NPC

NPC - "Non-Player-Character" (noun):

A person who seems to lack critical thinking skills and agency, blindly following trends, social norms, or authority figures without questioning them. They exhibit a psychological state characterized by a lack of self-awareness and individuality, appearing to be controlled by external factors rather than their own thoughts and emotions. Basically, they're like video game non-player characters in real life.

1. "I tried talking to him about politics, but he just kept repeating the same talking points like an NPC."
2. "She never takes any risks or tries anything new—she's like an NPC, just going through the motions of life."
3. "The whole crowd was just mindlessly cheering for the celebrity, like a bunch of NPCs following a script."

by Nik Xero December 6, 2024

NPC

Noun. A person who seems to lack critical thinking, skills and agency, blindly following trends, social norms, or authority figures without questioning them. They exhibit a psychological state characterized by a lack of self-awareness and individuality, appearing to be controlled by external factors rather than their own thoughts and emotions. Basically, they're like video game non-player characters in real life.

Note: Be mindful when using 'NPC,' lest you sound like a heartless video game villain, dismissing real people as mere characters.

Usage Example(s):
1. "I tried talking to him about politics, but he just kept repeating the same talking points like an NPC."
2. "She never takes any risks or tries anything new—she's like an NPC, just going through the motions of life."
3. "The whole crowd was just mindlessly cheering for the celebrity, like a bunch of NPCs following a script."

by nexzed December 10, 2024

NPCPRNT

Stands for Normal Past Cat Police Revive None of Them, OFWGKTA’s evil twin.

Members include (or included):
Tyler, the Destroyer

Frank Island

Earl Sweatpants

Syd the Adult
W-Boy
Right Brain
Light Shark
+ many more

Person 1: have you heard of NPCPRNT?
Person 2: no
Person 1:What about Earl Sweatpants Syd
Person 2:no
Person 1: Frank Island?
Person 2:no

Person 1: Not even Tyler, the Destroyer?
Person 2:no
Person 3: It’s OFWGKTA but evil
Person 1: Ohhhh…. Does Tyler, the Destroyer have a dad?

by ñēvērłāñd January 2, 2025

NPC theory

Wow! That is a long ass article that says absolutely nothing. And you got paid for that. In it they basically say that 'NPC theory doesn't address how complicated the mind is and nudging and priming have replication issues in studies.' That's it. It wasn't a theory. It was a simile used to describe protesters (specifically) who have an absolute sophisticated understanding of topics that is fed to them from the top down and denotes how they do little more than run that script when the are speaking on those topics.

Hym "And 'Main Character Syndrome' is just more evidence that you idiots are treating propositions as though it's newton's first law and that for every proposition there is and equally true opposite position. But Main Character Syndrome isn't a thing. It relates to the soft solipsism that I always talk about but BOTH NPC theory AND Main Character Syndrome are blatant misrepresentations of what I actually said. I also wrote a Theory of Mind that was later used to create AI. So, lie of ommission. Reductio ad absurdum. And as far as the priming and nudging... I know EXACTLY what it's going to do in my case."

by Hym Iam January 3, 2025

NPOV Bias

The specific skew introduced by Wikipedia's Neutral Point of View policy when applied rigidly or naively. This bias manifests as false balance (giving equal weight to fringe and mainstream views, e.g., climate science vs. denialism), neutering of moral judgment (describing atrocities in the passive voice of "alleged" or "reported" events), and centrism bias (framing the midpoint between two partisan positions as inherently "neutral," even if one position is evidence-based and the other is not). NPOV can become a bias for the bland, the established, and the non-committal.

Example: A Wikipedia article on a tobacco company describes its history of marketing to children as "actions which have been criticized by public health advocates," while also noting the company's "contributions to economic growth." This NPOV Bias uses balanced language to obscure a moral reality, laundering reprehensible acts through the rhetoric of neutrality.

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 4, 2026

NPOV Cognitive Bias

The mental error committed by Wikipedia editors who believe that by stripping language of overt emotion and attributing all claims, they have achieved personal objectivity. It is the cognitive bias of believing you have no bias because you are following the NPOV rulebook. This blinds editors to their own ideological assumptions about what constitutes a "reliable source" or a "significant" viewpoint worthy of inclusion.

Example: An editor meticulously ensures every statement about socialism is attributed to a critic or a proponent, believing this makes the article neutral. However, their NPOV Cognitive Bias prevents them from seeing that their selection of which critiques and which defenses to include is itself driven by their own liberal-capitalist worldview, shaping the narrative within a frame they mistake for a blank slate.

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 4, 2026

NPOV Metabias

The higher-order, community-wide belief that the NPOV policy is a self-contained solution to the problem of bias, and that Wikipedia's processes are therefore inherently corrective. This metabias leads to institutional complacency, where systemic gaps in coverage (e.g., lack of female or Global South subjects) are explained away as "a lack of available editors," rather than seen as failures of the NPOV framework to attract and retain a diverse contributor base. It's a bias about the efficacy of the anti-bias tool.

Example: When confronted with overwhelming data on Wikipedia's gender gap in biographies, a senior Wikipedian argues, "NPOV means we just report what reliable sources say. If newspapers wrote more about women, we would too." This NPOV Metabias treats the policy as a perfect filter, blaming upstream sources for downstream representation problems, and absolving the community of any proactive responsibility to counter societal bias.

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 4, 2026