What are NPCs?
The term Non Player Character is fairly self-explanatory. They are characters that aren’t normal players. They are operated by other forces such as a gamemaster or in the case of video games a pre-programmed script. The term has also made its way into popular culture, especially online, with people using it as an insult. It’s used to refer to people who supposedly lack their own thoughts, emotions or drive and are easily controlled by others such as the media.
Let’s move on to discuss NPCs in fiction. As a fan of horror and sci-fi one popular twist that I see all the time involves leading the main characters to believe that another character or group are not human. They are sometimes explicitly told that a specific person or group are NPCs. These so-called NPCs may be portrayed as monsters, demons, AIs, etc. The main characters are then pitted against these beings only to learn much later that the creatures they’ve been harming were humans all along. Will they care? Perhaps grappling with their conscience over what they've done or will they try to rationalize it away.
The reverse is also possible and just as interesting to read. Stories in which the characters believe that someone is a normal human being, but it’s later revealed that the person is an NPC. It can be absolutely gut wrenching for someone to realize that a friend or loved one isn’t real. If the individual isn’t human but is somehow sentient then it becomes a question of whether or not the character still wants to be part of such a relationship. However, if there was never any true personality then weren’t they in love with an illusion?
Blade Runner 2049 has a similar twist. The unique part is that both the characters and the audience know that the main character is not a human being. K is an android, a replicant. He’s a synthetic version of a human being that’s been designed to fulfill specific tasks. He hunts down and destroys replicants that are scheduled to be “retired”. The replicants are nearly identical to humans so it makes sense that they would eventually develop survival instincts and not want to die when their time has come.
Despite knowing that K is a replicant both K and the audience are led to believe that there’s more to his story. You begin to think that he’s special and that he maybe biologically human. This theory is blown to pieces by the end.
There’s a devastating scene in which K comes across a billboard version of his AI girlfriend. The ad spouts the same lines that his girlfriend once did proving that his lover never had any form of genuine consciousness. The name she gave him wasn’t special and her feelings for him weren’t real. We all knew that she wasn’t human, but the real surprise is that she’s an NPC. His lover is nothing more than code and he is a normal replicant. There are still issues regarding how the replicants are treated, but K's wolrdview is forever altered in that moment.
The question of what it means to be human has long fascinated mankind. Where do we draw the line between humans and non-humans? If entities with human like levels of intelligence and the capacity to feel exists wouldn’t it be unethical to treat them as tools? If corporations or malicious entities create beings capable of mimicking humans how will the average person cope? Will they be able to tell the difference? Stories about Non Player Characters can be used to explore these questions and more.