The fact that the space shuttle exploded a few years ago didn't help. And that was designed to be reused unlike the Russian and Chinese disposable rockets which are dumped into ocean/left to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. And then of course, theres the recent accident with pieces of the second shuttle falling off during launch. THATS going to hurt U.S. works in outer space.
So now every new beta application is going to be over stating what hours they play or the person submitting it will try to *guess* the *magic combination* of inputs to produce the highest % chance of getting into beta. Congratulations Sigil; you just flooded your beta application pool with a bunch of false information.
Actually some MMO players generally UNDERESTIMATE what hours they play, when and how powerful/weak their PC rigs are. You have to consider the users who stay logged on 24/7 'because they can' or because they run AFK player-run shops or whatever. If the servers stay up 24/7, theres someone out there who will stay online 24/7.
How much work is it to review countless beta applications? I have no solid numbers, but there is no way they can convince me that it doesn't take away from the game development.
Plug data into an Excel worksheet, randomly pick X number out and thats Group 1. Sort the data by 'average time spent playing games' and thats Group 2. Etc, etc, etc. Any programmer who can write a MMO game can write a program that can automate this.
The idea of NDAs is also hard for me to understand. World of Warcraft had no problem without one.
Actually, WoW didn't have a NDA because that wasn't a beta. It was free marketing. And the 'closed beta' prior to it DID have a NDA. Given how poorly the servers did at launch day, the fact that they SERIOUSLY did not take that last 'beta' seriously is clear.
WoW beta only suffered from too much interest, but Blizzard did a remarkable job of eventually getting 500,000 testers online.
Bolding by me.
Sigil will be balancing this game as any other MMORPG... over time!
Yeah other MMO games like WoW and FFXI tried before and nearly killed themselves. WoW's player run economy is a joke since anyone who can use a keyboard could craft and all but the most extreme basic materials were sold by NPCs. On top of that people were hitting the level 50 limit within weeks of the games launch and the best equipment is all obtained from time consuming, pro-hardcore instances with drop rates on par with winning the lottery. Its the exact opposite with FFXI. Leveling up in FFXI is considered to be the worst 'grind' in out of every other MMO out there, crafting is a near impossibility without learning economics 101 and accounting 101 not to mention the Chinese 'gilfarmers' screwing around with inflation. The best equipment either costs more money than your day job's wages or is dropped from an impossible to solo monster and probably has a bad drop rate.
The general rule of thumb for MMOs is that time does not cure all. Give WoW a year and people will be bitching about lack of things to do after hitting level 60 on every class and race combination. Give EQ2 a badly designed economy and one year later SOE will start acting desperately... oh oops, that already happened.
If you play a MMO to become the #1 uber-l33t player on your server/shard/realm/world, then no you're not going to find a MMO that fits that defination.
If you play a MMO to play with your friends at your own pace, your own way, then most MMOs will fit that defination.
Gold/credit/gil farmers cater to the first group. They're the ones who want the uber-l33t gear, the level 20/50/60/75 characters with all the skills, spells and special abilities unlocked. The second group generally cares more about the journey rather than the ending. The line between the two groups obviously cross, but for the most part its pretty distinct.
Wouldn't you say that it was more or less 'too late' for Jack Thompson to withdraw his proposal? I mean, the game/mod is more or less done (the game is just a graphic overhaul) so wouldn't withdrawing his proposal be a breach of contract since GTA Junkies (the creators of the game/mod) have fulfulled most/all of the requirements? (They only really need is a license and/or permission from Rockstar to use the game engine and they could start wide scale distribution as a full version game. As a mod, they could release as a free add-on right now.) If the mod/game wasn't finished, I could understand it (say the contract wasn't fulfilled within the allocated time). But AFTER the game was finished?
Long story short : Can you tell a company that you're not going to pay them for working on something AFTER they finish building it?
These days, most types of games need good production values as well as a good concept. Hardly any game can get away with simple graphics like Tetris.
With development costs being so high on consoles and PCs, why not just develop for a handheld or a cellphone? Bad graphics? Chalk it up to weak hardware. Bad design? Blaim it on limited interface. Bad execution? Release it at a budgeted price and may the buyer beware.
Actually, almost all educational services, medical services and public works have mostly been privatized in Africa (read: laissez faire). The results being a vastly poor citizenry which can't afford beyond food, let alone pay for a (private) school education, pay for expensive high tech medical services (HIV vaccines and medication), or something as simple as indoor plumbing (you have to pay to have the pipes connected to your home.)
