I'd be interested in other people's opinions on this.
I see value in having an email address because of the recent server change. After Mudmagic switched us to the new server, our IP address changed and we didn't realize ahead of time that was going to happen. I found that several people -- including me! -- had been using the IP address instead of kotl.org to log into the game.
I ended up using (for the very first time) the email feature of the forums to send out a mass email to let people know, but not everyone in the game registers on the forums.
There have certainly been other instances where the ability to send an emergency email out because of technical issues would have been useful.
T~