I elect andlabs/STHX/The Shad for prez '09. FOUR MORE YEARS. Also, somewhere along the line we're going to need writers, and after the "put up or die" phase is over I elect we start choosing writers. You can't have a game without a story. (I am aware of the genesis of Sonic, but it would be so much better if we could give more depth to project retro, and polt ideas are already springing to my mind just from the title.)
The story really isn't such a big deal, though. It's effect on gameplay is nonexistent in Sonic 1, close to nonexistent in Sonic 2 (Though it does play a part in the last three stages), and is mostly used for random scene transitions in Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Regardless of the impact on gameplay, the story doesn't seem like it will be very hard to implement with E02, once it's been decided. But yes. I assume this is one of the things the upcoming administration with be managing and locking into place.
