NPC Meaning: Slang and Video Game Definition (2024)

Co-authored byHannah Madden

Last Updated: June 14, 2024Fact Checked

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1. In video games, an NPC is a non-playable character. When you play a single-player video game, your character is the main character (or the playable character). Any other characters that you interact with in the game are usually non-playable characters, or NPCs. They typically just repeat canned lines from a script, and they’re usually not aggressive or able to fight.^[2]

   • NPCs are very popular in single-player role-playing games, like Red Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Auto, and Dark Souls.
   • NPCs are also in massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORGPs) like World of Warcraft and Runescape, and tabletop games like Merchants & Marauders and Tales of Arabian Nights.
   • Typically, NPCs will repeat lines like, “How are you?” or, “What are you buying?”

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1. In real life, an NPC is someone who doesn’t think objectively. When someone calls a real life person an NPC, they’re equating them to a non-playable character in a video game. You might call someone an NPC if they tend to repeat the same thing over and over again, or if they don’t react when you say or do something unexpected.^[3]

   • You may also see people refer to the general population as “NPCs.” When someone says something like, “Messing with the NPCs” or “There are too many NPCs here,” they’re making themselves the main character in the real world.
   • That’s why you may see videos online of people going up to strangers and saying random things or doing something unexpected. It’s similar to how they might behave in a video game if they were the main character. While these videos might be funny to watch, actually doing those actions in real life is pretty rude, since people in real life have their own thoughts and feelings (as opposed to video game characters who don’t).

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   Not having a strong viewpoint on anything. If someone is acting like an NPC in real life, they probably don’t have many strong opinions. You might hear them say, “I don’t know,” or, “Sounds okay” a lot, even for things that aren’t yes or no questions.^[4]

   • This could range from opinions about where to eat to their political affiliations.
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   Repeating opinions they hear from other people. Someone who’s acting like an NPC might not have a ton of their own opinions. Instead, they might regurgitate lines they’ve heard from their favorite celebrities or politicians, even if they aren’t totally sure what that opinion means.^[5]

   • For instance, you might hear someone say, “Taylor Swift doesn’t like flavored water, so I stopped buying it too.”
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   Being very predictable in conversations. Just like NPCs in video games, people acting like NPCs in real life might be very easy to predict.^[6] They may stick to casual greetings, like, “Hello,” or “How’s it going?” They might also use canned responses, like “No problem,” or, “That’s alright.”

   • This is very typical of people who work customer-facing jobs and have the same interactions over and over again. Think about baristas or retail workers and how they might repeat the same sentences (and even the same interactions) again and again.
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   Conforming to social norms, almost to a fault. An NPC in a video game typically won’t react to anything outside of the norm, even if you do something crazy.^[7] If someone is acting like an NPC in real life, they’ll do the same: if you approach them with a confusing question or a weird gesture, they’ll probably just smile and nod no matter what.

   • Many videos that people post online of “NPC behavior” involve going up to someone and asking a weird question, like “Lots of seagulls here in the grocery store today, huh?” The “NPC” usually just smiles and laughs, even though that question doesn’t make much sense at all.

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1. Yes, calling someone an NPC in real life can be insulting. When someone calls other people NPCs, they’re insinuating that they can’t think for themselves and just repeat canned lines from a script. Calling someone else an NPC also usually means that person thinks of themselves as the main character, which often indicates an over-inflated ego.^[8]

   • Calling someone an NPC in real life actually started as a political discourse. People were trying to insinuate that a large group of the population doesn’t form opinions on their own, and instead just follows whatever their favorite celebrity or politician says.^[9]

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