How important is objectivity to you in exercising your duties as GM? Do you doubt your ability to be so at all?
I have my own biases, as anyone else does. The most basic thing is not to use the position to promote a certain agenda, and to acknowledge the different sides of an issue. As GM, my goal would be to present a balanced interpretation of what could happen, what the results of a particular action might be, etc. So I won't limit myself to my own first inclination. For example, while my bias would be towards a more free market approach to an issue, that won't keep me from saying a Keynesian policy might have a good effect in the game, since that's also a possibility. Also, I'll be responsive to the critiques suggestions of all Atlasians about the stories and numbers I post.
In the sense that's it's important to keep a coherent narrative, yes. On the other hand, I think it makes sense not to be limited by this in terms of things like budget figures, which are always a work in progress - but even there I'll give some deference to the previous figures so it's not more of a break than necessary.
I expect to do 2 or 3 event updates per week, or more often if there's a particular storyline that people are engaging with. Unemployment updates will be monthly, unless I find they are needed more often. The frequency of budgets updates will depend on the amount of spending and tax legislation being passed, but probably monthly on average. I'm also interested in doing stories on other trends such as education, health, population, etc, a few times a month.
As GM I thought you did a good job, and I think I can build on what you developed. I was impressed by your work on the budget, though I'd like to improve on it by adding the revenue side. Likewise I appreciated your engagement with the Senate on the Social Security bill - though for whatever reason the dialogue on it wasn't continued in the Senate after I left. I had my critiques of the numbers for the health insurance program, but you addressed that and I appreciate it. Of course I had some differences with what figures or events I thought were plausible, but that's to be expected. The abortion story is one that I would have handled differently - not just because my own biases are different but because I don't think it lent itself to useful dialogue on the issue.
