Being a writer for a video game website, sometimes things do not come easy. I often spend an hour, sometimes two looking for a good story to write but in the past 72 hours, things have been easy, to say the least. For those of you who have been living under a digital rock, a recent email exchange sent a man's life hurtling into a void of what people will use as textbook for how not to respond to people or react in a professional situation.
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| Yes, the stock image equivalent of this. |
However, in that 72 hours things went from bad to worse for everyone. The initial email exchange turned up on Penny Arcade and Kotaku within an hour or two of words being fired like cannons. Then things got worse when the internet got a hold of it. The guys at KnowYourMeme jumped into action with a webpage being made in 10 hours, a video by the comedy video group, New Challenger was up and (not that funny) ready to go within 24 hours, using dialogue from the emails.
But the nail in the coffin came late last night when the amazing gaming website, GameRanx, conducted a very in-depth interview with Christoforo. Paul was someone who was having a bad week, to say the least and whilst his actions are inexcusable, I do think if what he is saying is true in that interview, I think a lot of the commenting and meme spouting may need to stop.
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| Just siphoning off the nerd rage... |
Christoforo has had a history of poor dealings with multiple companies, a friend overdosed recently and he has been suffering from depression. All of these would be tell-tale signs that maybe he's not in the right industry or frame of mind to be dealing out customer service. Christoforo himself has also a strike against his name saying he was accused of "battery" of an ex-girlrfriend, but the charges were dropped. Paul is not a man who has a faceless company behind him who is giving him a script to read, this is either gonna be him pouring his heart out or he's just another Scumbag Steve looking for some sympathy.
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| ....or another Carlos Estevez looking for something |
Despite the memetic quality of the emails were on par with last year's "I'll backtrace you" from a viral video, Paul's interview was an open and fairly honest look into the life of this man in his late 30's with a lot of problems. I almost wanted to start writing a script about him and his consistent failing in life like a Todd Solondz film about video game marketers. I only realised how much that interview effected me this morning in what some may consider the stupidest thing possible; I didn't Re-Tweet a joke about him.
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| Sorry, @elizabethdanger |
Even though I did RT one joke (see: several) about how Paul had left Ocean Marketing and would be fine because he knew everyone important, Elizabeth's joke (and a few other gaming people) had made me realise that whilst the whole situation was funny (and they were incredibly witty to boot) to some degree, the people Christoforo was working for were people who MAKE CONTROLLERS FOR DISABLED PEOPLE and he was the main culprit in the ordeal. Not the manufacturers or the controller itself, but the internet still took it out on their webpages and amazon listings.
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| Well, now you've woken up Hitler baby. |
And so I was back in this limbo of, how much should I care about this? Probably not at all, regardless of my job and "title," but I think that after reading the interview I had definitely felt different about the entire situation. I've had bad days where things went awry and I've said stupid shit and I was lucky to have friends and family forgive me...of course, I wouldn't say the things Christoforo said in a professional email exchange because I would probably get fired. The email seems like a last day muck-up thing, like if I knew I was going to get fired on the weekend and I got an email on Friday, I may as well send a picture of my cock with every email, taken in front of that picture of the boss' wife.
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| When did he take that picture with my wife? It's huge! |
I'd developed a kind of conscious reaction to any joke about Mr. Christoforo and his trials and tribulations. I'm sure the man has had very little sleep and has been apologetic about what has gone down in the past week and I think, probably due to a Christian upbringing, that he should be forgiven in some way.
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| Bro! Controllers for disabled people?! |
His reputation will never recover, he has been outted as a bully and has been shown what he truly is in a case that has been a mix of bad placing and bad timing, but overall, he's just a man who didn't know how to handle the email he was given. It wasn't his job. It wasn't his time. It just wasn't the way to handle it either. And the internet, like it does, never really knows the full story, but can piece it together one block at a time.
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| The internet is a bit like Minecraft...especially with the creepers who want to explode in your face. |
The thing people don't see is the speed of the internet was able to turn this entire thing around in just a matter of days, literally the three days after Christmas. If I didn't work five days a week, including holidays, I'd say it may have been a slow week, but this thing skyrocketed and showed that, well 1) a lot of people, especially one guy, have nothing better to do in the final week of the year and 2)If you don't have the right person for the job, try not to use them.
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| Okay that's still kinda funny...dammit |
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| Yeah like that... |
I know that everyone, or I hope that everyone learnt something from the ordeal and whilst I know someone in the next ten to twenty days will probably have another customer snaffu and someone will bring up the reference to "OceanGate" and then I'll stab them in the eye and make a "gate" joke because people are not creative when they add -gate to a scandal. Seriously, I thought #AvengerRevenge or #RagingOcean would have been more appropriate but people will hashtag and like what they will like and I will probably be a bit angry about it till my girlfriend calls me stupid...and she will be right.
Oh and also saw an article on TechDirt which simply had no sympathy for Christoforo...which maybe he doesn't deserve. AHHHH I'm out of here...this is just too much grey area here for me to sift through. I'm just gonna go play video games...
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