[abecedarius]

If you register for an account, you can resume your game from a different device... we can't keep track of your games if we don't know who you are.

Why couldn't I just email myself a URL in the same way I was invited to a particular game in the first place? It might have to be a different URL (if you wanted to use the same invite for multiple players).

Maybe accounts are better overall, I don't know, the above just made them sound more required than they seem to me to be.

[btoconnor]

I think I should have made this more clear.

We track anonymous accounts through the browser session. You can play many games all with the same account, and you'll have a dashboard where you can flip between games just like registered accounts. We don't track your record, though.

However, if you close your browser (eliminating your session), your account becomes a dead end.

You couldn't just use the same URL because it will be a new session, and thus create a new account, which won't be the same account as the existing one (and thus, won't be able to make moves as the original account).

So, you'll be able to play games, but we won't be able to keep track of your games over different devices (specifically, different sessions).

[rylz]

How about you provide a way to generate an additional URL which would be associated with your own anonymous account rather than with an individual game? When this other URL is opened in a different browser (perhaps on a different device) you could associate that new session to the same anonymous account.

This way, if I know I'm about to terminate my browser session, or if I just want to move to a different device, I could do so without making an account.

The only problem is how to present this in the interface without confusing users and generating unnecessary clutter. I would probably put it near account creation options as an alternative.

[baddox]

> The only problem is how to present this in the interface without confusing users and generating unnecessary clutter.

Since what you want is literally no different than creating an account (except perhaps the existence of a password), why not just make an account? Rather than remember or store an "anonymous user URL," just choose a username and remember or store that. Allowing username creation without requiring a password is a great idea for something like this.