What’s the most “NPC” thing you’ve seen someone do in real life? – 17 weird behaviours that don’t give main character energy
Even if you’re a casual gamer, chances are you’ll have encountered an NPC – non-playable character – along the way. Often limited to simple, repeating actions, NPCs nevertheless make virtual worlds feel more believable.
The term NPC has made the leap to real life though, usually used to describe people you don’t know but still bump into regardless. Reddit user Expensive-Island-783 wanted to find out if there was a further overlap between real and digital NPCs by asking this question:
‘What’s the most “NPC” thing you’ve seen someone do in real life?’
Here are the weirdest behaviours other main characters have witnessed on their adventures…
1.
‘I have a friend who has 5 stories. No matter the social situation he will pick one and tell it. Everyone has heard these stories at this point, but most are too polite to tell him.’
-dring157
2.
‘Whenever I reach the end of my walk, I’ll just do a 180 in the middle of my path and walk in the opposite direction. I always feel like an NPC whenever I do that. Whateva, I do what I want.’
-Zealousideal_Pay2128
3.
‘I work in a psych hospital, there was one patient who would stand facing a corner, constantly walking into it. We would have to physically turn them around, they’d be ok until they got stuck in another corner. Definitely mentally unwell, but giving strong NPC vibes during’
-Adventurous-Type-787
4.
‘I’m a bus driver, every day at the same time I get the same guy asking the same question word for word.
‘Then he will take out his wallet, scan his pass and take the same seat.
‘It’s not like the usual regulars, with this one guy it’s always the exact same conversation, the exact words and motions.
It’s a strange interaction because of how fixed it is, there’s never any variation. I see lots of regulars, I get asked the same thing in different ways all day long but no one is as perfectly replayed as this one guy.’
-throwawaym479
5.
‘I was test driving a used car, and as I stopped at a light a few blocks from the dealership, a guy waiting for the crosswalk started hollering about what a cool car it was. It wasn’t a common model, Subaru Legacy GT Limited, which I later came to learn has a bit of a fandom among car enthusiasts. It reminded me of triggering NPC dialog as you pass them.
‘I did end up buying it, and I always kind of wondered if he was a plant for the dealership, because it was such a random coincidence.’
-cynth81
6.
‘Guy with an “AI” tattoo on his hand sat in front of a computer and watched a 30 second clip of Boston Dynamics robots moving boxes around on repeat for the entirety of a 1 hour programming class.’
-S33dwallise
7.
‘I came around the end of an aisle in Walmart and this woman walked right up in front of me. You know how you usually do the whole “dance” to figure out how to get around someone? She just stopped in her tracks and stood there in the middle of the aisle with a blank look on her face, staring past me into the distance. Like a Morrowind NPC that you couldn’t get around. Finally her script must have started again because she walked forward and I was able to slide past her. It was really weird, she never once seemed to register my existence.’
-GlorifiedCarny
8.
‘I have a coworker who, instead of just using her words like a big girl, will stare at me like a cow on a train track until I ask her if she wants something. Yes it is very annoying.’
-hollerprincipessa
9.
‘I work at a theme park running briefings for Squid Game the experience.
‘So a group of people come up to me, I give them instructions on some tasks to do in order to obtain an exclusive item, and send them off. Then a new group arranges and I give them the exact same instructions, following the exact same script.
‘I am literally a quest giver NPC.’
-Conchobar8