Extending game participation with embodied reporting agents

We introduce a multi-agent framework to generate reports of players' activities within multi-player computer games so that other players who are currently unable to participate can keep track of the activities of their colleagues. We describe an initial implementation of our framework as an extension to the Capture the Flag game within Unreal Tournament. We report the results of a preliminary experiment that shows that embodied reporter agents give varying coverage depending on deployment strategies used, and, in particular, suggests that the dynamic assignment of reporter agents by an editor agent can provide more effective coverage than static assignment schemes. Finally, we explore future applications of this work including other genres of games, the emergence of games as spectator sports, implications for pervasive games as well as non-gaming applications.