Ide love automatons as AI but not as a third gender. Because you can then see PLAYERS as important or something better than Bots, while automatons will always be indentified as Bots. Even in their visuals can make for a more forgiving experience because of the crappiness they deliver in theme with how they look.
... I'm not sure this was your intention, but the phrasing in your first sentence seems to suggest that binary gender is superior to alternatives?
(When that's.. potentially disrespectful to individuals and cultures that don't subscribe to that particular myth of male/female binary sex & gender.)
[Intersex, genderqueer, agender, etc. people all exist.]
Be cool to see a third gender option of any sort, I think.
& on the topic of automatons, I'm.. not sure it fits GoIO's world, but I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to the idea if they were either AI or an alternative to male/female.
(I do like steampunky robots; I'm just wary of shoehorning them in to GoIO. I like the current aesthetic/lore.)
Makes me think of Steam Powered Giraffe.