Ask the developer a question!

[bugfartboy]

So I wasn't the only one that was thoroughly disgusted? That's a small relief. I'm curious. Do you think that there's any way that this could avoid being ruled as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court?

[CraigStern]

Yes; there are a million ways that a legal challenge to this could fail. The court could rule that a given set of plaintiffs has no standing; it could invoke the constitutional avoidance doctrine to duck the issue; or, worst of all, the court could simply decide that (for whatever reason) indefinite detention of American citizens without trial is justified under the circumstances. After all, they gave the thumbs-up to Japanese internment camps in Korematsu v. United States on the basis of military necessity, and without requiring even a smidgeon of evidence that the war effort really required it. Koresmatsu, perversely, has technically never been overruled. Given the way Roberts and Scalia's dissents read in Boumediene v. Bush, I would not be surprised to see them defer to the executive branch over an argument that indefinite detention is a matter of military necessity. The real question is whether Justice Kennedy would go for it, since he's the moderate "swing vote" on the court. I tend to think he wouldn't, but he's not always the brightest light (see: Citizens United v. FEC), so it's hard to say for sure.

tl;dr version:

the Supreme Court screws up sometimes. This could easily end up being one of those times.

[SmartyPants]

Does Fishing for Thoughts: A Scanner's Guide to Telepathy do anything?

[CraigStern]

Depends on your stats. If you have extremely high Aptitude, no. Otherwise, it increases your Aptitude.

[ArtDrake]

What's "tl;dr"?

[Duskling]

What's "tl;dr"?

"Too long; didn't read."

[SmartyPants]

Why won't Al'Salaam stop calling me "Sir"?

Now a real question:
Do you think it is acceptable to have the U.S. Department of Justice seek court orders against websites outside U.S. jurisdiction who are actively infringing on copyrights?

[CraigStern]

That's a pretty broad question. That's like asking, "Do you think people should have to respond to subpoenas?" The answer here is yes, so long as the target is a signatory to the Berne convention. A court order, like a subpoena, is just a means of exercising authority, and the Berne convention (as I understand it) makes countries beholden to each others' copyright laws for works originating within their borders. I haven't studied this particular issue in much depth, though, so I could be wrong.

The bigger problem with SOPA/PIPA* is, what's contained in the order--and has the subject of the order had a meaningful opportunity to get its case heard beforehand? There's also the problem of how foreign and domestic sites are distinguished in the legislation. You might want to give this a read.


*I assume that's the subject that's gotten you suddenly curious in this issue.

[SmartyPants]

I personally don't like SOPA/PIPA because it gives too much power to the government.  The powers are too broad and can easily be abused by the executive branch for political purposes.  Internet piracy should be stopped, but SOPA/PIPA is not the way to do it.

I was just wondering if you were against any form of internet regulation or if you just against the current SOBA/PIPA bills.

[CraigStern]

The answer to both of those is no: I am neither categorically against all possible regulation of the internet, nor am I limiting my opposition to future proposed regulations solely to SOPA/PIPA. When other regulations are proposed in the future, I will evaluate them on their own merits.

[Zackirus]

What do you think is more important when designing a flash game: appealing to the larger group of less committed fans; or, appealing to the smaller group of more committed fans?

[CraigStern]

It depends on your priorities as a developer, and on your business model.

With Flash specifically, if you're releasing a browser game and getting ad money (or a sponsorship, which in turn relies on ad money), you want a large number of unique views. Those are what generate ad revenue. So in those cases, it's better to appeal to a huge number of people than to earn the adoration of a relatively small group of fans.

If, however, you're relying on in-game transactions, charging a significant up-front price for the game, or building an IP that you intend to use for the long haul, then it's really handy if your players are deeply committed.

There are other factors too, such as what genre your game is in and how much competition it has. You're unlikely to garner a fanatical fanbase with a Bejeweled clone, for example, so you're best off aiming for mass appeal.

As for me, well, I think it's pretty obvious that I'm most comfortable making interesting games for a limited audience. ;)

[SmartyPants]

Will we ever learn the fate of Bubashka?

[CraigStern]

Anything is possible. There are a lot of things I want to have in the game that will either make it in or not depending solely on how long it takes me to finish coding the final boss battle and put together the final mission.

[SmartyPants]

Why was Tastidian and Nelis's stats and attacks hidden from the Hero?  Where the shadowling using advance counter-scanning or something?