NPC

/en-pee-see/

noun

Meaning

In internet slang, an NPC is a person portrayed as lacking independent thought, originality, or meaningful agency, as if they were following a preset script like a non-player character in a video game. The term can also describe someone who repeats familiar opinions, catchphrases, or social trends without seeming to question them.[1][2]

1. A person portrayed as unable or unwilling to form original thoughts or opinions.
2. Someone who repeats talking points, catchphrases, or predictable responses as if following programmed dialogue.
3. A person treated as irrelevant, generic, or merely part of the background rather than an active participant in a situation.
4. Literally, a non-player character in a video game or role-playing game whose actions are controlled by the game system, a game master, or preset programming.

Examples

“He repeated the same take three times. Bro is an NPC.”

“NPC behavior: copying the take without reading the article.”

“Stop replying like an NPC and tell me what you actually think.”

“The whole lobby was spamming the same phrase like NPCs.”

“Calling everyone an NPC because they disagree with you is not the own you think it is.”

Origin and spread

NPC is an initialism of non-player character, a gaming term for a character controlled by the game rather than by a player. The literal term was established in tabletop and video-game culture decades before its slang use. The earliest documented modern insult located here is a July 7, 2016, 4chan post titled “Are You an NPC?”, which described people who supposedly followed group thinking and social trends. The figurative sense gained much wider visibility in September and October 2018 through the NPC Wojak meme and reporting about its use in right-wing online communities. Although the term is now used more broadly, it still carries the original implication that the target is running on a script rather than exercising independent judgment.[1]

How to use it

NPC is informal, dismissive, and often deliberately insulting. It can be used jokingly for repetitive behavior, but calling a real person an NPC suggests that they lack agency or humanity, so it is especially loaded in political arguments and can function as a dehumanizing label. In gaming contexts, NPC normally retains its literal meaning and is not an insult.

Sources

1. Kotaku — How The ‘NPC’ Meme Tries To Dehumanize ‘SJWs’Supports: meaning, origin.
2. Wikipedia — Non-player characterSupports: meaning.