I don't seem to be quite able to effectively express myself today. I'll redouble my efforts and see if I can clarify what I mean:
Not at all, I'm in a talky mood today :)
Firstly, I don't think there is a poor choice for imperator. Secondly, I don't mean that CIG would abandon all other gameplay. But I'm like 95% sure this will affect CIGs long and short term development plans, short term I think they'll focus on that sort of gameplay, meaning anything from throwing an extra 10 people at it to devoting everyone's idle time to it, and long term that area might get 1-2 extra features/items/vehicles, some existing features might get some improvements, some laws in the universe might get minor changes, etc. That's pretty much the totality I think will result from the election. If you think there is something else, I'd be most curious to hear about your opinions / speculations on the matter.
I definitely see where you are coming from but I see a much bigger picture based on who gets into the position - I think it's more a very long term thing they build the foundations of the empire that we will be playing in going forward. To give some examples of a few things that matter to me as a voter and what the candidates have said they will do:
SynthWorld: I want this to continue, but I don't want it to bankrupt the empire -
If one of the candidates get in, the project is over immediately. If another one gets in it gets more funding and continues. If some of the other candidates get in they'll take a look at it and will proceed if it's viable... I wanna play on SynthWorld, so I wanna vote for the person who wants to guarantee its funding.
The Fair Chance Act: I want this to continue -
The Garron II incident (where they terraformed a populated world inhabited by a non-tech species massacring them all) was so horrific it ended the Messer Era. The UEE also terraformed the Tevarin homeworld after we won the war, leaving an entire species adrift in the Empire - accepted as part of the citizenry but with nowhere to call home, something I would call an atrocity. It was at the beginning of the Messer era and Garron II was at the end of the Messer era, grizly book ends to a vile patch of human history. One of the candidates will ban terraforming in favour of concentrating on building artificial planets hence SynthWorld. One of the other candidates will remove the Fair Chance Act to remove red-tape. I'm not for that I don't want to see another Garron II and would be horrified if that candidate gets in and sets the wheels in motion for another massacre.
The Tavarin: See above about their homeworld -
I am a sympathiser and think the UEE committed an atrocity against them. We won the war, but we didn't stop there. There is only one candidate who has mentioned attempting to make things better for them.
The Seat of the Empire: Earth or Terra? -
One of the candidates wants to move all Earth UEE government to Terra, making the capital of the Emipre a planet that is not our homeworld. They put forward Terra is just a much better hub - it is - both commercially and defensively it's a hive of activity while SOL system has been on a downturn for centuries with only a few jump points whereas Terra is a hub. But do you need a hive to run an empire? This change would create a lot of gameplay moving junk from Earth to Terra, but at the cost of SynthWorld which I would be moving a lot of junk to and want to see. To me that's a
direct effect on game play, going between two inhabited planets with local anamocity in Sol and hope and high times in Terra, verses delivering resources to an artificial planet. I dunno I just don't feel moving the seat of the UEE would have any benefit and it would cost SynthWorld to do it. I just don't see a benefit for the cost and effort.
AI: With the loss of the Generation Ship Artemis humanity took the decision to restrict AI, the ship had a max speed of Quantum and the pilot was AI but the whole craft just... vanished. Lost. Gone. No trace. One of the candidates wants to cautiously begin research in AI again, and not only that, mount exebitions to locate that lost generation ship Artemis. That's gameplay I wanna be part of the Artemis is fascinating.
As you can see from the above, some candidates want to do things I am interested in, some candidates want to do things I would hate to see happening, and it will be their way for the next 10 years.
No one candidate covers all the bases for me. It's choosing the one I think I'm going to get the best 'verse expiriance from which closes matches my goals and ideals. Yes, I could take a contradictory stance to whoever gets in, but when it's something like SynthWorld being shut down, if the Empire stops funding that project it's just gone. There won't be any way I can just keep delivering resources to a construction site with no workers and no one paying the bill for the stuff I bring in.
And just because an imperator is selected every 10 years, doesn't mean we wouldn't get to make our voices heard for the next 9 years, it might not be a yearly thing (not counting ship showdowns etc. here), but there are a lot of votes the citizens could take lorewise, maybe we'll be voting for senators next. Maybe there will be a referendum on some issue. Maybe the imperator dies and the next election needs to be held early (I'm actually like 65% sure about that one).
I do hear you there, always a possibility, especially with the imperitor dying thing - if a player doesn't like who got in, what's to stop them just walking into the high office and ending the winner of the fair election, over and over again, until they get the person they wanted in?
Another thing I really don't want to see, though, is a stagnant governance that can't do anything because of polatics. It's a game - not a boredom simulator