Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Jeff Freeman takes his own life

Suicides make me uncomfortable. Not only on a personal level, but also from a writer's point of view. There appears to be some convention to report suicides like any other tragic deaths, treating it as a mental illness leading to death, not unlike a cancer causing somebody to die. I didn't know Jeff "Dundee" Freeman personally, but I did read his various blogs, and it is hard for me to believe that there was no free will involved in his death. Does that make his death less tragic, if that was what he really wanted?

So I can only wish Jeff a heartfelt "rest in peace". For a more personal obituary you need to read Raph's. I don't even want to talk about that whole unfortunate SWG NGE episode, for which Jeff was unfairly blamed, even if his family said that wasn't a factor in his death. What I can contribute is a quote of something I wrote about Jeff in the past: "I can't decide whether Jeff is way more intelligent than I am, or whether he is plain crazy. Either option scares me a bit. He has this absolutely brilliant satirical style, which is at times really, really hard to understand." That was when he proved the correlation between the number of pirate MMORPGs and the increasing real-world piracy, thereby ending the videogame violence debate. I think it is best to remember him as that brilliant satirist, without dwelling too much on whereto being misunderstood can lead.

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