Yes, yes, I know, this has been mentioned several times before, but after checking the search I couldn't really find a thread specifically adrressing free, email-based registration. In the hopes of making sure Ben has seen these ideas, here goes:

Many people have presented the idea that playing AoS should require registering with an email account. Not only is it intended as a griefer and hacker prevention system, it would also thoroughly kill the mild imposter problem the AoS community is having. Server admins would be able to permenantly ban both the IP and the account of problem children, requiring them to restart their modem and obtain a new email account to rejoin.

Coupled with streamlined votekicking systems (with associated tempbans, permbans should never be handed out by troll-exectuable votekicks) this could cause griefers, trolls, and hackers to use five to ten minutes getting a new IP and account for one or two minutes of gameplay... chances are, after a few tries they'll decide it isn't worth the time to cause the AoS community distress.

As a bit of icing on the cake, registered accounts would allow for recordable statistics, such as total kills, total deaths, longest-range hit, longest killstreak, and other fun stuff. This wouldn't have any effect on in-game privileges, but it would be nice to be able to brag (and prove to people that when you complain about a foghacker that you're not some n00b who can't stand losing, but an experienced player who might just have an idea what you're talking about). Furthermore, it could keep track of how many times you'd been kicked, banned, and/or votekicked, and for what reasons. This would streamline removal of hackers, trolls, and griefers from servers.

No hard feelings, I just want a solid registration before I really play anymore. This doesn't mean we need "achievements" or ranks or anything like that once we finally do get it. I want it for the following reason:

A name that is permanent, at least for that account, would be much more difficult to grief with. This is because:

You have to build up a reputation with that name. If people know all you do is grief, they're going to kick/ban you from their server, simple as that. No more getting around this by simply changing your name in the config. You'd be limited to ONE name, and ONE account (per email address of course).

I think this would bring down griefing a lot simply for the fact that many little kids just aren't willing to go through a registration process (and create a unique email for each account, no less) just so they can ruin other people's fun at the game. I already know griefing won't be entirely eliminated, but it will be brought down a lot from what it is now.

What we also need are better votekick mechanics. But Mr. Aksoy knows this already. I'm not really holding my breath for a votekick system built right into the UI, but it'd be nice. And besides, HOPEFULLY, when we finally get mandatory registration, votekicking will be a much less used (and needed) function.