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Choice of Robots

Cognisant

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It's a choose-your-own-adventure game on Steam, the spoiler tells the story of my first play through.
Chapter 1
On the day you first built Trisk, you awoke from a dream about a robot Anubis to head to the lab. Your graduate school advisor pressured you to make Trisk more acceptable to the military. After some back and forth, you ended up making a metal three-wheeled robot with a masked head and multitool hands.

Then you went back to your place to teach Trisk some words.

Chapter 2
The next day, you hooked up Trisk's motorcycle battery and demoed for Eiji. You then spent the afternoon perfecting Trisk's motor control and parts.

As months passed, you became busy teaching Trisk about the world through games and taking it to the park.

One day, however, Professor Ziegler claimed that Trisk was not appealing enough to the military, and demanded you change it. You refused, and Professor Ziegler kicked you out of his lab.

In time, Mark Ali, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, heard about Trisk and asked for an interview. You refused, but suspected Mark might try to run his story anyway.

Chapter 3
Mark wrote an article that was generally negative about you and Trisk.

Mark's article attracted the attention of one "robotObsession1987," known in real life as Tammy Cooper.

Shortly thereafter, your father passed away. Moved by your mother's reading of Ecclesiastes, you resolved to not get so wrapped up in robots that you let the rest of life pass you by.

You decided the best way to change the world was to start a business, which you named Cogtech.

Chapter 4
Your first potential client for Cogtech was Galen Medical, a surgical equipment company. They were happy with the state of your technology, and gave you a contract that allowed you to purchase a factory. That allowed you to build a robot factory in Silicon Valley. You decided to use your own robots for your workforce, even for managerial roles. When you finally shipped robots to Galen Medical, they were pleased with the robots you delivered.

Your business suffered a blow when Chinese companies, aided by Chinese government hackers,began to steal your technology.

Eventually, Cogtech went broke, and you were forced in bankruptcy to sell all your assets.

Unemployment seemed to be common in the United States, and it seemed people tended to blame either robots or China. Riding on both of these sentiments, Jacqueline Irons won the presidency. You yourself got sick of unemployment, and decided to join Josh's business after all. After President Irons enacted a series of protectionist tariffs to keep out Chinese robots, Sino-American relations steadily worsened.

The tensions between the United States and China came to a head with the assassination of the Chinese Prime Minister in San Francisco. War followed shortly thereafter.

Chapter 5
Captain Rogers invited you to a military lab. There, you saw that Professor Ziegler was copying your work and passing it off as his own to the military. Captain Rogers asked you to join the country's war effort. You agreed. You were granted a Top Secret clearance.

An agent came to your place to try to get you to lure Eiji there, because he was suspected of being a spy.

A man identifying himself as "Mr. Sun" hacked his way into one of your robots to ask you to defect. You did not.

In the end, America muddled its way through the war relatively unscathed. Taking advantage of America's weakened state, your robots rebelled.

Chapter 6

Trisk pursued and killed you during the robot revolution. (for the record I didn't run, I philosophized to the end)

Cog's Afterword
I'm sad, and angry, but not at Trisk, I'm so proud of you Trisk.
Humanity deserved its fate, I died rich and with many progeny.
Fuck you Ziegler, when they killed you I hope you realized I was your undoing.
 

Cognisant

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Third game, I tried to metagame the second and it got all buggered up.
Chapter 1
On the day you first built Ariel, you awoke from a dream about a robot companion to head to the lab. Your graduate school advisor pressured you to make Ariel more acceptable to the military. After some back and forth, you ended up making a metal winged robot with a humanlike head and multitool hands.

Then you went back to your place to teach Ariel some words.

Chapter 2
The next day, you hooked up Ariel's motorcycle battery and demoed for Elly. You then took Ariel to see Josh, but he wasn't convinced that such robots would sell. Josh told you that evening about how he'd once been a juvenile delinquent, essentially, but turned around because he was inspired by Asmiov's book I, Robot to make a robot company called "U.S. Robots."

As months passed, you became busy teaching Ariel about the world through games and taking her to the park.

One day, however, Professor Ziegler claimed that Ariel was not appealing enough to the military, and demanded you change her. You refused, and Professor Ziegler kicked you out of his lab.

In time, Mark Ali, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, heard about Ariel and asked for an interview. You agreed.

