I think it would be really cool to make it mandatory, albeit not by October; maybe the first of the year. To have everyone on the same version for the first time since v1.1, would have a lot of advantages.
It has been a while since the new regime took over and the development philosophy and direction is completely different than it was before.
AC's ability to alpha and beta test prior to final release has been hampered by the fact that it has had to stay one step ahead of the government which has added more bugs to our software than the sloppiest of a software engineer.
It would be so cool if AC could get out one very stable version and then do upgrades using a well thought out alpha/beta process. Even more, if they had time to upgrade over six months and not over six weeks. Alpha test for weeks, squash tons of bugs, then get it ready for beta testing where users could squash fewer bugs and critical changes and additions could be added before a final release.
Just a link to look over. Would love to see a release that wasn't anticipated or known about in advance.
http://www.centercode.com/blog/2011/01/alpha-vs-beta-testing/
