Playing the Non-Playable Character
“I was in darkness, but I took three steps and found myself in paradise. The first step was a good thought, the second a good word, and the third a good deed.” - Friedrich Nietzshe
Do you or anyone you know wake up everyday barely caring about what’ll happen in their day without showing any sense of growth or care for what happens in their life? Don’t worry because there is a term for this, NPC.
Many of us walk around following a routine; we couldn’t care less about waking up, showering, brushing our teeth, and going about our day to either do something we have no passion for or see others do work. Many of us have heard the term NPC thrown around, but what does it mean? NPC, or non-playable character, refers to the non-playable characters in video games who aren’t apart of the main cast of characters that are just there to fill in space and make the world of the game look more real NPCs are robotic follow routine and most importantly don’t follow anything that’d make them appear like real people. More or less an insult, calling someone an NPC is basically saying that a person isn't real because their behavior is so robotic. I spot other people walking through life aimlessly doing things just to do them instead of actually wanting to do something, instead of actually having a purpose. Many of my generation have a feeling of hopelessness or emptiness, and I want to get to the bottom of why.
I consider myself to be an NPC as my presence doesn’t affect any communities I’m a part of. I follow the same routine every day and don’t have a sense of purpose. I believe my lack of purpose connects with me being an NPC, and it falls on myself as I have the privilege of having two extremely supportive, loving parents that only want for me to succeed, and that success can fall into any field I choose. Where I believe I’ve failed is in my lack of drive. I know so much and am interested in so much, yet thanks to me going to school, coming home, and doom-scrolling (scrolling through social media endlessly), I haven’t done much with the 17 years I’ve had on earth, and I see this monotonous lifestyle being followed by almost everyone.
For example, I am even struggling to write this article about NPC culture as I have yet to break the habits I’ve gained throughout 17 years having zero passion for anything I’ve closed myself off from many people and many activities and haven't gained anything from doing so besides keeping myself “safe” in my little bubble when I know that speaking more,going outside making a change in the lives of people who I’m around would result in a betterment of who I am I still don’t partake.
My father, a man who's been working since the day he could walk, came to this country and built himself up by working on the rural farms of the Dominican Republic. He has been waking up at 6:00 AM every day since I've been alive in order to work until 12 to take care of his business, myself, and my mother.I choose to write about my father in this section because my father has been following the same routine for at least 30+ years I don’t believe the work my father does has allowed him to grow as a person as has stunted him seeing as he doesn’t enjoy anything besides work no hobbies very little friends and a mind that primarily focuses on work. Thus, sadly, he is an NPC. I see fellow peers walk around either hating being in school or too removed from school mentally to be truly present as they walk to class, literally letting life happen to them instead of grabbing their own lives by the horns.
I strongly believe the world we live in today has given us so many opportunities that many of us become overwhelmed and therefore remain in a state of sameness in which we don’t actively participate or seek growth. Many humans don’t feel a tie to either religion, nation, or community. This can create a mental state where people only do what feels good, like going on their phones and collecting pieces of information they agree with immediately, only to not do any follow up research and subsequently spit out something they’ve heard, rather than thoughtfully engaged with. We’ve all done this, including myself.
This behavior can lead to three things:
Creating an echo chamber of thoughts that offer only one right way to see the world, and
Never listening to another's opinion, and
Destroying an aspect of ourselves that makes us human, which is curiosity.
We as people should have a want to learn to explore and to share our knowledge but when you only allow people and media to influence you without gaining any real perspectives on life you haven’t really learned or gained much of anything because experience is what allows you to learn to navigate through life.
When we were children, we looked at everything with wide eyes; everything was interesting because it was new to us, but as we've grown, we've lost this desire to learn about the world, which has made many people stagnant and robotic, spitting out information that was fed to us by an algorithm that we also feed.
I’ve brought to attention the effects of being an NPC: lack of passion, no lane in life, and more, but what's the cause? I’ve mentioned the overabundance of information this tech world has made us victim to, but I have yet to fully explain the connection. I recently read a piece connecting the use of social media with teen suicide rates, which is shockingly similar—almost the same graphs. I’m not one to say teens shouldn’t use social media, but there is a clear connection between the amount of personalities people are exposed to every day. Through social media, we get people who want to fit into a certain group or community, but in doing so, they also become stereotypes of the same people they thought were unique, overcompensating a lack of personality with a seeking of community.
My hopes when writing this piece weren’t to make people feel as if they needed to stand out and be beacons of society, but to bring attention to those who’ve felt they or the areas or communities around them haven't changed. There is always time to change and grow as a person; it’s what has led humanity to strive and exist for so long. Just because you follow the same routine day in and day out doesn’t mean you have to lose that light of curiosity that was once within all of us. Pick up a hobby, find something you have an interest in, and explain to yourself and those who will listen the beautiful effect of intrigue it has created within you.