I Should Have Been That I Am

In this short vignette, we're a robot in Las Vegas who works as both a croupier (if that's the right term when it comes to poker) and a prostitute. A few binary choices shape the game in unrelated ways, resulting in various endings for the game ... but always the same ending for us. This involves going from a binary choice input to a freeform text input, and seems to be the theme we're going for here: it's the capacity for free will as opposed to the constraints of binary choice or not having a choice at all.

So it's kind of a worldview/philosophy sort of game. Nothing wrong with that, and it goes down easily enough. There's a nice control between the philosophising and the action that keeps it from being just an exercise in navel-gazing. I didn't much care for the ending, personally, as the conclusion of a game; but I do see how it works and how it fits with the theme and as the ending of a story.

Otherwise, there's a certain noir-ish tone to the story, and the world-building is rather intriguing. I think it would be interesting to see all this again in the form of a pulp detective story or a thriller. As a breakfast, I'd say it's a bagel with cream cheese and a cup of very strong, very black coffee. And maybe hit that coffee with a shot of bourbon when no one's looking.