This is really sad news. My prayers goes to his family and friends.

Jeff was the only one from the NGE team that had the balls to come forward and explain and apologize for the NGE. He earned my repect by doing that.

Thank you Jeff.

In a desire to respect Jeff and his family, and the intention of this thread, I've begun another thread to talk about assigning blame in the face of tragedy.  You can read it here if you like:

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/205871

sympathy to his to family, was a pretty forward guy , came here answerd questions,  rip dundee

I respect Jeff because he went out of his way to engage us.  Took the bullets, but still pressed forward.  Talked to me when he had no real need to.  And proved to me that he really HAD learned the lesson of the NGE, it wasn't just posturing like Smed's non apology apologies.

He deserved all the respect in the world for that, as the ONLY person involved with the NGE man (or woman) enough to admit he'd been wrong and wish he could take it back.  Look, everyone makes mistakes.  America is a forgiving country, we respect and even revere people who make mistakes, take their second chance and make good on it, we ROOT for it even.  We don't like to believe the worst of people, at least I don't.

Jeff was 1,000X the man John Smedley is.

I guess it is true that only the good die young.

I'm in the middle of taken a break from SWG...actually I think I have moved on just for the fact that after 5 years, it's just time to play other games and focus on other things.   I rarely even browse the forums anymore (once every couple weeks now) so needless to say, I don't stay up to date with the news.

When I saw today that Jeff took his own life...it shocked me.  I really wasn't that familiar with him though.  I remember people posting that he was basically brainchild of the NGE way back and that was about it.  Then I read an article about his death on gamepolitics.com ( http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/10/03/star-wars-galaxies-developer-commits-suicide ) and in there was a link to escaptistmagazine.com: ( http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/op-ed/801-SWG-NGE-Crying-Freeman ) which had an article about his true involvement with the NGE and quotes and links to his explanations on this very forum.

I took an hour or two reading over all his posts, laughing at quite a many, but also realizing I was wrong to judge him the way I did, like so many, based on the false information spread by those who didn't understand.  I'm amazed at the fact he was able to keep his composure after being bombarded with posts of hate and anger in which he constantly had to repeat himself over and over again.   I found myself reading his words and developing a high respect for the man...only to have myself remind me that he is gone now.  It was somewhat surreal.  However I understand he is no longer in pain and I hope those who were in his life find the peace they need. 

Some think the constant hate he received from the misconception that he was solely responsible for the NGE still had a minor part to play with his decision to take his life but I disagree.  When I was police, majority of my interaction with people was them telling me how awful I am.  How I'm purposely singling them out for a variety of reasons (I'm racist, sexist, a wimp, a loser, etc) and called every single curse word you can imagine, insults, threats, etc...it's a very thankless job.  People believe that no matter what wrong they are doing, they are not to blame.  But to this day,  I never took any of that home, and I heard this stuff pretty much everyday.  Never once did anything they say, any of their insults, get or mean anything to me because they were just strangers who had no idea who I really was.   So I would like to believe that Jeff was able to do the same.  I'm sure whatever reasons he had to do what he thought he needed to do are far beyond our understanding.  

With all being said, here's to you Jeff.  A good man who went to early.  Though many miss him we know he is resting peacefully where there are no deadlines, bugs, or numbers to worry about.   He's now free to be what he needs to be.  Take care Mr. Freeman.

Offending post was removed. Erasing my post.

Originally posted by hubertgrove

I wonder if the thread would have been so large and so full of warm thoughts towards Jeff Freeman if it had been not about him but about his former colleague Dan 'Om Nom Nom' Rubenfield?

Mr. Rubenfield is a complete douche bag, but I don't wish death upon him, or for his family to suffer.  I have the same opinion of the Smed, I don't wish death upon him, or for his family to suffer in any way, but I do wish he'd find a job in an industry that would limit the amount of damage he is doing to the MMO industry.

