[Updated] Jeff Bell asks message board user: "And your contribution to society is ... what?"
by Jared Rea 
{ Jul 18th 2007 at 7:35PM }
Think twice before you start slingin' bombs towards Microsoft's corporate VP of global marketing, Jeff Bell. He might just show up on your message board and troll you right back.That's what happened to NeoGAF user "a Master Ninja." Having heckled Bell amidst the Peter Moore departure, he awoke this morning to find a personal message in his inbox direct from Bell, proposing a curious question.
"And your contribution to society is ... what?"
The account, "bell801," was quickly linked to Microsoft's token white guy by both the community itself and the moderators of NeoGAF, confirming the account as registered to Bell's official Microsoft email address. "A Master Ninja" still hasn't said what his contribution to society is, but he has put forth a challenge to Jeff Bell to any Xbox Live Arcade game of his choosing.
For the sake of your recently revoked ghetto pass, Jeff. Do it.
[Update - NeoGAF administrator, Tyler Malka, has responded to the situation with an apology, stating "What happened in the Jeff Bell thread was a mistake and has been dealt with. I hope that NeoGAF can continue to be a community where gaming industry members wanting to remain anonymous can feel safe posting without "trusted sources" confirming their identities."]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
3cubedminus3squared @ Jul 18th 2007 7:41PM
hmm. I wonder if he's asked Michael Vick yet...
Triforceowner @ Jul 18th 2007 7:42PM
Hmm... I don't like either of them...
Fernando Rocker @ Jul 18th 2007 7:43PM
I wonder if he is related to Jack of No Trades...
Jack used to troll a lot, but when someone bash him, god, he become a mad man!
Supino @ Jul 18th 2007 7:45PM
And Jeff Bells contribution to society is ... what?
cc123 @ Jul 18th 2007 7:47PM
Careful dude.
He might go after you too.
DWells55 @ Jul 18th 2007 7:48PM
Haha, props to him for sticking up for himself. But it's not nearly as cool as when Bruce Willis defended Die Hard on those forums a couple months ago.
Ska Oreo @ Jul 19th 2007 3:29AM
Bruce Willis did that?? That's fucking awesome!!!! I mean I'm surprised he didn't go up to some fucking forum user and castrate him with his bare hands.
Grant @ Jul 19th 2007 9:11AM
yeah, that was great.
he even invited the guy into iChat to prove it was him.
pretty badass.
Anonymous @ Jul 19th 2007 9:11PM
wow, that's fucking lame.
Ninegauger @ Jul 18th 2007 7:50PM
Awesome... XBLA challenge as a response... he should just accept the challenge and we can put this behind us.
el tonot @ Jul 18th 2007 7:54PM
I'll this once again.....RICH PEOPLE ARE SOME OF THE BIGGEST ASSHOLES IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. Working class people (not middle class) are some of the most down-to-Earth people in America. Most live paycheck-to-paycheck and still give their shirts off their backs unlike most wealthy people. Mr. Bell just has a rich person's pompous attitude.
Negativecool @ Jul 18th 2007 7:59PM
And your contribution to society is...what?
Exo @ Jul 18th 2007 8:09PM
yea working class people have every right to harass the higher ups for no reason at all.
/sarcasm
Evan @ Jul 18th 2007 8:53PM
"RICH PEOPLE ARE SOME OF THE BIGGEST ASSHOLES IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICA"
Yeah, paying the lion's share of American tax dollars does that to people.
Anonymous @ Jul 19th 2007 9:11PM
Evan: It's not like those rich people can't afford it.
waynski1457 @ Jul 18th 2007 7:55PM
damn, he just got served!
Negativecool @ Jul 18th 2007 7:56PM
Uwe Boll openly challanged his critics...I don't respect him any more for doing so.
Negativecool @ Jul 18th 2007 7:58PM
And your contribution to society is...what?
cwolf267 @ Jul 18th 2007 8:02PM
Didn't laugh the first time, nor the second time, knock it off.
Sircolby45 @ Jul 18th 2007 8:00PM
Lol...In Dodgeball words..."You're a skidmark on the underpants of society"
OhJustSomeRandomGuy @ Jul 18th 2007 8:01PM
It's going to be funny when Bell challenges him to Bankshot Billiards, forcing the poster to buy the most expensive XBLA title out there. Then Bell will promptly beat him, because, well, it's friggin' Bankshot Billiards.
Triforceowner @ Jul 18th 2007 8:20PM
I got that game free with my Xbox Live subscription... I played it once.
Fernando Rocker @ Jul 18th 2007 8:02PM
He is a public person, he should know the consequences... that attidude is not correct.
Just because he is a little bit important, he doesnt have the privilege to come and insult people.
People like him is the reason why people like us doesn't like some rich people.
Doug Kaplan @ Jul 18th 2007 8:22PM
Fernando, that last line of yours gave me such a grammatical headache! I need some tylenol.
Markusdragon @ Jul 18th 2007 8:07PM
Jack Thompson once asked me much the same question.
Negativecool @ Jul 18th 2007 8:10PM
Waaa waaaa rich people suck waa!
Otis @ Jul 18th 2007 8:29PM
Well, they do.
Jeff @ Jul 18th 2007 8:29PM
"Just because he is a little bit important, he doesnt have the privilege to come and insult people."
Just because other people are not important doesn't give them the privilege to insult people that are, either.
I'm just saying - the guy's got a perfect right to defend himself online. And if "a Master Ninja" can't take it, then he needs to go back to being a ninja and forget about the internet.
That said, the picture above is priceless.
FrankTheCrank @ Jul 18th 2007 8:38PM
Awe....dude...
If this guy said this to my face, I would fucking pound him into the ground.
