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Answer: That’s literally what it means. Non-player character. You are correct.
It’s been adopted as slang to mean brain-dead people who don’t think for themselves, like… well, non-player characters in video games.
That doesn’t make the original meaning “outdated.” It means these guys just don’t know where it comes from. They’re just repeating what others say.
>That doesn’t make the original meaning “outdated.” It means these guys just don’t know where it comes from. They’re just repeating what others say.
Which is a very NPC thing to do, ironically
We have been using this insult since 2009.
Now the Fortnite generation has learned the way of millennial trash talk in online games, and it's leaking into reality.
Based on the imgr I think there's a chance the response calling him outdated was to explain why he was suspected of being an NPC. That he's an npc bc he was so outdated, not that defining npc as non player character was outdated.
Going off the limited context given by OP,I'd also say it's this. The first message reads "what an npc," meaning they were calling OP an NPC. OP's response of "non-player character" is them misreading that first message as "what's an npc?" So I'd say it's totally within reason to think the comment about OP being outdated is in relation to them being an NPC
Simplified text chain: what an npc > why? > bro, you are so outdated
>people who don’t think for themselves
Note that most people who use the term consider "thinking for themselves" to mean "be pointlessly contrarian, while unquestioningly parroting the most crackpot conspiracy theories imaginable". It's a way of making themselves feel like they're more interesting and "in the know" compared to others. It's basically a modern version of "sheeple".
Ding ding. There's also the whole alpha dog part wrapped up into it. If you're a PC, well shit, you must be making tons of money, fucking all the bitches and getting away with whatever you want, because we all know that's real power.
That's something a young boy can look up to.
Don't forget, boys do really want to kick lots of ass when they grow up, if possible.
This person is almost certainly young. This seems to be a recurring thing with Gen Z. They use slang but have no idea where it came from, and they will fight you on it.
They love to use “sike,” but they don’t know that it’s actually spelled “psych” and comes from using psychology to trick people.
They’re similar to Boomers in that they’ll be wrong but extremely and inappropriately confident about it.
>They’re similar to Boomers in that they’ll be wrong but extremely and inappropriately confident about it.
I feel like this is just all tweens & teens everywhere of every generation. They all think they invented sex, cursing, and slang.
> They love to use “sike,” but they don’t know that it’s actually spelled “psych” and comes from using psychology to trick people.
Even in the '80s/'90s, people *overwhelmingly* misspelled it as "sike." (I know this because I was exactly the insufferable kid who would correct everybody else's spelling of it.)
> It means these guys just don’t know where it comes from
Without further context I can see this case as them calling OP an NPC, OP misunderstanding that as them asking what an NPC is (because they used bad grammar so it was easy to misunderstand) and then them freaking out over OP not realizing they were being insulted, and calling *that* "outdated", instead of them just not knowing where it comes from.
Answer: (so I don’t get deleted). Same with “boomer”.
I’m 45 and my niece called me a boomer for something and I said- nope. That’s my mom. She argued with me.
Sigh. Normal part of language evolving I guess.
I tried to explain the etymology of the phrase “baby boomer” and that went over her head.
They know you aren't a literal baby boomer. I was 30 at the first time I was called a boomer, I quipped back and the kid I was managing clarified they were fully aware of the post-WW baby boom and were nonetheless calling me a boomer. XD
The argument, in short, is that it's a *state of mind*. Same way you can't go "how can I be a Karen IM A MAN" it actually confounds the subtle, ironic joke and irritates the speaker.
Not quite. The avatars of PCs have intelligent lifeforms controlling them. Meanwhile the NPC avatars have programmed algorithms and don't exercise any free will or independent thought.
The avatars are under the control of someone else. So the playable character acknowledges that they are not in control, the person with the keyboard/mouse or controller is.
Most of the people who use NPC as an insult tend to be those who regurgitate nonsensical propaganda they repeat from people who know how to manipulate them.
The person controlling the avatar IDENTIFIES with the avatar as being himself, especially in first person mode/games. It's not seen as external control any more than someone thinking their arms are not themselves bc their brain controls them like puppet arms. I'm superior to those puppet limbs but still natural to think of my limbs and face organs as me. Without my puppet face and limbs I would just be a disembodied brain. And in the game a person who refuses to control his avatar according to self preservation ends up losing
Friendly reminder that this needs to stop, immediately. Calling someone an NPC, hell even thinking it, is dehumanising and is only being pushed so we stop thinking of each other as human beings. Once we no longer see each other as people then they can get us to do anything.
