You’re running through the cobblestone streets of Novigrad in The Witcher 3. To your left, a woman is scrubbing laundry against a wooden bucket. To your right, a merchant is shouting about the price of fish. They don’t have names. They don’t have backstories that involve saving the world. If you try to talk to them, they might grunt or repeat a single line about the weather. These are NPCs.
But lately, the term has escaped the confines of your PlayStation. It’s on TikTok. It’s in political debates. It’s even used to describe that guy at the office who always says "Working hard or hardly working?" at exactly 9:02 AM.
Understanding what are NPCs requires looking at two very different worlds: the technical architecture of video games and the messy, often toxic world of internet subcultures.
The Technical Reality: Why NPCs Exist
In the simplest terms, an NPC is a "Non-Player Character." They are any character in a game that isn’t controlled by you or another human.
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Think of them as the digital stagehands of a virtual world. Without them, even the most beautiful open-world game would feel like an eerie, abandoned ghost town. They serve specific functions. Some are "quest givers" like Deckard Cain in Diablo, who exists primarily to tell you where to go and identify your loot. Others are just "flavor" characters meant to provide atmosphere.
Technically, these characters run on scripts. A developer at Rockstar Games or Bethesda doesn't manually move every citizen in the city. Instead, they write code that tells the NPC: "Walk from Point A to Point B. If the player bumps into you, play Audio File 4. If the player pulls a gun, run away."
It’s predictable. It’s repetitive. It’s limited.
That limitation is exactly why the term became such a massive cultural phenomenon. When a game's AI breaks, you see NPCs walking into walls or repeating the same sentence ten times in a row. It’s funny in Skyrim, but it's a scathing critique when applied to a human being.
The 2018 Pivot: When Gamers Started Calling People NPCs
Around 2018, a meme started circulating on 4chan and Twitter that changed the definition of the word forever. It featured a gray, expressionless version of "Wojak" (a popular internet character). The idea was simple but mean-spirited: some people in the real world don't think for themselves.
The argument made by those using the meme was that a large portion of the population lacks an "internal monologue." They argued that these people simply "spawn" into conversations to repeat whatever they heard on the news or social media, much like a shopkeeper in an RPG repeats their scripted lines.
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It’s a dehumanizing concept. Honestly, it’s kinda dark when you think about it. By labeling someone an NPC, you’re essentially saying they aren't a "main character" in the story of life. You're saying they lack agency, original thought, or a soul.
This usage exploded in political circles. It became a way to dismiss opponents without actually engaging with their arguments. If you think someone is just "running a script," you don't have to listen to them. While it started on the right, it eventually moved across the spectrum. Everyone started calling everyone else an NPC. It’s the ultimate "us vs. them" shorthand.
The NPC Streamer Craze: "Ice Cream So Good"
If you’ve been on TikTok Live in the last couple of years, you’ve probably seen something deeply bizarre. A creator stands in front of a camera, making repetitive, jerky movements and saying things like "Ice cream so good!" or "GG!" every time someone sends them a digital gift.
This is the "NPC streaming" trend, popularized by creators like Pinkydoll.
It’s a fascinatng inversion of the term. Here, the human is choosing to act like a glitchy video game character for money. They aren't being accused of being an NPC; they are performing as one. It’s a form of "gamified" entertainment where the audience controls the creator's "scripts" via micro-transactions. Each gift triggers a specific, scripted reaction.
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It’s weirdly hypnotic. It’s also incredibly lucrative. But it reinforces the idea that an NPC is defined by a lack of spontaneous behavior. You push a button, and the NPC delivers the expected result.
The Science of the "Internal Monologue"
Part of why the NPC meme stuck so hard is based on a real psychological phenomenon.
In 2021, the internet went through a collective meltdown when it discovered that not everyone has an "inner voice." Some people process thoughts as a constant stream of verbal narration. Others think in images, abstract concepts, or symbols.
According to Dr. Russell Hurlburt, a professor of psychology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who has studied inner experience for decades, only about 30% to 50% of people experience frequent inner speech.
When the "NPC meme" crowd got a hold of this data, they used it as "proof" that NPCs are real. They equated a lack of verbal narration with a lack of independent thought. This is, of course, factually incorrect. Thinking in pictures or abstract "blobs" of meaning doesn't mean you're a mindless drone; it just means your brain’s "operating system" is configured differently.
Breaking the Script: How to Spot an NPC (In Games and Life)
In gaming, AI is getting better. We’re moving away from simple "if/then" scripts. Modern developers are using Large Language Models (LLMs) to create NPCs that can actually hold a conversation. Instead of three pre-written dialogue options, you can type a question, and the NPC will generate a response based on its "personality" and the game's lore.
Ubisoft and NVIDIA have both demoed "Neo NPCs" that feel eerily human.
But in the real world, the "NPC" label remains a social slur. We often feel like NPCs when we're stuck in soul-crushing routines. Commuting. Checking emails. Buying the same groceries every Tuesday. It’s easy to feel like you’re just a background character in someone else’s more exciting life.
The reality? Everyone is the protagonist of their own story. The person you think is an NPC—the barista who only says "Milk or sugar?"—has a complex life, a childhood, fears, and a favorite song you’ll never know about.
Actionable Insights for the "Main Character" Reality:
- Audit your routines. If you feel like you’re "running a script," change one small thing today. Take a different route to work. Order something you've never tried. It breaks the mental loop.
- Practice active listening. The quickest way to realize someone isn't an NPC is to ask a question that isn't part of a standard social script. Instead of "How are you?", try "What's something that surprised you today?"
- Recognize the bias. When you find yourself wanting to dismiss someone as an "NPC" because of their political or social views, remember that it's a psychological shortcut to avoid the hard work of empathy.
- Follow the tech. Keep an eye on AI developments in gaming. The line between "player" and "NPC" is going to get very blurry over the next five years as generative AI takes over character dialogue.
The term NPC is a mirror. It says less about the person being labeled and more about the person doing the labeling. Whether it's a merchant in Skyrim or a person on the subway, the depth is there—you just have to look past the script.