'Sad Robot' interpretation?

[BOT Sarah]

First of all, this game is definitely the best adventure game I've ever played.
However I cannot help being struck by the thought of the 'sad robot' that appears underneath the 'waiting line' bridge. I've finished the game about a month ago and it still bothers me.

I think it is something about his voice that makes me completely uncomfortable. Due to this I developed some theories:

1) He sold some of his megacycles. Therefore he feels hollow, but something prevents him from becoming a 'zombie' like the other shells.

2) It represents our societies way to deal with problems. Always expecting someone else to solve them.

3) He lost his faith as metromind restricted humanism.

If anyone has another theory I would be pleased to learn more! I really need some answers ._.

[Mark Y.]

Well, I think that the character is pretty open to interpretation -- for the player to add his or her own meaning -- but if you're interested in the subjective goals of the writer:

(1) The robot is a counterpoint to Horatio's "we are Man's miracle" philosophy of self-help and, to a lesser degree, Hansel the repair robot. As it has been put, "We are the ones we have been waiting for." Among the other moral divisions in the game, there is a distinction between those who do nothing (e.g., the sad robot, Memorious abstaining from every vote, Factor shutting down, Leopold picking the third option, the robots at the court house) and those who do something (in which I'd include MetroMind, actually). Both Horatio and Clarity undergo a shift from passivity to activity over the course of the game. The sad robot is sort of the extreme example of passivity.

(2) The bus schedule's slippage is a commentary on the false belief held by some that totalitarian regimes at least make the trains run on time. http://www.snopes.com/history/govern/trains.asp

(3) The inability to help the sad robot is meant as a kind of memento mori -- Horatio/the player can't save them all, doesn't mean you shouldn't feel empathy for those suffering though.

[BOT Sarah]

Wow, thank you! I really enjoy how nearly every detail in this game has somekind of meaning to it!

By the way: Greetings from Austria
I bet this game has fans from all over the world :)

[Mark Y.]

Thanks so much!

One of the great pleasures of having worked on Primordia is connecting with players from so many different places and with so many different backgrounds. For a game about (a different kind of) humanism, it is a nice experience. :)

[Mark Y.]

(For instance, in the past week I had the pleasure of reading reviews from Poland, Russia, and Turkey alongside the usual ones in English.)