28/2011 10:55:16 AM

This Penny Arcade guy has some serious problems

12/28/2011 11:01:07 AM

When being an internet tuff guy backfires...

Quote :

"N-Control's new marketing manager, Eli Schwartz, spent today trying to do damage control and deal with a flood of what he believes are unwarranted negative ratings for the Avenger on Amazon. "At this point I'm just trying to point out that, what was said was someone who we hired, what he said should not reflect on the product itself," he said. "So far the Amazon rating on the Avenger has gone from 4 and 1/2 to 1 star in around 8 hours. None of the reviews are true, they all just appeared today out of pure hate trolling.""

Quote :

"PURE HATE TROLLING"

[Edited on December 28, 2011 at 11:09 AM. Reason : A]

12/28/2011 11:06:02 AM

It's hard for me to feel bad for N-Control. They hired the guy and they were told of his issues by a prior marketting firm.

12/28/2011 11:46:56 AM

[Edited on December 28, 2011 at 12:02 PM. Reason : PAs response.]

12/28/2011 11:55:47 AM

heh the comments on that kotaku article are all about how much of a douche Jesus Diaz is

12/28/2011 12:09:55 PM

Quote :

"How so? By posting all the emails on their website? I mean unless they've done something else I'm unaware of simply posting the emails doesn't seem like much of an overreaction. "

Because Penny Arcade knows damn well what kind of reach they have and they know how the internet likes to collectively play judge jury and executioner. No backstory, no two sides, no nothing. The internet decides and now this business is ruined and his personal information is out everywhere.

I'm not defending the guy being a jackass, but noone stole anything and he offered to cancel the order if needed. Yeah, it was bad business practice and it could have been handled a multitude of other ways, but we basically have a witch hunt over some nerd getting his feelings hurt. That's fucked up.

12/28/2011 12:54:14 PM

Sorry but anyone working in a PR position should damn well know that if they act like a jackass it's going to end up on the internet. It amazes me that there's still people who haven't learned that yet. It should be part of Marketing 101 or something.

12/28/2011 12:57:09 PM

I think PA care's less about the nerd getting his feelings hurt and more about their own feelings which got hurt when the PR guy didn't take them seriously from the start.

Yea.... who's the bully?

12/28/2011 12:58:22 PM

Quote :

"The internet decides and now this business is ruined"

if you are a PR company and you think it's a good idea to call your customers names and tell them to "put on their big boy hat", then you SHOULD have your business ruined. Think of what "PR" means: PUBLIC RELATIONS. if you are a PR firm, at no point should the following phrase be uttered from your mouth to a customer:

"Son Im 38 I [was] as on the internet when you were a sperm in your daddys balls and before it was the internet, thanks for the welcome to message wurd up."

12/28/2011 1:00:59 PM

there's no doubt about that

but just because something is in someone's power, doesn't mean they should do it. with great power comes great responsibility. PA had the greater power in this situation and they used it.

I don't think they used it altruistically.

12/28/2011 1:03:05 PM

I doubt altruism played any part in their decision to publicize this

12/28/2011 1:05:54 PM

there's really no altruism to be expected in this case. do you expect PA to make a donation to Paul Douchoforo's favorite charity and hope that he changes his douchey ways? maybe PA helped out the company that makes the controller by getting this douchebag fired. i realize you are trolling, but step up your game, son

12/28/2011 1:07:05 PM

PA represents a larger community, and a member of that community was on the receiving end of a bad deal, with a shady character, who - when in correspondence - gave every reason for worry from the consumer.

And he name-dropped PAX, then openly mocked Mike Krahulik when confronted about it.


So really it's like everything associated with the brand that PA has established received an injustice from this guy, from bottom to top.

Mike Krahulik
\/
Penny Arcade
\/
PAX
\/
Gamers
\/
Customer who didn't receive product

He gradually worked his way up the entire chain all the way to Krahulik.




So long story short, you reap what you sow

12/28/2011 1:15:49 PM

Solinari's slippin'. It's sad to see. A few years ago his game was so elevated.

12/28/2011 1:26:33 PM

I'm just saying that there's a code of honor between purveyors of geek products and as a member of the "creative" or producing community, gabe betrayed that code when he sided with the consumer.

12/28/2011 1:27:13 PM

12/28/2011 1:28:13 PM