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Reader Comments (44)

Posted: Jan 6th 2012 11:10PM Shadowbender said

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Avenging their reputation.

Posted: Jan 6th 2012 11:13PM Shadowbender said

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@Doppel A Draconius mka Aguiluz

Morph your bones and infuse them within the core of the controller. Your spinal juices will immediately undergo a "spewing effect".

Posted: Jan 6th 2012 11:17PM Stevetrop Man of Mystery said

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Its as though the PS3 controller is crawling toward me gazing at the rifle i have mounted on the wall begging me to put it out of its misery.

Posted: Jan 7th 2012 10:14AM Hank Hill said

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@Stevetrop Man of Mystery

I can just imagine it whining quietly "Kill me.... kill meeee...."
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Posted: Jan 6th 2012 11:26PM johnvonhugendong said

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Tim burton would pop a boner if he was that contraption

Posted: Jan 6th 2012 11:27PM johnvonhugendong said

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@johnvonhugendong saw*
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Posted: Jan 7th 2012 1:33AM Ectoplasm said

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@johnvonhugendong No I think you got it right the first time around.
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Posted: Jan 6th 2012 11:27PM Landozelig said

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Wow, after reading the PR meltdown, they need to fire that douchebag. They'll never get a penny of my money.

It's a shame too because they make a controller for people with disabilities which is cool.

Posted: Jan 6th 2012 11:35PM Dashx747 said

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@Landozelig

They fired the guy. He was not an employee of the company, but an outside representative hired for PR represantation.

The truth is that the company had no fault in this, but yet they are getting the bad rep because one guy went berserk. They are trying to make things right, by apologizing to the customers and hiring a better PR.
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Posted: Jan 6th 2012 11:37PM Landozelig said

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@Dashx747

Ok, well that's good to know. Don't know why Penny Arcade didn't mention that at the end, that would really make it better for the company since they had no fault in this.
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Posted: Jan 7th 2012 12:10AM A Sandwich said

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@Landozelig

He does mention it in a later post.
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Posted: Jan 7th 2012 12:12AM A Sandwich said

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Posted: Jan 7th 2012 2:50AM Courtney said

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@Dashx747

To be fair, according to Kotaku's coverage on it, the company had been warned months ago that this guy was a loose cannon who was unstable and likely to cause a serious problem eventually. The had a second firm helping with customer support who actually quit working for them because of the strife it was causing having to also work with the guy who had the meltdown.

I'm not willing to give them a free pass on this as it appears they had ample warning that this guy was a significant problem waiting to happen and they still chose to make him the point man for handling customer problems.
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Posted: Jan 10th 2012 12:11PM Gasaraki said

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@Dashx747

The company was at fault because the original complaint was because the guy was charged money and then had to wait 3 months for his controller.
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Posted: Jan 6th 2012 11:28PM Yuglyoshi said

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What is the assumed disability that people would have if they use these?

Posted: Jan 6th 2012 11:47PM Zertoss said

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@Yuglyoshi

According to the creator's (an art teacher) story, one of his students was telling him about how he had this condition that made his hands super sensitive and blister up easily. Needless to say, this made gaming very painful. He just wanted to play the Xbox his parents got for him.

Well, it just so happened that the teacher had been working on this monstrosity, and apparently it made a world of difference for the kid.
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Posted: Jan 6th 2012 11:51PM Mmmmz said

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@Yuglyoshi
Missing fingers or misshapen hand, I'd assume. I've seen some people with that unfortunate problem and it isn't pretty. Often involves removing other fingers/toes just to make a workable hand. Recovery isn't pleasant either.

I'm sure there's some other things as well.
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Posted: Jan 6th 2012 11:58PM MarkezJM said

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@Zertoss

What about a spaz (what is the plural of spaz?) like me how can't manage to use the gd left analog without clicking it most of the time? Ugh. I do it all the time. Heat of battle and whatnot.
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Posted: Jan 7th 2012 2:53AM Courtney said

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@MarkezJM

I hate it when crouch is mapped to pressing the left analog and can't be changed. Inevitably I'll end up literally spazzing out in a stressful fight as my poor character starts bobbing up and down.
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Posted: Jan 6th 2012 11:41PM jrobington said

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Just read that pr explosion for the first time that is INSANE. If I owned Ncontrollers or avenger I would be suing the ever-living feces out of that pr a-hole for putting my company in such a hole. I repeat that was insane.

Posted: Jan 7th 2012 12:05AM Roto13 said

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@jrobington That guy has gone on to be douchier and douchier since then, too.
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Posted: Jan 7th 2012 12:10PM Altairio said

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@Roto13

I saw in one of his "apologies" he blamed PA for being bullies. o.O
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Posted: Jan 7th 2012 12:21AM (Unverified) said

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"Customer Dave" = Online Hero?

Posted: Jan 7th 2012 12:46AM MBMBaM fan said

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@(Unverified) Yeah, big shout out to Dave!
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Posted: Jan 7th 2012 2:14AM Drakkenfyre said

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You want a PR nightmare?

Someone who's a personal friend of the inventor replied to a comment of mine a YEAR after I made a comment criticizing it, in an unrelated story, insulted everyone who had criticized it, gamers in general, and challenged me and everyone who had criticized it into a $1 million stocks bet, saying his profession (stocks trading) was the "real" game.

Scroll down to "gmof's" comments. That's his name.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/11/14/nerdheist-2011-razer-blade-prototypes-stolen-from-razer-randd

If this is the kind of reaction someone takes when a friend's product is criticized, I hope he isn't dealing with any money from the company.

Posted: Jan 7th 2012 2:37AM Drakkenfyre said

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Wow. After making that comment, I went and read about what the PR guy did. Holy shit.

