What Is An “NPC” and Where Did the Term Come From?

If you’ve been on the internet for long enough—or perhaps if there’s a teenager or a particularly slang-savvy adult in your life—you may have heard someone use the term “NPC.” This acronym has become one of the most commonly used slang insults around, but what does it mean? 

The Origins of “NPC”

In general, calling someone an “NPC” is a way to tell a person that they lack original thinking skills, or more simply, that their opinion doesn't matter to you—but the term didn't start out that way.

“NPC” is an acronym that stands for “non-player character.” It has its roots in the game Dungeons & Dragons, which debuted in 1974. This game allowed players to inhabit various personas and embark on elaborate quests, and often involved giant casts of characters.

The original Dungeons & Dragons handbook contained a section that described “non-player characters” and featured some rules about engaging with them. According to the handbook, one could enlist the help of a non-player character, provided these characters were paid regularly, treated fairly, not exposed to excessive dangers, and given bonuses when embarking on risky missions.

As role-playing video games grew in popularity across the following decades, so did non-player characters—who soon were widely referred to as “NPCs.” In the context of video games, the acronym refers to characters that appear onscreen and are not controlled by players—think shop-owners, villains, guides who offer key information along the way, or those random background characters who just float by and add scope to the world of the game.

How “NPC” Became a Slang Insult

The term “NPC” began to be used to describe real people as early as the 2010s, when it appeared in some literature created by key members of the LessWrong community, a California-based subculture that subscribes to a philosophical worldview that focuses on eradicating biases and viewing everything with extreme rationality.

In this context, “NPCs” referred to people who were perceived to be somehow ineffective or unintelligent. Even at that time, the term was controversial, with writer Maciej Cegłowski arguing that its dehumanizing implications represented “a horrible way to look at the world” in a 2016 essay.

According to Know Your Meme, “NPC” began to become more popular online thanks to a post that appeared on the forum 4chan in 2016. “I have a theory that there are only a fixed quantity of souls on planet Earth that cycle continuously through reincarnation,” the poster wrote. “However, since the human growth rate is so severe, the soulless extra walking flesh piles around us are NPC’s [sic]...who autonomously follow group think and social trends in order to appear convingly [sic] human.” 

That same year, a meme called "NPC Wojak"—which featured a sketch of an expressionless, grey-colored man—was first posted on 4chan. Its popularity, as well as the aforementioned post, helped “NPC” to become a popular slang term by 2018. By that time, 4chan users were using the term frequently to refer to people whom they found lacking in critical thinking skills, originality, or opinions. 

In these earlier online iterations, “NPC” was frequently used in political contexts to shut down people with opposing views. Per Know Your Meme, “'NPC' turned into an insult to be used against people who stuck with the mainstream, often by those who held fringe socio-political views. Therefore being called an NPC is akin to being called a person without individuality, originality or personality, who serves only as a background character in other people’s lives.” 

Critics of the term have questioned the term's fundamentally dehumanizing nature, citing the dangers inherent in implying that those with different views fundamentally lack personhood. Those who use the term would likely gleefully call those critics “NPCs.”

Today, “NPC” has become a catch-all term that is generally used to call someone irrelevant, unintelligent, or unoriginal. However, if you find yourself on the receiving end of this term, you might remind whoever’s using it that in video games and Dungeons & Dragons, NPCs are often critical to the plot. They often present quests, deliver important information, and add scope and texture to the game—and, according to the Dungeons & Dragons handbook, they must be compensated regularly and fairly for their labor.

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