Mr. Freeman's death is a tragedy, more for his family than anyone else.  His wife and kids never did anything to anyone, as far as I am aware, so I can't see why anyone would take any sort of pleasure out of the tragedy of Mr. Freeman's death.

None of this changes the type of company SOE is, so anyone trying to manipulate this tragedy to create sympathy for SOE or its employees is nothing more than scum.

It's a crime when talentless jerks like Rubenfield are able to show up as producer of SWG, utterly destroy it, then depart whilst the mess he made lingers on.

As I've said, I personally made my peace with Freeman a long time ago, he didn't HAVE to go out of his way to explain what happened, how, why, and what he learned from it, but he did.  No other NGE figure has stepped up and done the same, and Smed, Rubbenfield, and Torres deserve all the scorn we can give them unless and until they do so.

I don't wish death or any harm upon those three.  But I do want them publicly humiliated and blackballed from the industry unless they do.

Originally posted by precuorbust

It's a crime when talentless jerks like Rubenfield are able to show up as producer of SWG, utterly destroy it, then depart whilst the mess he made lingers on.

As I've said, I personally made my peace with Freeman a long time ago, he didn't HAVE to go out of his way to explain what happened, how, why, and what he learned from it, but he did.  No other NGE figure has stepped up and done the same, and Smed, Rubbenfield, and Torres deserve all the scorn we can give them unless and until they do so.

I don't wish death or any harm upon those three.  But I do want them publicly humiliated and blackballed from the industry unless they do.

 

 

That isnt enough. We still dont get the old SWG back, and the emulator has a long way to go before being fully functional. If they arent going to help bring the old SWG back, then I hope they suffer an equal amount to the combined amount that customers have suffered.

{ Mod Edit }

Originally posted by Cainurk

Originally posted by precuorbust

It's a crime when talentless jerks like Rubenfield are able to show up as producer of SWG, utterly destroy it, then depart whilst the mess he made lingers on.

As I've said, I personally made my peace with Freeman a long time ago, he didn't HAVE to go out of his way to explain what happened, how, why, and what he learned from it, but he did.  No other NGE figure has stepped up and done the same, and Smed, Rubbenfield, and Torres deserve all the scorn we can give them unless and until they do so.

I don't wish death or any harm upon those three.  But I do want them publicly humiliated and blackballed from the industry unless they do. 

 

That isnt enough. We still dont get the old SWG back, and the emulator has a long way to go before being fully functional. If they arent going to help bring the old SWG back, then I hope they suffer an equal amount to the combined amount that customers have suffered.

{ Mod Edit }

 

Oh, they have suffered, and a lot of it has been BECAUSE of the NGE.  Look at SOE, they had over a million subs back in November 2005 across all their games.  Today they have, what, 350-400K across all their games?

SOE also competes with raw nuclear waste, lawyers, and members of the US Congress for least popular.

It's so bad that when other publishers get in bed with them those publishers LOSE business because of it.

Smed even has suffered.  The man is literally the most hated person in the whole MMORPG industry, maybe not by the developers (which would be bad) but worst of all, by MMO CUSTOMERS.  If any site had the guts to have a fan award category for "Public Enemy #1" Smed would win hands down, by such a huge margin that it wouldn't even be a competition. 

IMHO, he hangs on to his SOE job because he's unemployable in the rest of the industry, hiring Smed would mean failure simply on his reputation for ruining games, releasing unfinished junk (which he had well before the CUNGE fiasco) and shitting on players.  Any other MMO company he managed would immediately become "SOE II".

As for the others...  Torres may still work at LEC, don't know, but I doubt he has much of a role like he had.  none of the others have produced anything that you could remotely call successful and likely won't.

Are YOU going to buy or play anything with Rubenfield, Cao, Smed, or Torres in the credits?

Nope, and neither will I.  Neither will thousands of others.  Simply put these people are "out" of the MMO industry whether they realize it or not.

