Former SWG Lead Designer, Jeff Freeman, Takes Own Life

The former Star Wars Galaxies Lead Designer, Jeff Freeman, and man who took a huge deal of flak over the controversial New Game Enhancement (NGE) has taken his own life.

Freeman drew a torrent of abuse and criticism from disgruntled SWG fans and became the fall guy for the disastrous NGE after admitting in an online post [See article here] he was the man who said "Yes we can do that" even though in the same post he states that when originally discussing the proposal, it was very much a case of "There's no way we can do that, there's no way we should do that, the man will never let us get away with doing that."

Here's a quote from the article:

"When the NGE launched and the fiasco became apparent, Freeman deleted this post - but not before the Betrayed found it. A name! At last, a name for all their grief!

The Betrayed descended like maenads. On "refugee" forums like MMORPG.com's "SWG Veterans Refuge," dozens of bitter young males, unfamiliar with the collaborative design of MMOGs, heaped daily scorn upon this water-carrier, this flunky, as the unstoppable mastermind of the entire NGE. Though his original blog post was unclear, Freeman was in fact discussing just one aspect of the NGE: its "Fast Action Combat," the only part he designed. (He still believes it improved the game.) In late 2006, after he left SOE - he now has a design position at Spacetime Studios - Freeman ventured, perhaps unwisely, onto the MMORPG.com refugee forum to clarify this."

However, Freeman's Brother has stated that Jeff's suicide had nothing to do with Star Wars Galaxies stating, "I want everyone to know that it was not SWG that led him to take his life. He has been troubled for some time. There were a lot of personal issues that tore at him"