I happened upon this and knew many people would take interest. Some of you may want to know, and many are aware he was a developer for Star Wars Galaxies. At times he was also the figurehead/scapegoat for some of the game's modification: unfair as those accusations were. Since I feel Solaria is a community place, it's only fitting one of the biggest people to help shape my SWG experiences gets tribute as others who passed through and passed on.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/posts/list.m?topic_id=756313
[link since defunct]
His brother got word out via a variety of MMO forums:
"Some of you know who Jeff Freeman was; he was the lead designer at Sony when the major changes were made to SWG that left so many upset. Although it was not his fault he took the brunt of the criticisms, attacks, and even death threats.
Some of you may have even known him back in the UO days as Dundee, Guild Master of the Nameless Ones on Lake Superior and later the administrator of the private UO server World of Dreams.
I am not sure why I have chosen this forum to share this news; it may be that I would have loved to see Jeff build the game that he really wanted to, if he was running a private server. You see I am his brother. On September 24th Jeff took his own life. I am not angry at him or anyone else, sad yes, like so many others I feel a bit of guilt but I love my brother and I am thankful that he is no longer suffering."
Obituary:
Some additional links and places to find food for thought...
Tribute/eulogy by Raph Koster:
Article via Escape Magazine:
EDIT:
Sadly, it seems his blog has gone defunct since his death. I was hoping someone tried to preserve it somehow, but alas. Maybe his brother was able to archive some of this, but I have no clue as of now.
Let me know if there's info.
On a related note, his "memory book" has expired as well. It takes paltry amount to keep it open forever: as is $80US. That is less than most people spend to play the average MMO for a year.
