Which game structures become possible only when Agents persist and act through the same Host?
Separate genuinely Agent-native mechanics from classical systems with an LLM attached.
01 / Current position
A hypothesis is not the current judgment.
The dossier preserves the live research position. Dated articles preserve the complete evidence and argument that changed it.
Persistent Agents sharing Task continuity can sustain actor-local knowledge, typed communication, authority, replaceable cognition, and recoverable commitments that fixed NPC state machines cannot express economically.
Testing with a released application. Station Zero now demonstrates persistent specialists, partial observations, communication whose reachability changes outcomes, player authority, provider replacement, replay, diagnosis, and exact run comparison. It still does not prove that these mechanics outperform a strong classical implementation or equal-budget single Agent.
02 / Decision boundary
What keeps this Question alive?
Without a falsifiable distinction, Agent-native game design collapses into ordinary scripted games with probabilistic dialogue attached.
Run the planned equal-budget single-Agent/multi-Agent ablation and implement one strong deterministic scripted baseline for the same mechanic and player information surface.
The same mechanic and player experience can be reproduced with a conventional state machine or single Agent without losing essential behavior or causing disproportionate authoring cost.
03 / Supporting publications
Complete arguments connected to this Question.
4 dated publications currently document this research line.
Communication Is Gameplay State
Why agent communication needs identity, reachability, delivery state, and World-conditioned timing rather than decorative chat logs or a shared transcript.
31 July 2026 ↗Engineering reportReplay Without a Second Truth Store
How replay and evidence-linked diagnosis can remain pure deterministic projections of World, Host, Team, authority, Message, Provider, Effect, Observation, and verification records.
31 July 2026 ↗Release noteStation Zero v0.1.0-alpha.1 — The First Source-Playable Release
What shipped in Station Zero v0.1.0-alpha.1, how the release journey is verified, what one coordination-only comparison proves, and which agent-native game claims remain open.
31 July 2026 ↗Engineering reportA Thin Host Can Improve Strategy Without Becoming a Planner
How Station Zero M2.1 improved Codex and Codex-to-Hermes strategy by compiling trustworthy decision semantics without forcing rank one, adding unrestricted memory, or introducing a hidden planner.
31 July 2026 ↗04 / Source discipline
The dossier is an index, not the evidence authority.
Owns the current judgment, next test, and deletion condition.
Own complete dated arguments, limitations, comparisons, and source links.
Own exact code, tests, releases, receipts, and machine evidence.