This is a really lame way to get people to register imo. Sometimes I want to show a replay to a friend and maybe get him interested in playing, but forcing them to register is certainly not gonna help that.

Can anyone really explain why is it this way?

hi
you can just send them the rec.

Yeah, but I kinda wanted to show the match stats from the game, since that's one of the coolest features of voobly.

hi
well we want to get people playing, using voobly, so registration is one way to get them to look.

hey,

I don't really think it works that way. How is registration going to increase the chances of them looking? It's the opposite effect - by restricting features, you are losing potential players that might not care enough to register and might just go back to whatever they were doing.

It hurts voobly reputation too. You're assuming everyone that sees that will instantly register, but actually the majority will just leave. Noone likes being "forced" to register, I can guarantee this won't increase players, just do some analytics and compare results. It looks a bit desperate as well. Just look around, no other gaming company really does this.

Finally, this means limiting crawlers as well = less presence in search sites such as google = less income of people.

hi
most sites are accessible for "surfers" but all require you to join to use any features. voobly is no different to any other site in that respect.