Egypt and South Africa are the exceptions. Egypt is more or less accepted as a Middle Eastern country for its proximity and oil deposits. South Africa was largely dominated by a rich, all-white minority until recently. Other than those two, you'd be hard pressed to find a success story in Africa. We all know about the failure called Somalia. The Congo, Kenya, Liberia and Algeria are all fighting wars/conflicts/civil wars/civilian unrest. And then theres the fact that you have unreported 'spillovers', 'border skrimishs' and 'civil disputes' which more or less ends with a no-name, no-importance village disappearing from the map.
Great Britain and France used this method of 'crude propaganda' from the early 1600s in Great Britain to the late 1700s in France. If the Chinese got over this cultual advance centuries, it makes you wonder what were the Europeans thinking so late in the game...
And then of course theres the laundry list of reasons why it didn't last as long in Europe as it did in China (Industrial revolution, colonization of North and South America, religious intolerance, American followed by the French revolution, etc.)
The Opium Wars, the European imperialism, the turning of Chinese against Chinese citizens followed by the invasion of the Japanese in World War II didn't help either. The fact that this dates back to the early 1800s (read: Industrial Revolution) doesn't help either.
By the time you get to the late 1940s with World War II ending, you've got a nation literally divided upon itself: western China was largely untouched, but eastern China was a demolished warzone not to the fact that Nationalist Chinese forces were already fighting Communist Chinese forces. There hasn't been a stable government in roughly 100 years (all prior ones were more or less puppet governments after losing the Opium Wars). And the country STILL doesn't industrialize until the late 1900s (and even then, some can say they're still technically a developing country). Given the horrid mess Europeans left Africa (and to a lesser extent, South America), its no suprise China has become a Communist, censored nation more or less despising the rest of the world. (Europe and North America exploited it, Asia has repeated tried to destroy it, Australia SHOULD be its best friend but isn't and Africa is a giant war raging example of what 'could' happen if they try switching to a capitalist imposed Western system as so many African countries have done and collapsed.)
You can chalk this one up to the fact that almost all modern history is written from a Western point of view (read: European and occasionally Middle Eastern outlook).
Who invented gunpowder first? The Chinese (although primarily used for bombs and fireworks.) Who developed rule by divine right first? The Chinese (see: Chinese Mandate of Heaven.) Who developed (or adopted) the idea of education as a high priority for all its citizens? The Chinese (see: Confucius.)
Who 'discovered' North and South America first? The 'Indians'/'Native Americans', Inca, Mayans, and others.
Could Microsoft ever open its code and make more money from support than developement?
No. Microsoft owns a monopoly on the OS business. Giving up their position to do support would do nothing but result in huge profit losses since they'd have to hire THOUSANDS of on-site 'technical support' people for the MILLIONS of users out there. Give a good financial reason why and they'd consider it.
What's up with Microsoft and Linux? Seems like you guys have the same goal of wanting to write geat software for the benefit of everyone. Why not collaborate?
Because their business goals are mutually exclusive. Oh and the whole 'you will not get paid for writing this massive program which millions of users will use for FREE' isn't something employees like to hear. Money still makes the world go round.
Microsoft was recently sued by 20 states and found guilty of violatling the Clayton and Sherman anti trust acts. What have you done to rectify that?
Nothing. Linux still isn't in position to topple Windows as a major OS. You don't shoot the horse pulling the buggy until you can afford a car. Try again when Linux becomes mass market feasible.
It's still not possible to buy an MS-free computer from many vendords. Why? Will you personally pledge you will put no pressure on an vendors to sell "microsoft only" systems.
Dell recently started selling Windows-less PC. If it catches on, you've won. If it doesn't, then it means the market for non-Windows only PCs isn't ready yet. Try again later.
If anything I'd ask Bill Gates, what was the reasoning for deciding to make the anti-virus program of Windows Vista non-standard despite the numerous complaints against viruses in older Windows versions? Also, to what level of guarantee would customers recieve should they sign for anti-virus protection with Microsoft? Finally, for what reason has Microsoft decided to withhold the source code of the now defunct code of Windows 1.0, 3.0, 3.1, 95 (and maybe 98, but thats kind of pushing it)?