Claiming you will run a "smear campaign" against Penny Arcade with your "125 people" of whatever, isn't going to end well. Claiming to like Penny Arcade, then turning around and saying the site isn't that good, and that your kid could do a better one just made it worse.

While it sucks that losing his job would affect his family, a douchbag like that was just asking for it. You DON'T insult your customers, and act like a bigass simply because your company is manufacturing controller add-ons, then turn around and act like you can just walk into whatever place you want to advertise TO ONE OF THE VERY GUYS WHO IS HOSTING A SHOW YOU USE. Then turn around and insult him, and say you are going to smear him. He's lucky he doesn't end up in some lawsuit from the company itself over his behavior. He's also probably !@#$ed over any chance of him working on the PR field ever again.
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Posted: Jan 7th 2012 3:07AM Courtney said

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@Drakkenfyre

Wow, that's one of the weirdest comment threads I have ever seen on Joystiq, and I've been around here for awhile. Even commented on one of those stories and didn't notice his reply the first time around. I actually wonder if it's the same Paul PR guy just making a fuss. The toneseems similar.
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Posted: Jan 7th 2012 3:10AM Acosta02 said

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@Drakkenfyre

"You DON'T insult your customers, and act like a bigass simply because your company is manufacturing controller add-ons..."

Keep in mind that they weren't "his" customers and it's not "his" company. His job was outsourced.
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Posted: Jan 7th 2012 3:14AM Acosta02 said

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@Drakkenfyre

Secondly, amazing post there (referring to gmof's in the thread you linked). I'm kind of curious where it would go if you tried to trace it... although, "gmof" is probably made up on the spot.
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Posted: Jan 7th 2012 3:18AM Drakkenfyre said

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I have a feeling it is.

After reading that the guy was the sole employee of the company, the guy bitching at criticism is probably the guy. From his comment it sounded like he was friends with the inventor. Maybe he was just the marketing lackey.

I hadn't heard anything about this, so when I saw the cause was delayed products, I figured it was just a reaction to that, then I made my comment about the comment earlier in December. Then I read what the guy did, and it blew me away. Someone criticizes a product he represents, and he overreacts and insults gamers everywhere in general on a site for gamers. From the conversation between him and Dave, sounds like it could be him.
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Posted: Jan 7th 2012 3:19AM Drakkenfyre said

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@Acosta02

I was simplifying my comment. I knew the company isn't his, it's "his" in the sense that he represents them.
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Posted: Jan 7th 2012 6:02AM singleandlovinit said

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When you factor in that Kotkin (inventor) and Christoforo have worked in the past together to create a defunct company together, the sketchy details around his hiring and N Control's odd loyalty to Christoforo over legitimate Marketing firms, its not hard to believe that gmof is indeed Christoforo.

They both come across as pathological liars but gmof uses a lot of words Christoforo wouldn't even be able to spell and he said he's never played games while Christoforo bragged about being a gamer.
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Posted: Jan 7th 2012 5:57PM LieutenantPants said

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@Drakkenfyre I have a hard time believing this Wall Street guy was Christoforo as he seems to comprehend basic English. But the tone is definitely the same so it makes you wonder about Kotkin's circle of friends.
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Posted: Jan 7th 2012 2:44AM TimeDoesNotExist said

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Yeahso, all this PR crap aside.. Can this rig fix my wicked overbite or what.
;)

Posted: Jan 7th 2012 2:47AM Seasick Pirate said

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"the PR nightmare faced by N-Control (when its PR turned out to be a nightmare)."

Well said.

Posted: Jan 7th 2012 6:31AM dragunrising said

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I'm sure most people with average people skills and working knowledge of video games could do better than Mr bad pr. N-control should hire me....perhaps ill apply :-p

Is anyone a fan of this controller add on?

Posted: Jan 7th 2012 8:20AM Miles Prower said

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So that's it? We're, kinda, only playing FPS games now and have controllers designed with only that genre in mind? Don't tell me this beast will be used to play Space Channel 5 Part 2, Shenmue, Crazy Taxi, or Fast Striker.

Posted: Jan 7th 2012 10:52AM Agies said

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@Miles Prower Ultimately it's not designed with any one genre in mind. It's designed to give users access to all of the buttons with minimal movement. There's no reason you couldn't play any of those games with this.
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Posted: Jan 7th 2012 9:38AM Jpirme777 said

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After reading those emails, they'll never see a cent of my money

Posted: Jan 7th 2012 1:09PM thenutman69321 said

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It's cool that they're donating money to Childs Play but they shouldn't even bother donating any of those ridiculous looking things. I don't see why anybody would ever want that thing. It's definitely not gonna make you a better gamer, I guess maybe there is some strange disability that I can't think of it might help but somehow I doubt it.

Posted: Jan 7th 2012 1:28PM NathanAllen said

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So now the primary market for the adapter is the disabled? Here I thought it was d-bags who needed an advantage over other players in FPS games?

I respect Penny Arcade and what PAX has done for the industry, but aggrivating the situation in order to break news was slightly staged on Krahulik's part. Very Drudgy.

Posted: Jan 7th 2012 5:30PM poronponporin said

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@NathanAllen It was marketed as being for d-bags that want a couple fram worth of advantage over other d-bags because it was marketed by Paul Christophoro. It was indeed meant for disabled people.
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Posted: Jan 7th 2012 5:31PM poronponporin said

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@poronponporin *frames worth of advantage [...]
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Posted: Jan 8th 2012 12:59PM (Unverified) said

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Getting one of these is like signing a sheet of paper saying I never want to have sex again.

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