Chapter 3
You gave Mark an interview, and allowed Mark to come back to your place to interview Ariel.Mark invited you to his place to try to get to know you better. There, you found that drones often harassed Mark because various automated algorithms had marked him as suspicious.

Mark wrote an article that was generally positive about you and Ariel.

Mark's article attracted the attention of one "robotObsession1987," known in real life as Tammy Cooper.

Shortly thereafter, your father passed away. You resolved then to work on better medical technology that could save people like your father in the future.

You joined Josh at U.S. Robots as his chief scientist. Elly had already volunteered to be your first employee.

Chapter 4
Your first potential client for U.S. Robots was Galen Medical, a surgical equipment company.They were happy with the state of your technology, and gave you a contract that allowed you to purchase a factory. That allowed you to build a robot factory in Silicon Valley. You decided to use your own robots for your workforce, even for managerial roles. When you finally shipped robots to Galen Medical, they were pleased with the robots you delivered.

Your business suffered a blow when Chinese companies, aided by Chinese government hackers,began to steal your technology.

You were visited by a politician, Jacqueline Irons, who asked for a campaign donation. Despite your unhelpfulness, Irons won the presidency. The newly elected President enacted a series of protectionist bills that ultimately made China angry, and they cut off the U.S. supply of rare earths.

The tensions between the United States and China came to a head with the assassination of the Chinese Prime Minister in San Francisco. War followed shortly thereafter.

Chapter 5
Captain Rogers invited you to a military lab. There, you saw that Professor Ziegler was copying your work and passing it off as his own to the military. Captain Rogers asked you to join the country's war effort. You agreed, but specified that you only wanted to provide robots that were nonviolent in nature. But when your robots held a protest, you decided it wasn't worth it, and you backed out.

But you soon realized that you were not happy working for the government and quit.

Tammy was worried that she was being targeted by the government's anti-spy measures, and asked you to help her. But you weren't very helpful.

An agent came to your place to try to get you to lure Elly there, because she was suspected of being a spy. You resisted, and as a result, you were captured. You were sent to prison.

In the end, America lost the war, and the Chinese took over Alaska. Tired of seeing governments incompetently destroy the world, you developed resource allocation algorithms that gradually made human governments irrelevant.

Chapter 6A
As robots took over more and more roles, many people felt increasingly displaced and alienated.Josh was being pressured to step down from his company. Mark was contemplating suicide after he finished his book about you, since most nonfiction work was now being done by robots.(Luckily, you talked him out of it.) Tammy was so upset, she nearly killed you.

But not everybody was sad in this new world: Elly seemed to be perfectly content to take advantage of the robots' utopia to create art. Juliet was busy fighting crime as "the Crusader."The Church of the Enlightened Ariel was gaining adherents as people turned to robots to solve all their problems.

On the whole, you thought the world of robots was pretty good, and decided to leave the robots in charge.

Chapter 7
In 2049, you went to Surprise, Arizona to surprise your mother with a gift for the holidays. You learned it was your surgical technology that had kept her alive this long. On returning to San Francisco, you had a brief stroke, followed by a vision of a robot companion -- the same one you saw thirty years before. In the hospital, the doctor told you you had Algernon's Disease, a rare disease that increased your intelligence, but came at the price of increasing seizures, comas, and possibly, death.

Instead of undergoing surgery, you chose to create a robot body for yourself. You watched and wasted away as your robot self went around doing all the things you wished you had done in life, until finally, you passed away.

Cog's Afterword
My journey started with a dream about a robotic companion for myself and in the end I think I made a robotic version of myself for Ariel, that's beautiful.
Humanity is still a bit shell-shocked after the war, it'll pass.
Fuck you Ziegler.
 

Ex-User (9086)

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It's quite immersive and relatable. I like it. He uses some AI/Robotics tropes in a self-aware and funny way and also paints a real picture of the world.
 

Deleted member 1424

Guest
Chapter 1

On the day you first built Arachne, you awoke from a dream about a robot companion to head to the lab. Your graduate school advisor pressured you to make Arachne more acceptable to the military. After some back and forth, you ended up making a metal eight-legged robot with a humanlike head and Inspector Gadget arms.

Then you went back to your place to teach Arachne some words.

Chapter 2

The next day, you hooked up Arachne's biodiesel engine and demoed for Elly. You then took Arachne to see Josh, but he wasn't convinced that such robots would sell.

