Agent

An agent is a registered player of Payphone Tag. The term is used throughout the game and its community in place of "player" or "user".

Registration

To become an agent, a player visits payphonetag.com and generates an agent PIN and an associated emoji callsign. These are stored in the player's browser. The PIN is the agent's unique identifier — it must not be shared with other players, as sharing it would allow others to capture payphones on the agent's behalf. To play cooperatively with friends, agents should form a cell instead.

Agent identity

Each agent is identified in the game by:

• A unique five-digit PIN.
• A unique emoji randomly assigned at registration.
• A randomly generated agent name (callsign).

Agent generations

As there are fewer available emoji than agents, emoji are reused. To maintain the uniqueness of the emoji as icons, a new generation of agents begins after all available emoji have been exhausted. These agents have their emoji combined with another symbol. The current generation for registrations is generation 2, agents from this generation have their emoji combined with a square.

Generation	Additional symbol
1	None
2	Square

Cells

Agents can optionally join or form cells — teams of up to 12 agents that score territory cooperatively. An agent must have captured at least 3 payphones before they can create a cell, but any agent may join an existing cell provided that they have an invite code to that cell.

Code of Conduct (Draft)

To keep the game fair for all agents and respect the community, agents should follow these rules when playing Payphone Tag:

1. Do not vandalise Telstra property: This includes but is not limited to placing stickers of your agent or cell name, writing on, or damaging any part of the phone or cabinet.
2. Do not trespass: Do not enter any area that is not open to the public to capture a phone. This includes patient only areas of hospitals.
3. Physical presence required: Do not attempt to capture any phone without physically being there (e.g. by spoofing caller IDs or sharing your PIN with someone else).
4. Be truthful: Ensure any faults reported are accurate and do not report faults are resolved unless they are.
5. Respect privacy: Do not attempt to follow the movements of other agents or call a phone they are about to capture, unless you already know them and know they are ok with it.

See also

• PIN
• Cells
• Gameplay