Brochures being sent to major retailers like Best Buy prominently describe the 360's ability to double as a DVD player, play music from an MP3 player through a television's speakers and even display digital photos on a TV.
Didn't Sony do this with the PS2 when it first launched and a huge majority of users just ended up using it as a DVD player or PS1 playing machine for the first year?
Instead Europe is suggesting a way of allowing countries to express their position on internet issues, though the details on how this would happen are vague.
You have to say politically correct. Nations such as China would censor the internet in order to 'express their position on internet issues'. And instead of "we give a flying fuck what the hell they're doing to their own people", you say '[...] the details on how this would happen are vague.'
Actually the fundamental problem with the "USA is bigger than Switzerland, therefore it will not work" argument is the fact that campaigning is an impossibility on a national scale if you're not already apart of the ultra elite.
A domestic flight within the U.S.A. costs roughly $500 USD for a business class seat (assuming no special benefits). Lets say you stay in a 'modest' hotel for $200 a night spending $100 on food and other expenses. Multiply that by at least 48 times (48 states, costs of travel insanely simplified) and just by travelling around the country you spend $38,400 just going to each state. Add the costs of building a political platform ($1 million), political donations ($500,000), TV/newspaper/magazine ads (get kickbacks, $500,000), and you break the 2 million mark just turning the hype generator.
Can't drive across country, too much land, too little time. Can't campaign in just one state, you'd never get enough votes. Radio doesn't reach enough people, same with TV and the internet. A 'direct democracy' works on a microscale (state/province/Switzerland sized area), but any area larger than India, more hostile than Israel, or full of tough terrain as (North and South) Korea and it doesn't work.
Its hard to say based on how little was said in the report. But the most logical idea is that the animal was running to the left (the report clearly states this) to escape and given the lack of thick, dense trees (look at the trees in the background), the hunter fired with a heavy caliber rifle. Bullet goes through the back of the arm but doesn't hit bone, so it keeps going and hits the skull. The rifle is TOO powerful for such a target (remember, 80 yards is considered to be short to medium range by shooters) and effectively destroys the skull, body comes crashing to a halt and the head smashes into the ground as a bloody pulp (it got 3 leaps off, so it was probably moving fairly quickly).
I've been to arcades in California where a game of Time Crisis costs $2 USD per game with the difficulty cranked up to max. The fact that some games no longer rely on pure skill (fighting games are a great way to lose money fast if you don't spend hours studying the moves at home) doesn't help either. And then of course, there are the games which are extremely alien in their designs (Virtual-On's dual sticks control? Golf games that use a trackball?).
The survey also pointed out that 75 percent of teens say their interest in video games is declining and 78 percent indicated they spent less time playing in 2005.
2005 hasn't been the golden year for video gaming in the first place. Halo 2 came out '04, Ninja Gaiden Black is nothing more than a 'gold edition', almost every successfully selling PS2 is a sequal of some time (I [heart] Katamari anyone?) and Nintendo is (still) off doing their own thing with slow, timed releases. PC gaming hasn't been much better with the RTS scene only getting a Dawn of War expansion, Guild Wars is arguably a niche game, Battlefield 2 is a buggy mess, and the only other highly noted games being released for the rest of the year is Serious Sam 2 which could suffer from lack of advertisement and Quake 4 which Doom 3 haters may end up passing up.
Why couldn't more events like this happen in MMO worlds?
Because WoW has one of the weakest, newbie designed death systems in all MMOs. When you die, all you lose is durability in your equipment which can be repaired. No experience loss. No major monetary loss (unless you like die a lot and stop doing quests.) If you're extremely lucky, there isn't much time loss either.
If a plague like this happened where there was XP loss for each death, there would be hell to pay given the sheer times low level players would die to this plague.
You'd see how incredibly offensive it is. It has the image of a teenage male wearing a gray crown of "thorns" with the PS1/2 controller symbols along it. For those who aren't informed on Christianity, the crown of thorns refers to the crown Jesus was forced to wear while being tortured, while carrying his cross and while being crucified.
Thats generally the problem with the book. Put Ender's Game in the sci-fi section and its a total piece of crap (the only things sci-fi in it are the formacs/buggers, FTL travel and the ansible. Everything else is pretty much ~50 years into the future technology.)
View it as a theorical view of the future (Brainwashing child soldiers? Total control/censorship of the freedom of press? Earth suddenly turning into a giant militaristic society? Strictly controlled birth rate?) and you could put Ender's Game down right next to George Orwell's 1984.