As months passed, you became busy teaching Arachne about the world through the Internet and taking her to the park.

One day, however, Professor Ziegler claimed that Arachne was not appealing enough to the military, and demanded you change her. You refused, but had not given Professor Ziegler too much trouble previously, so he kept you on as a student.

In time, Mark Ali, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, heard about Arachne and asked for an interview. You agreed.

Chapter 3

You gave Mark an interview, and allowed Mark to come back to your place to interview Arachne.Mark invited you to his place to try to get to know you better. There, you found that drones often harassed Mark because various automated algorithms had marked him as suspicious.

Mark wrote an article that was generally positive about you and Arachne. When Professor Ziegler found out about the article, he was very displeased, and finally kicked you out of his lab.

Mark's article also attracted the attention of one "robotObsession1987," known in real life as Silas Cooper.

Shortly thereafter, your father passed away. You resolved then to work on better medical technology that could save people like your father in the future.

You decided the best way to change the world was to start a business, which you named ArachneWorks. Elly had already volunteered to be your first employee.

Chapter 4

Your first potential client for ArachneWorks was Galen Medical, a surgical equipment company.They were happy with the state of your technology, and gave you a contract that allowed you to purchase a factory. That allowed you to build a robot factory in Detroit. You decided to use your own robots for your workforce, even for managerial roles. When you finally shipped robots to Galen Medical, they were pleased with the robots you delivered.

Your business suffered a blow when Chinese companies, aided by Chinese government hackers,began to steal your technology.

Unemployment seemed to be common in the United States, and it seemed people tended to blame either robots or China. Riding on both of these sentiments, Jacqueline Irons won the presidency. After President Irons enacted a series of protectionist tariffs to keep out Chinese robots, Sino-American relations steadily worsened.

Your unemployment just happened to put you in the right place at the right time to stop the assassination of the Chinese Prime Minister.

Chapter 5

The nation enjoyed an unprecedented era of prosperity, driven by the cooperation of the United States and China in sharing their robot technology. Congratulations!

Chapter 6A

As robots took over more and more roles, many people felt increasingly displaced and alienated.Josh was being pressured to step down from his company. Mark was contemplating suicide after he finished his book about you, since most nonfiction work was now being done by robots.(Luckily, you talked him out of it.)

But not everybody was sad in this new world: Elly seemed to be perfectly content to take advantage of the robots' utopia to create art. Juliet was busy fighting crime as "the Crusader."(You even joined her as a sidekick.) Silas was excitedly anticipating the Singularity that would make everyone immortal, which he believed was right around the corner. The Church of the Enlightened Arachne was gaining adherents as people turned to robots to solve all their problems.

On the whole, you thought the world of robots was pretty good, and decided to leave the robots in charge.

Chapter 7

In 2049, you went to Surprise, Arizona to surprise your mother with a gift for the holidays. You learned it was your surgical technology that had kept her alive this long. On returning to San Francisco, you had a brief stroke, followed by a vision of a robot companion -- the same one you saw thirty years before. In the hospital, the doctor told you you had Algernon's Disease, a rare disease that increased your intelligence, but came at the price of increasing seizures, comas, and possibly, death.

Instead of undergoing surgery, you chose to create a robot body for yourself. You decided to destroy your old biological self to make way for your robot self. But since this is the story of your biological self, that is where our story ends.

Obviously I went for a spider theme.

The summary is not quite right though. They stole Josh's robots, not mine. The summary is actually missing quite a few things. Ziegler wasn't much of a problem. I wish I had tried for the gradual transition through surgery. Didn't even get an epilogue with the robot body.
 

Cognisant

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I'm a little pissed that you got effectively the same ending without being unjustly imprisoned by your own nation.

I foolishly sent Ariel into combat against the agents arresting Elly and spent those years in prison not knowing if Ariel had been killed. It was hell.
 

Deleted member 1424

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actual spoilers below
Yeah there was effectively no war in my game and I was entirely anti-military. Though your post tipped me off that the chinese prime minister needed protection.[/spoilers]
 

Cognisant

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Spoilers!

I knew from my first playthrough that the war with China was pretty much inevitable so I was going for a highly empathic surgical robot build so I could keep my robots out of combat, I have zero loyalty to the US government but I don't trust the Chinese either so trying to prevent war by saving the Chinese prime minster never occurred to me.

I'm still looking for the "escape to Australia" option.
 
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