Have you ever logged into Xbox.com, looked in your inbox, and had no messages? It's kind of sad actually, nobody cared enough to send you a message. But look a little closer, look at the graphic that pops up, look towards the bottom, do you see? The background image shows an example of someone having messages and lists two gamertags. Who are these Lit Bomb and Bear guys and how did they get to be in the "empty message box" graphic? Don't worry fanboys, it's our job to investigate these matters. We're professionals. Using our detective skills we got in contact with one of the two gamertags, Lit Bomb. We asked the hard questions and got to the bottom of all the lies and confusion. Interview after the break.
X360F: We have a few quick questions for you Mr. Lit Bomb. On Xbox.com when we don't have any messages a graphic shows up stating we're not cool enough to have mail. But upon further inspection there are two gamertags on the bottom, one being you Lit Bomb. So, how the heck did you score instant fame by being on everyone's no message list?
Lit Bomb: Most likely it is because I am on the Xbox Live team.
Oh, that makes sense. So, you had no prior knowledge of your gamertag being used in the graphic? Are we supposed to believe you didn't beg the webmaster or bribe him?
Actually, before we launched Xbox 360 in November 2005, the Xbox.com team asked a few people on the team if it is okay to use their gamertags in some artwork, I was one of them. I said 'sure, go ahead.' And somehow they decided to use a screen shot with my gamertag on it, along with Bear.
So that's how it works. They needed gamertags for the artwork and you took one for the team, good for you! Though, in all seriousness, what is your role on the Xbox team? Do you have any interesting tasks you complete on a day to day basis?
I am the test manager for the Xbox Live service, in other words, I am management overhead. I try not to slow the team down.
So, if Live should ever go down we know who to call.
We are all on top of the Live service 24x7x365. My job is to manage the test team to make sure the Live service is up to our quality standard, meeting our expectation and out customers' expectation.
Sounds like a very rewarding job. Thanks for telling us a little bit about yourself and calming our curiosity about the whole empty message graphic thing. Keep up the good work on Xbox Live ... we love it!
1. Hard-hitting reporting as always. Thanks 360f.
Posted at 9:16PM on Jan 23rd 2007 by Arno