Course the fact that Orson Scott Card published TWO series of books that had little to do with the original, besides being in the same universe, tends to cloud the judgement of most fans of the original.
This was in 1962, so we're talking about vacuum tubes and electro-mechanical systems. Modern semiconductors would be significantly more sensitive to EMP effects.
Or for the tech dummies/Cold War survivors, if a 1960s nuclear device had effects of 1500 km, imagine how far an early 2000 nuclear device could reach. Also, don't forget Starfish Prime was an experiment and was never intended to actually 'disable' Hawaii so chances are the local citizens were warned and somewhat prepared. (Chances are they probably detonated too high for maximum effect in order to prevent radiation poisoning.)
Its pretty much sounds like a 'he said, they said' argument. Bush officials deny it, Thompson claims it. Given Thompson's record and the sheer political flak and financial loss that would follow from such a law states that this is B.S. though.
"Criminal" crimes have also changed a LOT since the 1980s. Yelling at your wife could get you arrested for "verbal abuse" (lowering self-esteem) and sending a kid to bed without dinner could be argued as "child abuse" (intentional starvation). Throw in a bunch of new anti-sexist laws, anti-child abuse laws, and anti-homosexual/racial hate crime laws (all "crimes" that were previously ignored) and crime skyrockets.
Slashdot Mirror
The fact that the space shuttle exploded a few years ago didn't help. And that was designed to be reused unlike the Russian and Chinese disposable rockets which are dumped into ocean/left to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. And then of course, theres the recent accident with pieces of the second shuttle falling off during launch. THATS going to hurt U.S. works in outer space.
Actually some MMO players generally UNDERESTIMATE what hours they play, when and how powerful/weak their PC rigs are. You have to consider the users who stay logged on 24/7 'because they can' or because they run AFK player-run shops or whatever. If the servers stay up 24/7, theres someone out there who will stay online 24/7.
How much work is it to review countless beta applications? I have no solid numbers, but there is no way they can convince me that it doesn't take away from the game development.
Plug data into an Excel worksheet, randomly pick X number out and thats Group 1. Sort the data by 'average time spent playing games' and thats Group 2. Etc, etc, etc. Any programmer who can write a MMO game can write a program that can automate this.
The idea of NDAs is also hard for me to understand. World of Warcraft had no problem without one.
Actually, WoW didn't have a NDA because that wasn't a beta. It was free marketing. And the 'closed beta' prior to it DID have a NDA. Given how poorly the servers did at launch day, the fact that they SERIOUSLY did not take that last 'beta' seriously is clear.
WoW beta only suffered from too much interest, but Blizzard did a remarkable job of eventually getting 500,000 testers online.
Bolding by me.
Sigil will be balancing this game as any other MMORPG... over time!
Yeah other MMO games like WoW and FFXI tried before and nearly killed themselves. WoW's player run economy is a joke since anyone who can use a keyboard could craft and all but the most extreme basic materials were sold by NPCs. On top of that people were hitting the level 50 limit within weeks of the games launch and the best equipment is all obtained from time consuming, pro-hardcore instances with drop rates on par with winning the lottery. Its the exact opposite with FFXI. Leveling up in FFXI is considered to be the worst 'grind' in out of every other MMO out there, crafting is a near impossibility without learning economics 101 and accounting 101 not to mention the Chinese 'gilfarmers' screwing around with inflation. The best equipment either costs more money than your day job's wages or is dropped from an impossible to solo monster and probably has a bad drop rate.
The general rule of thumb for MMOs is that time does not cure all. Give WoW a year and people will be bitching about lack of things to do after hitting level 60 on every class and race combination. Give EQ2 a badly designed economy and one year later SOE will start acting desperately... oh oops, that already happened.
If you play a MMO to play with your friends at your own pace, your own way, then most MMOs will fit that defination.
Gold/credit/gil farmers cater to the first group. They're the ones who want the uber-l33t gear, the level 20/50/60/75 characters with all the skills, spells and special abilities unlocked. The second group generally cares more about the journey rather than the ending. The line between the two groups obviously cross, but for the most part its pretty distinct.
Long story short : Can you tell a company that you're not going to pay them for working on something AFTER they finish building it?