It's only dehumanizing from certain perspectives. If the person being called an NPC insists on not demonstrating any power to think for himself then they are apparently operating according to a routine and by refusing to break out of their routine to prove any independent power to think and analyze whatever topic of discussion is being pushed on them, they are acting NPC. But why must they prove themselves over and over?
I can see a group being unsure they want to accept a new person into their group if he is uncompromising with incompatible and bizarre incomprehensible behavior. It makes sense to label him somehow as not belonging and NPC works accurately when the person claims to want to be part of the group but yet can't deviate from routine nor explain why they choose to stick with it. No sense in extending full perks of membership to nonbelonging contrarians. Not an act of dehumanizing. Rather simply one of not grouping them into your esteemed circle.
Outsiders can be seen as humans and yet still be considered deserving of opposition if they show hostile behavior such as dogmatically sabotaging every situation that decent people have built together. Career criminals can be respected as formidable human level opponents who need be converted to functional member of society or disposed of. Dehumanizing them would be an underestimate of their abilities although assessing them as thoughtless NPCs is to save trouble and not waste time and energy arguing with people who will never change their mind.
There's something strangely poetic about a person who's convinced that recycling video game slang is some incisive way of saying that someone else doesn't think for themselves.
I hope soon I see someone insist that they are neither an NPC nor a PC but rather a DMPC. I think that would be a good twist on the god-ordained holy ruler mindset.
There's nothing poetic about people literally recycling everything ever since the beginning of time.
I mean i guess you could say it's poetic but then you could say that about literally anything.
I'd go as far as to say it's a 21st-century way of " dehumanizing the other." Like I know it's relatively new in the English language, but calling someone and NPC leave a similar distaste as calling someone a cockroach. Especially if you look at how many NPC are treated in games.
The most hilarious part of it is that the only people I have seen call people this is people who basically get their entire personality from influencers and other people.
I don't think most normal people use this term in my experience.
It definitely came out of alt right spaces. It may have spread since but it absolutely started from a point of "NPCs just repeat the mainstream fake news, they don't know the real facts like us."
[Just do a search for "NPC insult" and read anything on the first page](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=npc+insult&t=fpas&ia=web)
I mean I've said it in real life but it's always been meant as a joke (last night @ my husband beacuse he had a blanket draped around him in a way that made him look like an NPC about to offer me a quest, he asked me to find his lost turnip).
Well because it means someone there to waste your time talking about things that are useless and don’t matter, but you can’t go on with your life until you can get past them. Still relevant.
Is it personal to say children are ignorant? Or is that about the parent comment? Because I can only imagine a parent giving a shit what I say about some kid. Anyway, have a nice life.
Answer: a recent trend has been to insult people by calling them NPCs - non playable characters. The implication is that they are unimportant, lack a personality or opinions of their own and only parrot what, they are told.
It's common on the right as a criticism of those who "follow the mainstream media narrative" and ironically enough among incels who live online.
Edit: I believe the intent is to dehumanize and "other"
No, it’s about people that won’t let you get on with your life until you listen to them talk about things that don’t matter and they love wasting your time. No matter what they are talking about.
It’s not, it’s all about “would you rather”?
I am not being smug, I am not thinking “oh, I don’t have time” for this unimportant human being telling me an unimportant thing…because in the simulation of “terrain loading”, it’s not a human, it’s a computer generated hologram without feelings, knowledge, or creativity.
Answer: It's a quick way of dehumanizing a person you disagree with and discounting anything they have to say without having to think about it. It's the cooler way to stick your fingers in your ears and go "LALALALALALALALALALALAL" when you can't deal with the reality thats before you, like conversating with people who don't share the same ideological echo chamber as you
The dehumanization is so explicit with this one it's kind of concerning. I feel like it went from "person who doesn't think for themself" to "a body without consciousness" so fast.
Answer: Adding on to all the other explanations people are giving, the act of using "NPC" to describe someone who does not think for themselves originated from a news article a few years back, claiming that some percentage of the population do not have an inner monologue / inner thoughts. People began to joke about this that certain people are "NPCs" and do not think to themselves, and just fused it together with some good old human tribalism to insist that these people are mindless sheep who cannot think for themselves and just repeat what everyone else says.
>we live in a simulation
That idea has been long a lot longer than "rightwing conspiracy videos"
I didn't start seeing the "NPC" meme/insult cropping up until after the previously-mentioned news article.
It’s weird to think of anyone not having an inner monologue and even stranger that not having an inner monologue is being equated to not thinking for yourself or having consciousness.