And not just because of word of mouth and the SWG vets.  The fact that every single one of them are incompetent fools alone ensures that anything they touch will be Fail.

RIP.

i misread this as jeff goldbloom....i was very upset.

but still RIP.

Originally posted by precuorbust

Originally posted by Cainurk

Originally posted by precuorbust

It's a crime when talentless jerks like Rubenfield are able to show up as producer of SWG, utterly destroy it, then depart whilst the mess he made lingers on.

As I've said, I personally made my peace with Freeman a long time ago, he didn't HAVE to go out of his way to explain what happened, how, why, and what he learned from it, but he did.  No other NGE figure has stepped up and done the same, and Smed, Rubbenfield, and Torres deserve all the scorn we can give them unless and until they do so.

I don't wish death or any harm upon those three.  But I do want them publicly humiliated and blackballed from the industry unless they do. 

 

That isnt enough. We still dont get the old SWG back, and the emulator has a long way to go before being fully functional. If they arent going to help bring the old SWG back, then I hope they suffer an equal amount to the combined amount that customers have suffered.

{ Mod Edit }

 

 

Oh, they have suffered, and a lot of it has been BECAUSE of the NGE.  Look at SOE, they had over a million subs back in November 2005 across all their games.  Today they have, what, 350-400K across all their games?

SOE also competes with raw nuclear waste, lawyers, and members of the US Congress for least popular.

It's so bad that when other publishers get in bed with them those publishers LOSE business because of it.

Smed even has suffered.  The man is literally the most hated person in the whole MMORPG industry, maybe not by the developers (which would be bad) but worst of all, by MMO CUSTOMERS.  If any site had the guts to have a fan award category for "Public Enemy #1" Smed would win hands down, by such a huge margin that it wouldn't even be a competition. 

IMHO, he hangs on to his SOE job because he's unemployable in the rest of the industry, hiring Smed would mean failure simply on his reputation for ruining games, releasing unfinished junk (which he had well before the CUNGE fiasco) and shitting on players.  Any other MMO company he managed would immediately become "SOE II".

As for the others...  Torres may still work at LEC, don't know, but I doubt he has much of a role like he had.  none of the others have produced anything that you could remotely call successful and likely won't.

Are YOU going to buy or play anything with Rubenfield, Cao, Smed, or Torres in the credits?

Nope, and neither will I.  Neither will thousands of others.  Simply put these people are "out" of the MMO industry whether they realize it or not.

And not just because of word of mouth and the SWG vets.  The fact that every single one of them are incompetent fools alone ensures that anything they touch will be Fail.

 

Yeah. Right. They are "out" of the industry. That still doesnt make ME feel any better.

Like I said (and was edited, but hopefully not before I got a few views) - if the rest of this super spirit squad offs themselves, I doubt anybody in the gaming community would care. Because to ME, never making a game again and dying are the exact same thing - you get out of my life forever.

The latter just gives me a little grin.

I absolutely disagree. 

I want those people OUT of this industry so they cannot harm others as they harmed us.  That doesn't mean I want harm done to them at all.  After all, the world needs ditch diggers and fast food managers too.

Odd that most here were usually baashing this guy to no end and now make him out to be a saint.  I never got that upset about theNGE, just didnt like it and moved on.  But some of you were literally calling for his and other devs head on a platter, and now act so upset about his passing.  Rather shallow of most of you I must say.

Originally posted by yugyug

Odd that most here were usually baashing this guy to no end and now make him out to be a saint.  I never got that upset about theNGE, just didnt like it and moved on.  But some of you were literally calling for his and other devs head on a platter, and now act so upset about his passing.  Rather shallow of most of you I must say.

I don't make him out to be a saint.  He did some bad stuff with his involvement in the NGE.  He was right there with the others pushing for it, designing parts of it, etc.  But amongst compassionate, civilized people there is a thing you might have heard of, forgiveness.  Freeman alone amongst the "NGE bastard gang" at SOE admitted his role, admitted he was wrong, stated in VOLUMES that he understood why it was wrong and why it was wrong even had it worked, genuinely apologized and actually ASKED for forgiveness.