With development costs being so high on consoles and PCs, why not just develop for a handheld or a cellphone? Bad graphics? Chalk it up to weak hardware. Bad design? Blaim it on limited interface. Bad execution? Release it at a budgeted price and may the buyer beware.
Egypt and South Africa are the exceptions. Egypt is more or less accepted as a Middle Eastern country for its proximity and oil deposits. South Africa was largely dominated by a rich, all-white minority until recently. Other than those two, you'd be hard pressed to find a success story in Africa. We all know about the failure called Somalia. The Congo, Kenya, Liberia and Algeria are all fighting wars/conflicts/civil wars/civilian unrest. And then theres the fact that you have unreported 'spillovers', 'border skrimishs' and 'civil disputes' which more or less ends with a no-name, no-importance village disappearing from the map.
And then of course theres the laundry list of reasons why it didn't last as long in Europe as it did in China (Industrial revolution, colonization of North and South America, religious intolerance, American followed by the French revolution, etc.)
By the time you get to the late 1940s with World War II ending, you've got a nation literally divided upon itself: western China was largely untouched, but eastern China was a demolished warzone not to the fact that Nationalist Chinese forces were already fighting Communist Chinese forces. There hasn't been a stable government in roughly 100 years (all prior ones were more or less puppet governments after losing the Opium Wars). And the country STILL doesn't industrialize until the late 1900s (and even then, some can say they're still technically a developing country). Given the horrid mess Europeans left Africa (and to a lesser extent, South America), its no suprise China has become a Communist, censored nation more or less despising the rest of the world. (Europe and North America exploited it, Asia has repeated tried to destroy it, Australia SHOULD be its best friend but isn't and Africa is a giant war raging example of what 'could' happen if they try switching to a capitalist imposed Western system as so many African countries have done and collapsed.)
Who invented gunpowder first? The Chinese (although primarily used for bombs and fireworks.)
Who developed rule by divine right first? The Chinese (see: Chinese Mandate of Heaven.)
Who developed (or adopted) the idea of education as a high priority for all its citizens? The Chinese (see: Confucius.)
Who 'discovered' North and South America first? The 'Indians'/'Native Americans', Inca, Mayans, and others.
No. Microsoft owns a monopoly on the OS business. Giving up their position to do support would do nothing but result in huge profit losses since they'd have to hire THOUSANDS of on-site 'technical support' people for the MILLIONS of users out there. Give a good financial reason why and they'd consider it.
What's up with Microsoft and Linux? Seems like you guys have the same goal of wanting to write geat software for the benefit of everyone. Why not collaborate?
Because their business goals are mutually exclusive. Oh and the whole 'you will not get paid for writing this massive program which millions of users will use for FREE' isn't something employees like to hear. Money still makes the world go round.
Microsoft was recently sued by 20 states and found guilty of violatling the Clayton and Sherman anti trust acts. What have you done to rectify that?
Nothing. Linux still isn't in position to topple Windows as a major OS. You don't shoot the horse pulling the buggy until you can afford a car. Try again when Linux becomes mass market feasible.
It's still not possible to buy an MS-free computer from many vendords. Why? Will you personally pledge you will put no pressure on an vendors to sell "microsoft only" systems.
Dell recently started selling Windows-less PC. If it catches on, you've won. If it doesn't, then it means the market for non-Windows only PCs isn't ready yet. Try again later.
If anything I'd ask Bill Gates, what was the reasoning for deciding to make the anti-virus program of Windows Vista non-standard despite the numerous complaints against viruses in older Windows versions? Also, to what level of guarantee would customers recieve should they sign for anti-virus protection with Microsoft? Finally, for what reason has Microsoft decided to withhold the source code of the now defunct code of Windows 1.0, 3.0, 3.1, 95 (and maybe 98, but thats kind of pushing it)?
Didn't Sony do this with the PS2 when it first launched and a huge majority of users just ended up using it as a DVD player or PS1 playing machine for the first year?
You have to say politically correct. Nations such as China would censor the internet in order to 'express their position on internet issues'. And instead of "we give a flying fuck what the hell they're doing to their own people", you say '[...] the details on how this would happen are vague.'
A domestic flight within the U.S.A. costs roughly $500 USD for a business class seat (assuming no special benefits). Lets say you stay in a 'modest' hotel for $200 a night spending $100 on food and other expenses. Multiply that by at least 48 times (48 states, costs of travel insanely simplified) and just by travelling around the country you spend $38,400 just going to each state. Add the costs of building a political platform ($1 million), political donations ($500,000), TV/newspaper/magazine ads (get kickbacks, $500,000), and you break the 2 million mark just turning the hype generator.