Then smash him over the head with your broken RROD 360.
Bob @ Jul 18th 2007 10:03PM
Nope, I don't think you would do that.
baby sea tuna @ Jul 19th 2007 9:02AM
No. I don't think so either.
You did, however, prove Jeff Bell's point with that comment...so congratulations, you've made your contribution to (Internet) society!
Almack64 @ Jul 19th 2007 10:26AM
@ Bob
Reading just made me lol at work. I have to be careful the boss might think I'm enjoying being here.
JW @ Jul 18th 2007 8:41PM
The fact that "A Master Ninja" challenged this guy to a gaming showdown just proves that he is an ignorant child starved for attention that is seeking retribution via a video game. Yeah, thats not TOO pathetic. What a bunch of sad, sad people.
Grant @ Jul 19th 2007 9:32AM
Pathetic? the guy invited him into the ring, of what he's selling for a living? Do you expect him to invite him to a game of cards? 10 paces at sun-up? how about a nice game of russian roulette?
I think the real question is, doesn't "Microsoft's corporate VP of global marketing" have ANYTHING better to do with his time than troll message boards? I mean how much of microsofts time is this guy actually wasting?
On top of that, it's a PUBLIC forum. Does he not expect ridicule from consumers of his product? how about if that guy is a stock holder? He has all the right in the world to question some marketing minion if he's putting MS's profitability on the line.
Jeffy boy doesn't even know who this person is... for all he knows, it's a 24 y/o fresh out of college, and i'm sure if someone asked jeff the same question at that point in his life, he would be sitting there with his dick in his hand with no answer.
It's one thing to ridicule an actor and claim his movie is going to suck, and get that shoved up your ass personally. It's a completely different beast to riducle a marginally higher up in a public company which many people have an invested interest in, and then have this clown message you back acting all tough.
Wow jeff, you've had the position for a year, we're all so impressed. Was that jump in campaign all your own? or how about that neato campaign with all the boxes and wireless mics flying around?
Face it, MS sells it's self. It's like a marketing campaign for your local utility, the people are going to buy it anyways, so you're not even remotely neccesary.
FM @ Jul 18th 2007 8:43PM
That pic is hilarious.
Curmeo @ Jul 18th 2007 8:43PM
""A Master Ninja" still hasn't said what his contribution to society is, but he has put forth a challenge to Jeff Bell to any Xbox Live Arcade game of his choosing."
lol thats hilarious.
Kinsman @ Jul 18th 2007 8:44PM
"Keep Peter Moore, get rid of Jeff Bell." And then a picture of Jeff Bell's smiling face.
As far as heckling goes, that was pretty mild. Hard to tell apart from an ordinary opinion, really. And if the heckling comes from just letting the photo speak for itself - well, Mr. Bell, *you're* the one who smiled for it.
It's just strange that he decided to talk back on some Internet insult. And on such a mild one, at that.
Geist @ Jul 18th 2007 8:51PM
Ahem. Is this thing on? Testing, one, two, three.
*tap tap tap*
Ahem.
BUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
rarehero @ Jul 18th 2007 9:08PM
This is certainly NOT newsworthy.
Who CARES what goes on in ANY forum, unless it has real implications to someone outside the forum?
Also, Joystiq's NAME is banned at NeoGAF, I think Joystiq should ban the name NeoGAF from news articles.
jared @ Jul 18th 2007 9:17PM
Calm down. It's just an amusing story and not serious business. I don't think I need to explain the implications of a corporate exec going all vendetta on some kid outside of the forum.
And why should we compromise our reporting just because somebody doesn't like us? isn't that the whole point of fair reporting? To not let personal trifles get in the way of information ... as silly as that information may be?
rarehero @ Jul 19th 2007 9:14AM
"I don't think I need to explain the implications of a corporate exec going all vendetta on some kid outside of the forum."
What? There is no implications. I personally have been attacked by one of the top guys at Gearbox software, for example (those guys are real jerks). Lots of people have been attacked by one of the old PR guys on the Epic software message boards. This happens all the time. People are people, and when an employee of ANY company attacks any other person anonymously, it's not a big deal. It really does happen all the time.
The more interesting news is the update that says this information leak has been "dealt with", for a few years now there has been much internal strife in the NeoGAF administration staff, nearly all of it invisible even to the regular posters there.
Shagittarius @ Jul 18th 2007 9:12PM
Jeff Bell isn't even two spastics duct-tapped together.
baby sea tuna @ Jul 19th 2007 9:03AM
This comment is two shitty Internet memes duct-TAPED together.
JonnyBoy2U @ Jul 18th 2007 9:29PM
GOT EM!
LMAO...Jeff Bell is officially elevated to BALLER status.
Martez @ Jul 18th 2007 9:37PM
Gamers don't know 'bout my contribution to society?
MosquitoControl @ Jul 18th 2007 9:37PM
If Microsoft would frickin' hire me I'd have more of a contribution.
Being an attorney means I have some... arguably...
SuperDave @ Jul 18th 2007 10:24PM
Had to do it.
Let me show you.
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w84/SuperDave479/JeffBell.jpg
Rubang B @ Jul 18th 2007 10:50PM
With that picture you just won my heart. I'll even put it in a little container for you.
NintendoFanbot @ Jul 18th 2007 10:37PM
Oh Neogaf :D :D :D
Rubang B @ Jul 18th 2007 10:49PM
Ok, A Master Ninja kicks ass. Next time somebody asks me what my contribution to society is, I'm challenging them to the non-game of their choice. They want to go at some Brain Age, some Common Knowledge Training, or I'll take their pompous ass to the Big Brain Academy. I'll even challenge them to a match of Electroplankton.
And win.