I loved this story, except maybe the ending, because I was expecting a tragedy; even though I desperately wanted everything to work out for Nerissa, somehow the way it did work out lacked oomph for me. I didn't dislike it, but it suffered in comparison to he first 98% of the story, which absolutely enthralled me.
I don't really get complaints about info dump, because it didn't feel like an info dump to me. An info dump is where you, as a reader, notice that the author is unloading a bunch of background on you because it's done in a clumsy way that obviously is meant to inform the reader rather than tell the story. To me, all the events leading up to the game weren't info dump; they were the story. Nerissa's story.
I thought it was interesting that the story called out lack of sex organs in Nerissa's body as cruel; given her intended usage as a plaything for a rich man, and given that she'd spent her entire life a slave, I was relieved that she wouldn't be exposed to that avenue of exploitation - or maybe more accurately, that I wouldn't be exposed to listening to a story about it.
There were definitely holes in the technology and the explanations/justifications, but they didn't strain my credulity so much as to catapult me out of the story; rather, I experienced this story as a fairy tale with sci-fi trappings. I'm having some refrigerator moments right now - if they could extend a bird's effective lifetime indefinitely, wouldn't there be at least some humans who would opt for a mechanical body in exchange for eternal life, and wouldn't that be a pretty major feature of this society? hmmmm ...