And that is precisely why I won't allow hotmail. It's full of retards like that. There's a reason it was blocked once, you know? It's not like it has always been blocked, right from the go.
Up until a few years ago, the vast majority of people I know had a Hotmail address as their primary (or only) email account. Teachers, publishers, university lecturers, research scientists.... not an idiot among 'em. At the time, I used an @activemail address (now defunct), and they gave me strange looks and asked why I didn't use Hotmail. I imagine very few people would bother to create a new email account just to play a game (mind you, I did!). I've always presumed Hotmail being the subject of internet jokes and ridicule is mainly because it's linked to Microsoft, and internet afficionardos hate all spawn of Bill Gates.
Blocking Hotmail (and also Outlook, I presume? Because it's essentially the same thing) probably does cost BM a substantial amount of casual players - total conjecture, of course, unless the system measures how many people try to sign up using Hotmail. I went into the bank a few weeks ago and the cashiers behind the counter asked for an email address and I said, "Just let me think which email I want linked to it." And their response was, "You have more than one email?" Which, in a completely subjective way, shows that there are people who won't even consider using more than one email address if technology doesn't play a major role in their day-to-day life.
However, I think it was once said somewhere on here that Hotmail addresses were blocked because they are (were?) the email of choice for hackers. If that's still true and allowing Hotmail addresses would increase attacks against the game, and cause Devs to spend more time sorting out the problems, I can see why the block is in place. I've seen a small handful of other indie web games that disallow Hotmail accounts, so I suppose they must also have had trouble at some point in their existence and don't have the time or resources to deal with the problem.