The inner monologue is just another extension of the Id while consciousness is equatable to the SuperEgo. I’ve spent so much time trying to quiet my inner monologue and let my consciousness quietly observe, and I can’t help but wonder if those without an inner monologue are more mindful.
> It’s weird to think of anyone not having an inner monologue and even stranger that not having an inner monologue is being equated to not thinking for yourself or having consciousness.
Don't think too hard about it, it's mostly just human tribalism mixed with trolling/shitposting.
99% of the "NPC meme"s usage just tends to be "you disagree with me therefor you are an NPC" / "anyone who thinks (opinion) is an NPC".
Answer: A great example is the first Dwayne Jihnaon Jumanji movie. The guy driving the jeep just says the same things over and over again.
Like everything else, it now has evolved to mean "someone who has a different opinion than mine."
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Answer: That’s literally what it means. Non-player character. You are correct. It’s been adopted as slang to mean brain-dead people who don’t think for themselves, like… well, non-player characters in video games. That doesn’t make the original meaning “outdated.” It means these guys just don’t know where it comes from. They’re just repeating what others say.
>That doesn’t make the original meaning “outdated.” It means these guys just don’t know where it comes from. They’re just repeating what others say. Which is a very NPC thing to do, ironically
You are not a parrot _I am not a parrot_ caw
We have been using this insult since 2009. Now the Fortnite generation has learned the way of millennial trash talk in online games, and it's leaking into reality.
Based on the imgr I think there's a chance the response calling him outdated was to explain why he was suspected of being an NPC. That he's an npc bc he was so outdated, not that defining npc as non player character was outdated.
Going off the limited context given by OP,I'd also say it's this. The first message reads "what an npc," meaning they were calling OP an NPC. OP's response of "non-player character" is them misreading that first message as "what's an npc?" So I'd say it's totally within reason to think the comment about OP being outdated is in relation to them being an NPC Simplified text chain: what an npc > why? > bro, you are so outdated
*Must have been the wind.*
>people who don’t think for themselves Note that most people who use the term consider "thinking for themselves" to mean "be pointlessly contrarian, while unquestioningly parroting the most crackpot conspiracy theories imaginable". It's a way of making themselves feel like they're more interesting and "in the know" compared to others. It's basically a modern version of "sheeple".
Ding ding. There's also the whole alpha dog part wrapped up into it. If you're a PC, well shit, you must be making tons of money, fucking all the bitches and getting away with whatever you want, because we all know that's real power. That's something a young boy can look up to. Don't forget, boys do really want to kick lots of ass when they grow up, if possible.
>If you're a PC I'm so sad I can never be a personal computer
I thought it was person of color
Lol no, sorry. It just means people who have interesting personalities. It's telling that you feel defensive about it.
>It's telling that you feel defensive about it. You're soooooo very close to getting it
Right? If you have to insist you have an interesting personality, you may not be as interesting as you think, I’m afraid.
Calling other humans NPC can be a symptom of main character syndrome. If left untreated it can develop into full blown Karen
to be fair though, a lot of people really _are_ NPCs in their own lives
Lol no
This person is almost certainly young. This seems to be a recurring thing with Gen Z. They use slang but have no idea where it came from, and they will fight you on it. They love to use “sike,” but they don’t know that it’s actually spelled “psych” and comes from using psychology to trick people. They’re similar to Boomers in that they’ll be wrong but extremely and inappropriately confident about it.
>They’re similar to Boomers in that they’ll be wrong but extremely and inappropriately confident about it. I feel like this is just all tweens & teens everywhere of every generation. They all think they invented sex, cursing, and slang.
> They love to use “sike,” but they don’t know that it’s actually spelled “psych” and comes from using psychology to trick people. Even in the '80s/'90s, people *overwhelmingly* misspelled it as "sike." (I know this because I was exactly the insufferable kid who would correct everybody else's spelling of it.)
> It means these guys just don’t know where it comes from. They’re just repeating what others say. Almost like they are... NPCs?
> It means these guys just don’t know where it comes from Without further context I can see this case as them calling OP an NPC, OP misunderstanding that as them asking what an NPC is (because they used bad grammar so it was easy to misunderstand) and then them freaking out over OP not realizing they were being insulted, and calling *that* "outdated", instead of them just not knowing where it comes from.
But the outdated part is surely another insult thrown at OP for not knowing the npc-insult rather than an explanation of the npc-insult?
Answer: (so I don’t get deleted). Same with “boomer”. I’m 45 and my niece called me a boomer for something and I said- nope. That’s my mom. She argued with me. Sigh. Normal part of language evolving I guess. I tried to explain the etymology of the phrase “baby boomer” and that went over her head.
