Monthly Archives: August 2022

NPCs Won’t Be Creative Types

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If we know one thing about AI, it isn’t very good at creating art. Any paintings or music they make tend to be shared around because of how odd or bad they are.

Which leads me to believe that Non-Player Characters (NPCs) in our world are unlikely to be creatives. The singers and actors who are simply mimicking, might be NPCs, but those who write their own songs, and the screenwriters and perhaps directors, they are going to be real.

Likewise, people with unique taste… It seems that 90% of society – the people we otherwise don’t notice – are very content with McDonalds and $5 pizzas. They would mostly be NPCs, incapable of separating quality from “what everyone else does”. At the other end of the scale, food critics and master chefs would be real, and in-between those two extremes… who can say?

Which makes me think that NPCs will typically follow trends to be “normal” but are incapable of starting those trends themselves. So the first fans of McDonalds would be real, and therefore some of their current customers will be as well, so don’t write them off.

Surround yourself with creatives and this temporary experience might be richer for you!

Falling for a NPC

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An NPC is a non-player character, as opposed to a real person (or whatever we are, playing this simulation.

They are programmed to be realistic and fulfil needs and purposes.

You might fall in love with one – is that a problem?

NO!

There are two possibilities:

  • You fell for a real being, just as you would like, all good
  • They are an NPC. which means you are just playing, and you get to play again, having learned

They Keep To Themselves

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I think a way to crack any existential puzzle is to have as many disparate inputs as possible, and absorb it all. I was just watching Stranger Things and simulation theory popped into my head. Meanwhile non-player characters cannot be found out…

It is hard to believe that every NPC is totally unique, like us real people. Inadequacy in the design process, efficiencies, or simply hubris could cause them to have shared traits or commonalities.

Which would have been fine 100 years ago, but today such similarities are more easily discoverable, if the data is available.

In anticipation of the technology – not hard, it turned up in many other simulations – they may have designed the NPCs to not be very social and sharing. Possibly they hide behind a cult like Scientology (or golfers, or cyclists), hiding in plain sight, or possibly they just don’t show up on the radar.

You know how the neighbours of a terrorist thought they kept to themselves, but otherwise seemed nice enough? Maybe all violent extremists are NPCs?

What if hundreds of NPCs loved eating octopus, read every James Bond fan-fiction and never tied their shoe-laces? If they shared all of these things in the socials, or even “private” online chats, that could be discoverable. Easiest just to program them to live a quiet, mostly hidden life.

So, any friends or acquaintances who “aren’t into social media” are worthy of suspicion.

But also, some NPCs may be placed here as a catalyst, like Shakespeare or Darwin. And they seek attention absolutely.

Real players are likely in-between. And would be the only people to read this.