Well we’ve put another incredible PAX to bed. I’ve been asked to comment on a few of the stories that came out of the show this year. It seems that after three days of games, music and community what people people keep asking me about is the guy who took off his pants, and boobs. I’ll go ahead and give you my take on both of those but first I want to talk about the other story that is making the rounds. That being our trolling of Paul Christoforo.
THE PRANK
You might remember Paul as the guy from Ocean Marketing who self destructed on the internet a few months ago. What you might not know is that in the intervening months Paul has continued to harass me and PA via his twitter. He claimed that he would be coming to the show, regardless of the fact that he was banned. He threatened us and said he would be at PAX East in disguise. When the show finally arrived he began posting photos from the floor claiming he was here and that he took the pics himself. The only problem with that is that his phone was also tweeting his location...which happened to be in California.
On Saturday Paul befriended a con goer from his hometown on twitter. What Paul did not know is that this guy, along with growing up in the same town Paul did, was also a security guard at the PAX convention center. This guard is a huge gamer and he immediately came to us after starting up this conversation with Paul. First we attempted to set up a meeting here in Boston but obviously Paul said he couldn’t do it. Then Mr. Christoforo asked his new best friend to send him some photos from the show floor. We took the pictures ourselves but before we sent them to Paul Robert created a new Twitter account and uploaded all the pics.
They were then sent to Paul and sure enough he began tweeting them as his own. He posted all of our pictures claiming that they were taken on his iPhone and even dared people to find the duplicates. He bragged that he had gotten past all of our enforcers and that he was in fact in the show. I actually felt a twinge of guilt as I watched the man dig himself deeper and deeper into a hole. That passed quickly though as I remembered all the violent and racist threats he made towards Robert and I.
At this point I went to my own Twitter, pointing out “his” latest photos and then linking people to the originals we took. A quick look at the time stamps was all it took to see that they had obviously been posted hours before Paul ever claimed them as his own. I have to admit this was not as satisfying as it could have been simply because Paul didn’t understand what had happened. After about an hour, people stopped simply laughing at him and instead were trying to explain to him what had transpired. At first he tried to claim that someone else must have been following him around the show and taking the exact same pictures. Eventually he seemed to realize the extent to which he had been fooled and he simply began raging against anyone and everyone he could find on Twitter.
At lunch the next day I was explaining all this to the rest of the PA crew. After the story Erika said something that I think sums it up nicely. She said, “I love working for a company where revenge is always an option.”
THE PANTS
This is a pretty simple one. Last year at PAX East Keith Apicary got kicked out after disrupting multiple panels by jumping up on stage and taking his pants off. He approached Robert over the summer and asked if he could please be allowed back to the show this year. Robert said sure but had him sign a contract saying he would not disrupt any panels this year by jumping up on stage and taking his pants off. He agreed and then on the very first day of the show he disrupted a panel by jumping up on stage and taking his pants off.
So yes we had to kick Keith out but it’s his own fault and I’m pretty sure he knows it. I understand that this is his “shtick” but when it interferes with the show we have to put our foot down. As an example, the Mega 64 guys are also known for their ridiculous antics but have never once been asked to leave the show in all the years they have been attending. There is a time and a place for everything, especially taking off your pants.
THE BOOBS
Jessica Nigri(NSFW) is the other “controversy”. I find this one to be super funny actually. Jessica was dressed up to promote the game Lollipop Chainsaw. We had received some complaints and decided that yeah her costume was a bit too revealing for the show floor. The game was being shown inside a bus and so we asked that if she wants to keep the costume on, please stay inside with the game or if you want to be out on the floor please cover up a bit more. Now let me tell you why I find this to be fucking hilarious.
Last year we were given all kinds of shit for the Duke Nukem booth babes. How could we allow women to be used as sex symbols just to sell a game? How could we allow them on the show floor in their school girl outfits while children and families were walking around? We were vilified for not kicking them off the show floor on the very first day. Now, exactly one year later I am also a monster, but now it’s because I am “punishing women” by asking them to cover up. I’ve been asked why I find the female body to be "obscene" and told that I must really hate women.
Hopefully you can see now why I find this so fucking ridiculous.
How about all of you that hate me get together and have your own conference. I need you to decide if half naked girls are empowered or exploited because I’m doing my fucking best here and it’s apparently always wrong. I swear to God I don’t understand how I’m supposed to know if I’m promoting the patriarchy or criminalizing the female body.
The best part is that Jessica, Warner Bros and everyone at PA is cool. This was a non issue. It is apparently only a big deal to people who didn’t even attend the show.
So that’s my response to our two completely fabricated “scandals” this year. I have to admit I’m surprised that these made it to the blogs but my killing and eating of a PAX attendee got no press.
-Gabe out