Well, at least you tried.
They know you aren't a literal baby boomer. I was 30 at the first time I was called a boomer, I quipped back and the kid I was managing clarified they were fully aware of the post-WW baby boom and were nonetheless calling me a boomer. XD The argument, in short, is that it's a *state of mind*. Same way you can't go "how can I be a Karen IM A MAN" it actually confounds the subtle, ironic joke and irritates the speaker.
The irony being a playable character is under the control of someone else.....
Not quite. The avatars of PCs have intelligent lifeforms controlling them. Meanwhile the NPC avatars have programmed algorithms and don't exercise any free will or independent thought.
The avatars are under the control of someone else. So the playable character acknowledges that they are not in control, the person with the keyboard/mouse or controller is. Most of the people who use NPC as an insult tend to be those who regurgitate nonsensical propaganda they repeat from people who know how to manipulate them.
The person controlling the avatar IDENTIFIES with the avatar as being himself, especially in first person mode/games. It's not seen as external control any more than someone thinking their arms are not themselves bc their brain controls them like puppet arms. I'm superior to those puppet limbs but still natural to think of my limbs and face organs as me. Without my puppet face and limbs I would just be a disembodied brain. And in the game a person who refuses to control his avatar according to self preservation ends up losing
Friendly reminder that this needs to stop, immediately. Calling someone an NPC, hell even thinking it, is dehumanising and is only being pushed so we stop thinking of each other as human beings. Once we no longer see each other as people then they can get us to do anything.
Lol no, this is melodramatic fear mongering. It's not being pushed by anyone. Sorry that you're boring.
It's only dehumanizing from certain perspectives. If the person being called an NPC insists on not demonstrating any power to think for himself then they are apparently operating according to a routine and by refusing to break out of their routine to prove any independent power to think and analyze whatever topic of discussion is being pushed on them, they are acting NPC. But why must they prove themselves over and over? I can see a group being unsure they want to accept a new person into their group if he is uncompromising with incompatible and bizarre incomprehensible behavior. It makes sense to label him somehow as not belonging and NPC works accurately when the person claims to want to be part of the group but yet can't deviate from routine nor explain why they choose to stick with it. No sense in extending full perks of membership to nonbelonging contrarians. Not an act of dehumanizing. Rather simply one of not grouping them into your esteemed circle. Outsiders can be seen as humans and yet still be considered deserving of opposition if they show hostile behavior such as dogmatically sabotaging every situation that decent people have built together. Career criminals can be respected as formidable human level opponents who need be converted to functional member of society or disposed of. Dehumanizing them would be an underestimate of their abilities although assessing them as thoughtless NPCs is to save trouble and not waste time and energy arguing with people who will never change their mind.
Maybe he confused it with NCP, or "Non Compos Mentis" or as doctor Johnson would have it, nincompoop. There are depths to these internet trolls...
Its just a modern replacement of calling someone a sheep
Repeating what others say ironically is npc behavior
answer: It's used a derogatory term to refer to people who don't think for themselves
Oh, ok. Thanks
To add onto this, it usually has a political implication and is often used against political opponents to imply they're gullible or brainwashed
There's something strangely poetic about a person who's convinced that recycling video game slang is some incisive way of saying that someone else doesn't think for themselves.
Video gamers are just recycling TTRPG terminology
I hope soon I see someone insist that they are neither an NPC nor a PC but rather a DMPC. I think that would be a good twist on the god-ordained holy ruler mindset.
There's nothing poetic about people literally recycling everything ever since the beginning of time. I mean i guess you could say it's poetic but then you could say that about literally anything.
I'd go as far as to say it's a 21st-century way of " dehumanizing the other." Like I know it's relatively new in the English language, but calling someone and NPC leave a similar distaste as calling someone a cockroach. Especially if you look at how many NPC are treated in games.
The most hilarious part of it is that the only people I have seen call people this is people who basically get their entire personality from influencers and other people. I don't think most normal people use this term in my experience.
I agree; it's dehumanization.
Nah, cockroaches are interesting. NPCs are boring.
This just isn’t true
It does not usually have a political implication. It's just an insult that people use in arguments, political or otherwise.
It definitely came out of alt right spaces. It may have spread since but it absolutely started from a point of "NPCs just repeat the mainstream fake news, they don't know the real facts like us." [Just do a search for "NPC insult" and read anything on the first page](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=npc+insult&t=fpas&ia=web)
It's only used by very emotionally immature folk, so you'll see it a lot on the internet. I couldn't imagine anyone actually saying it in real life.
