Jeff Freeman pulls the plug

on his blog!

Yeah, his blog is gone. I thought it was a technical issue but it seems that he just couldn’t suffer anymore all the players using what he posted to squeal and rage against his work on SWG.

His last post should have been something along these lines:

Interesting factoid, I couldn’t even post THIS without someone linking to it and taking about SWG.

Honestly, this blog’s days are numbered…

Where “THIS” corresponds to a link (now broken) to one of his recent posts where he wrote some general design thoughts.

All the drama originated from here even if it was probably just the last strain on something that was bothering him already from a while.

Honestly I totally understand his reaction even if I don’t approve it. In the last weeks I read some of his posts on the official boards and despite he was trying to post constructively, giving feedback on some bugs and even asking some collaboration to nail down the problems, all his attempts were rewarded just with constant flames, personal attacks and open trolling. Those boards are now a total clusterfuck bordering the civil war. He is surely having a lot of pressure on himself and, being only human, he could suffer these reactions only for so long. Nothing that truly surprises me. We have seen these sort of things already many, many times even if not pushed at these levels.

Beyond these extremes I still have the same point of view in regard of developers having blogs or writing on the forums:

You cannot force a developer to speak as you cannot force him to shut up. This must be a personal choice.

His choice was that having a blog wasn’t anymore useful for anyone if not to feed the trolls in a situation already beyond what’s tolerable and civil.

I also think that game designers must show some more personality and be resistant to criticism, of every kind. I believe being in the eye of the storm and still enjoying every second of it is a fundamental part of that role.

I still prefer those who suffer criticism than those who are indifferent to it, though.

Yes, (being a) game design(er) is hard ;)

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