I Introduction -- Introducing the Cast for Social Computing: Life-Like Characters -- II Languages and Tools for Life-Like Characters -- Representing and Parameterizing Agent Behaviors -- Toward a Unified Scripting Language: Lessons Learned from Developing CML and AML -- APML, a Markup Language for Believable Behavior Generation -- STEP: a Scripting Language for Embodied Agents -- gUI: Specifying Complete User Interaction -- A Behavior Language: Joint Action and Behavioral Idioms -- BEAT: the Behavior Expression Animation Toolkit -- Galatea: Open-Source Software for Developing Anthropomorphic Spoken Dialog Agents -- MPML and SCREAM: Scripting the Bodies and Minds of Life-Like Characters -- III Systems and Applications -- Great Expectations: Prediction in Entertainment Applications -- Shallow and Inner Forms of Emotional Intelligence in Advisory Dialog Simulation -- Web Information Integration Using Multiple Character Agents -- Expressive Behaviors for Virtual Worlds -- Playing with Agents - Agents in Social and Dramatic Games -- A Review of the Development of Embodied Presentation Agents and Their Application Fields -- Interface Agents That Facilitate Knowledge Interactions Between Community Members -- Animated Agents Capable of Understanding Natural Language and Performing Actions -- IV Synopsis -- What Makes Characters Seem Life-Like? -- Some Issues in the Design of Character Scripting and Specification Languages - a Personal View -- Online Material.