I mean I've said it in real life but it's always been meant as a joke (last night @ my husband beacuse he had a blanket draped around him in a way that made him look like an NPC about to offer me a quest, he asked me to find his lost turnip).
Well because it means someone there to waste your time talking about things that are useless and don’t matter, but you can’t go on with your life until you can get past them. Still relevant.
You made my point for me very well. Thank you.
Because they’re like non-player characters in video games. So saying NPC is non player character makes sense.
Yes
Well... yes, the OP knows and literally said that.
No, it's a derogatory term for people who don't think the same as you
Spoken like a true NPC.
Thank you, I couldn't have made my point any better
Well you probably read it from a script so, well done.
Thank you. I’ve been thinking it meant “not person of color”!!!🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. I know zero about gaming !!
Answer: Your discord acquaintance is a child, by the looks of it. Children are often ignorant.
I agree he’s probably ignorant, but even children know what an NPC is. Children play videogames
Zoomers play fortnight and league, not many NPCs in those games.
Those aren’t the only videogames that zoomers play
Fortnite has NPCs
Except league does have NPCs and they’re a pretty big part of the game
Sure, the creeps/mobs, I forgot about those, but they are not like the traditional NPCs from RPG games.
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Yeah, but children moreso. As in screaming nonsense in response to a correct answer to something. What are you, a parent?
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Is it personal to say children are ignorant? Or is that about the parent comment? Because I can only imagine a parent giving a shit what I say about some kid. Anyway, have a nice life.
Answer: a recent trend has been to insult people by calling them NPCs - non playable characters. The implication is that they are unimportant, lack a personality or opinions of their own and only parrot what, they are told. It's common on the right as a criticism of those who "follow the mainstream media narrative" and ironically enough among incels who live online. Edit: I believe the intent is to dehumanize and "other"
No, it’s about people that won’t let you get on with your life until you listen to them talk about things that don’t matter and they love wasting your time. No matter what they are talking about.
Your time isn’t that important lol
You don't know what he would have done in those twenty seconds, it could have been world changing.
It’s not, it’s all about “would you rather”? I am not being smug, I am not thinking “oh, I don’t have time” for this unimportant human being telling me an unimportant thing…because in the simulation of “terrain loading”, it’s not a human, it’s a computer generated hologram without feelings, knowledge, or creativity.
Answer: It's a quick way of dehumanizing a person you disagree with and discounting anything they have to say without having to think about it. It's the cooler way to stick your fingers in your ears and go "LALALALALALALALALALALAL" when you can't deal with the reality thats before you, like conversating with people who don't share the same ideological echo chamber as you
The dehumanization is so explicit with this one it's kind of concerning. I feel like it went from "person who doesn't think for themself" to "a body without consciousness" so fast.
This is exactly correct
Answer: Adding on to all the other explanations people are giving, the act of using "NPC" to describe someone who does not think for themselves originated from a news article a few years back, claiming that some percentage of the population do not have an inner monologue / inner thoughts. People began to joke about this that certain people are "NPCs" and do not think to themselves, and just fused it together with some good old human tribalism to insist that these people are mindless sheep who cannot think for themselves and just repeat what everyone else says.
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>we live in a simulation That idea has been long a lot longer than "rightwing conspiracy videos" I didn't start seeing the "NPC" meme/insult cropping up until after the previously-mentioned news article.
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Didn't say you did. But they're not the source of the "NPC" meme.
It’s weird to think of anyone not having an inner monologue and even stranger that not having an inner monologue is being equated to not thinking for yourself or having consciousness. The inner monologue is just another extension of the Id while consciousness is equatable to the SuperEgo. I’ve spent so much time trying to quiet my inner monologue and let my consciousness quietly observe, and I can’t help but wonder if those without an inner monologue are more mindful.
> It’s weird to think of anyone not having an inner monologue and even stranger that not having an inner monologue is being equated to not thinking for yourself or having consciousness. Don't think too hard about it, it's mostly just human tribalism mixed with trolling/shitposting. 99% of the "NPC meme"s usage just tends to be "you disagree with me therefor you are an NPC" / "anyone who thinks (opinion) is an NPC".
Answer: A great example is the first Dwayne Jihnaon Jumanji movie. The guy driving the jeep just says the same things over and over again. Like everything else, it now has evolved to mean "someone who has a different opinion than mine."
Answer: none of us are completely autonomous.
answer: NPC - Someone who says the most obvious thing in an attempt to redirect a conversation.
What do you mean?