Can't drive across country, too much land, too little time. Can't campaign in just one state, you'd never get enough votes. Radio doesn't reach enough people, same with TV and the internet. A 'direct democracy' works on a microscale (state/province/Switzerland sized area), but any area larger than India, more hostile than Israel, or full of tough terrain as (North and South) Korea and it doesn't work.
Its hard to say based on how little was said in the report. But the most logical idea is that the animal was running to the left (the report clearly states this) to escape and given the lack of thick, dense trees (look at the trees in the background), the hunter fired with a heavy caliber rifle. Bullet goes through the back of the arm but doesn't hit bone, so it keeps going and hits the skull. The rifle is TOO powerful for such a target (remember, 80 yards is considered to be short to medium range by shooters) and effectively destroys the skull, body comes crashing to a halt and the head smashes into the ground as a bloody pulp (it got 3 leaps off, so it was probably moving fairly quickly).
I've been to arcades in California where a game of Time Crisis costs $2 USD per game with the difficulty cranked up to max. The fact that some games no longer rely on pure skill (fighting games are a great way to lose money fast if you don't spend hours studying the moves at home) doesn't help either. And then of course, there are the games which are extremely alien in their designs (Virtual-On's dual sticks control? Golf games that use a trackball?).
Who is this 'most of us'? Last time I checked only an extreme minority 'hacked' anything electronic.
2005 hasn't been the golden year for video gaming in the first place. Halo 2 came out '04, Ninja Gaiden Black is nothing more than a 'gold edition', almost every successfully selling PS2 is a sequal of some time (I [heart] Katamari anyone?) and Nintendo is (still) off doing their own thing with slow, timed releases. PC gaming hasn't been much better with the RTS scene only getting a Dawn of War expansion, Guild Wars is arguably a niche game, Battlefield 2 is a buggy mess, and the only other highly noted games being released for the rest of the year is Serious Sam 2 which could suffer from lack of advertisement and Quake 4 which Doom 3 haters may end up passing up.
Because WoW has one of the weakest, newbie designed death systems in all MMOs. When you die, all you lose is durability in your equipment which can be repaired. No experience loss. No major monetary loss (unless you like die a lot and stop doing quests.) If you're extremely lucky, there isn't much time loss either.
If a plague like this happened where there was XP loss for each death, there would be hell to pay given the sheer times low level players would die to this plague.
And by "talking", I'm sure you mean "giving the industry tax deductions and kickbacks." It is all about politics.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050930/tc_nm/italy_ad vert_jesus_dc has an image of the ad, although it is not a perfect scan, it captures the most important part.
2. Everquest was ported from the PC to the PS2 and people didn't bitch then, they won't bitch now.
3. Its arguably the most successful MMORPG after WoW, and unarguably the most successful cross-platform MMO game there is.
View it as a theorical view of the future (Brainwashing child soldiers? Total control/censorship of the freedom of press? Earth suddenly turning into a giant militaristic society? Strictly controlled birth rate?) and you could put Ender's Game down right next to George Orwell's 1984.
Course the fact that Orson Scott Card published TWO series of books that had little to do with the original, besides being in the same universe, tends to cloud the judgement of most fans of the original.
Or for the tech dummies/Cold War survivors, if a 1960s nuclear device had effects of 1500 km, imagine how far an early 2000 nuclear device could reach. Also, don't forget Starfish Prime was an experiment and was never intended to actually 'disable' Hawaii so chances are the local citizens were warned and somewhat prepared. (Chances are they probably detonated too high for maximum effect in order to prevent radiation poisoning.)
Its pretty much sounds like a 'he said, they said' argument. Bush officials deny it, Thompson claims it. Given Thompson's record and the sheer political flak and financial loss that would follow from such a law states that this is B.S. though.
"Criminal" crimes have also changed a LOT since the 1980s. Yelling at your wife could get you arrested for "verbal abuse" (lowering self-esteem) and sending a kid to bed without dinner could be argued as "child abuse" (intentional starvation). Throw in a bunch of new anti-sexist laws, anti-child abuse laws, and anti-homosexual/racial hate crime laws (all "crimes" that were previously ignored) and crime skyrockets.