Hi SFW,
this is something I have personally requested in the past, and will do so again this year as part of my role in the fursuit track, however, there is actually 2 valid point why in the past it hasnt been given as an option.
The first reason to not include it in the price is because it still has an implemented cost to it. Whilst the badges themselves are cheap to purhcase, the cost of printing them free of charge does ramp up, and although in the overall scheme of things its a drop in the ocean, the money is usually allocated to department budgets instead as they are seen more as priority.
The other reason they have not previously been picked up on is because it demonstrates that fursuiters get something extra over other attendees i.e. they get a free badge just because they have a fursuit. This is not much of a non issue with EF, which is again why I want to continue to push for the badges myself, but can appreciate why it has not been done in the past.
The option of having a charge for service to supply the badges is of course one idea we can adopt, and would need to be implemented as a seperate entity from the reg system, again similiar to how EF did it this year.
Its a good question, one that has been considered and hopefully can/will be adopted this year. If it does become an option, then we will no doubt make an announcement on the forums/twitter/LJ communities
Cheers as always,
Rizzo