Competently coded, entertaining in its way; I got annoyed with my PC, but not more than I was intended to, I assume. At one point I thought a great deal more game was coming when, in fact, I was nearly at the end.

Aside from that, it's nicely paced; I almost always had something to do. I could have passed on some of the opening scenes where I am tediously getting ready for work, but I think I can see why the author thought they were necessary. By contrast, the widget-wodget sequence is well constructed. I made my widget-wodget once because that was what I was supposed to do. I did it a second time because I couldn't think of anything better to try, but thinking: if this goes on more than one more cycle, I'm going to go have a look around, because making widget-wodgets all day sounds dull. Another widget and another wodget emerged, and I thought, "okay, that's it, I'm bored. I'll just assemble this one and then go look for the fun part of the game." So had there been one more or one fewer of these cycles, they wouldn't have worked.

Likewise, I gradually got fonder of the PC despite his rather inane application of quotes and the goofy Salieri riff; when it came time to destroy the machine on his behalf, I was really happy to do so.

With all that said, I was faintly disappointed in this. I realize it's (in some ways) about living a life in which you miss the point 99% of the time, and the fact that you never really find out what was going on, or why, is part and parcel of that. The outtakes redeemed this storyline a good bit, though I got a little impatient waiting for the letter to scroll out onto the screen. I'm still not sure I found it narratively satisfying. And I think I'm tired now of the thing where the PC is working for, or testing for, or otherwise involved with an IF-writing company.

Episode In The Life Of An Artist Awards

Best Individual PC on the 2003 Xyzzy Awards.
11^th place on the 2003 Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (9th Edition).