In no particular order, some thoughts:
(1) As others have said and I will say again, this has been and is the most fun I've had on the forum in a very long time. The planning and execution on Lumine's part is nothing short of brilliant, and the players—even the one's I've unceasingly maligned—make this a game well worth preserving, in my humble opinion. If we need to make some changes for the sake of the player base, I'm open to that, but above all I don't want to see this die.
(2) I do think it could be potentially profitable to simplify gameplay in two respects, namely (a) making gubernatorial elections run more on autopilot (I think this was the original intent, but the effort others put into their gubernatorial campaigns makes it practically necessary for everyone to do this, and that's an extra wall of text to produce each turn); and/or (b) limiting the number of bills each party may introduce by parliament, as opposed to by turn (forcing us to focus on one or two big issues each sitting, which I worry the present system has allowed us to burn through too quickly). THAT SAID: these are fairly minor quibbles in the grand scheme of things, and I don't think either has a significant negative impact on the game. Lumine has
far more experience running this sort of game than I do, and has done a phenomenal job thus far, so I'm happy to defer to his judgement.
(3) I personally like the equal focus on government and elections. There's nothing wrong with having an elections-centered game, I guess, but I enjoy the research and debate that go into passing bills in the Assembly.
(4) On taking a break: the thing that worries me most about this possibility is that everyone will go their separate ways and forget about this (not because they'd mean to, but because it can be difficult to get a group back together once it has dissolved and the initial enthusiasm has been allowed to die down). Of course, plowing ahead with two or three players isn't exactly viable either—but if we
do take a break, we should use that time to recruit new players for Round 2.
(5) I'd be okay with skipping ahead to the 1830s or 40s, though part of me selfishly wants to stay where we are, partly because it's one of my favorite periods of American history and partly because I just became First Secretary.
