I’ve been thinking something recently.

If you distill the NPC meme to its core intention, what it’s describing is that some people think independently, and some people purely run indoctrinated scripts without thinking about them. And that’s a valuable observation, I think, that’s applicable not only to some Blue Tribers but also to many Red Tribers. The number of people regularly practicing critical thought is actually fairly low across the board.

But the interesting thing, to me anyway, is that a series of principle indoctrinations which holds that all people are perfectly describable by their racial and class characteristics, instead of their individuality, would basically hold the position that “everyone is an NPC.” And that principle is the root principle of Social Justice. Their actual core values within their indoctrination program does not say that nobody is an NPC, it says that everyone is.

Which would make it a very alluring set of principles to adopt, if you’re an NPC.

One critique: If we’re sticking to the original Gygax nomenclature, the appropriate terminology is PC and NPC. Player Character vs Non Player Character.