None of the other guys (Rubbenfield, Cao, Torres, Smed, McDaniel et all) have done anything of the sort.

Cao's last words amounted to a "F-U for ruining our perfect game concept you a-holes!", Rubbenfield much the same just less confrontational.

Originally posted by yugyug

Odd that most here were usually baashing this guy to no end and now make him out to be a saint.  I never got that upset about theNGE, just didnt like it and moved on.  But some of you were literally calling for his and other devs head on a platter, and now act so upset about his passing.  Rather shallow of most of you I must say.

I keep hearing this saint thing. Would you care to point to exact posts where this occurs?

The running theme I see and read here is that he screwed up, he apologized and we are sorry for his passing. Especially for his family. Well, save for the occasional troll post that seeks to feed a deep psychological need to draw attention to oneself in any misdirected way possible.

Originally posted by kefkah

Originally posted by yugyug

Odd that most here were usually baashing this guy to no end and now make him out to be a saint.  I never got that upset about theNGE, just didnt like it and moved on.  But some of you were literally calling for his and other devs head on a platter, and now act so upset about his passing.  Rather shallow of most of you I must say.

 

I keep hearing this saint thing. Would you care to point to exact posts where this occurs?

The running theme I see and read here is that he screwed up, he apologized and we are sorry for his passing. Especially for his family. Well, save for the occasional troll post that seeks to feed a deep psychological need to draw attention to oneself in any misdirected way possible.

I completely agree. There seem to be a few that do not bother to read the posts in the thread before making the same uninformed statements. Rather ignorant of them I must say.

"Yeah. Right. They are "out" of the industry. That still doesnt make ME feel any better.

Like I said (and was edited, but hopefully not before I got a few views) - if the rest of this super spirit squad offs themselves, I doubt anybody in the gaming community would care. Because to ME, never making a game again and dying are the exact same thing - you get out of my life forever.

The latter just gives me a little grin."
 

Classy. This is what I am talking about.  "if the rest of this super spirit squad offs themselves, I doubt anybody in the gaming community would care." 

Freeman was right in that group for the majority of SWG vets out there. While some of you here may have corresponded with him and "forgave him", whatever that means, you are in no wy the majority, not even remotely close. 

You literally wish someone dead because of a game?  A game. 

Some of you really need to get a F'ing life.

I dont wish the guy making my hamburger dead when he screws up my order.  I dont wish the autoworker dead whe my car breaks down, but you inbreds are making jokes about when someone "offs themselves", all because they ruined your GAME.

Originally posted by yugyug

Freeman was right in that group for the majority of SWG vets out there. While some of you here may have corresponded with him and "forgave him", whatever that means, you are in no wy the majority, not even remotely close.

So you upstage utter stupidity with blind ignorance?  Nice job.  If you'd spent more than 5 minutes on this board, even in this thread, you'd know the majority of people did not wish harm on him or his family.  A couple of raving lunatics come out of the woodwork, and you want to paint everyone with the same brush.  What you're trying to do is remove a legitimate grievance by calling everyone a psycho.  I believe there is a fanboi rule for that somewhere.

you'd know the majority of people did not wish harm on him or his family

Wrong.  I wasnt blind to the past 2 years of bashing and hatred directed at the Dev team at SOE, were you?  Or you just dont want to admit it now? 

The guy, as well as other devs were bashed to no end, still are.  People wanted them dead, out of a job, careers ruined etc.  Paint it however you want, the few of you on this board who "forgave him" do not represent the majority of bloodthirsty tools out there who had a hate for him and the dev team that was downright scary.  Again, its just a game.

As for a legitimate grievance, all I am saying is many of you were the same wishing ill will on him, deny it if you like, but it true.

as for fanboi commnet, not really sure what you are talking about to be honest,  /shrug