If there is one thing that psychopaths cannot handle, then it is a PR disaster. Take this whole Ocean Marketing's Paul Christoforo episode. A well-intended but frustrated customer (whom have already given the company a big benefit of the doubt by paying up front, before there even was a product to ship), asks its customer service for information on the product. The guy at the other end, Mr Christoforo, snaps and begins to belittle and insult the customer.

Always a bad move. So after having the episode posted on Penny-Arcade by Mike Krahulik, the Internet explodes. Quite naturally. The Internet loves teaming up on a 'bad guy'. And Christoforo has shown all the tell tale signs of such a guy. Even his apology lacks actual remorse.

What Paul Christoforo is then, is a psychopath. And a classic one at that. An important attribute of a psychopath is that it is never their fault. His e-mail correspondents reeks of this. He is never really apologetic, he focuses mostly on the compliments (such as when 'Dave' mentions that his rice rocket is pretty cool, Mr Christoforo starts off his otherwise bad tempered response with a 'thanks' for that compliment). He also tries to steer Mr Krahulik into undoing the damage by saying 'I love Penny-Arcade', even after having asked Mr Krahulik 'who are you?', even when he suggested himself that Mr Christoforo should search for his name on Google. It's not that hard.

So after firmly believing the threats of 'Dave' and Mr Krahulik was empty, or that having the conversation posted on the Internet (even a popular site like Penny-Arcade) would not do anything, since most news outlets was friends with Mr Christoforo and Ocean Marketing, he begins an 'all-out war' against everything. His former associates are quick to redraw their support and allegiances with him.

Now, we all have bad days. I have had bad days, and I have said stupid stuff those days. Stuff I regret later. But Mr Christoforo does not regret what he said, but what happened. His apology, further explored in an interview to MSNBC, tells the story of a man who has seen the exception to the rule that is 'all PR is good PR', and now wishes to redeem the damage.

He brews up an apology, but stresses time and time again that he just want people to stop bothering him. His interview also includes a lot of lack of understanding of the issue at hand by often discussing how he would have handled the situation differently had he known what was at stake. Yeah, dude, we all know that. Although, unlike guessing lottery numbers, realising what was at stake here was not too difficult.

His apology also increases the aggressiveness of the tone presented by Mr Krahulik, when he informs him that his company will not get a booth at PAX. While the outcome of his recount is technically the same; Ocean Marketing will not make an appearance at PAX. Mr Krahulik simply stated that from reading the correspondents, he would cancel any booth order from his company. In Mr Christoforo's retelling, it's boiled down to 'you are fucking banned from PAX'.

Now you may think this is trivial, but it is actually important, Mr Christoforo is desperate to make other people the villains. Because - as a psychopath - it is not his fault. He had a bad day, Mr Krahulik was being mean, etc.

The most obvious example of his lack of empathy (or even basic knowledge of human feelings) is when at first he states that 'he loves Penny-Arcade', then when he realises who Mr Krahulik is, begins to insult the comic, its website and so forth. His attempt later to state that he still loves the gaming community is another failed attempt to get some cheap sympathy points from the community. Although, I don't think he is going to get it. His best chance is to just shut up.