NPC (meme)


NPC, derived from Non-Player Character in video games, is an Internet meme that represents people who do not think for themselves or do not make their own decisions; it is also known as NPC Wojak.
The NPC meme, which graphically is based on the Wojak meme, was created in July 2016 by an anonymous author and first published on the image-hosting website 4chan, where also the idea and inspiration behind the meme were introduced.
The NPC meme has gained widespread attention and been featured in numerous news outlets, including The New York Times, The Verge, BBC, and Breitbart News Network. According to the conservative news watchdogs Accuracy in Media and Media Research Center, media coverage of the NPC meme has been politically biased.

History

In 2003, the image hosting website 4chan was released, enabling users to publish images online without publicly revealing identifiable information, user account or IP address. A large number of internet memes has first been published on 4chan, including the first documented appearance of NPC on July 7, 2016. The post by an anonymous user who initiated the NPC meme, titled "Are you an NPC?", detailed the behavior of individuals acting similarly to non-playable characters in video games by repeatedly using phrases such as "JUST BE YOURSELF", and ended the post with the following description of people the NPC meme intends to depict.
The design of the NPC meme character is based on Wojak, a meme created in Microsoft Paint in 2010. Unlike the NPC meme, the Wojak meme appeared first on the image hosting website vichan and has mainly been used for expression of feelings such as compassion.
During the weeks leading up to the 2018 midterm elections in the United States, the NPC meme gained remarkable attention, with relatively high media coverage, publication of new NPC memes online, and several noticeable events. A large number of animated videos based on the NPC meme were uploaded to YouTube in the second half of October 2018, and Google searches for the term "NPC Wojak" peaked around the same time. In October 2018, a large number of Twitter accounts were created which presented themselves as NPCs, and more than 1,500 such accounts were subsequently banned by Twitter. Also during the same month, InfoWars held a competition promoting creation of NPC memes, which resulted in hundreds of NPC memes submitted.
The number of searches for the search term "NPC Wojak" remained relatively constant during year 2019.
Although the NPC meme was created 6 years after the Wojak meme, the NPC meme rapidly gained attention in comparison with the Wojak meme. On the website of the meme community Know Your Meme, the NPC meme has 858,000 page views, 33 videos, 597 images and 749 comments as of December 31, 2019. This can be compared to the Wojak meme on which NPC is based, which has 787,000 page views, 6 videos, 332 images and 47 comments as of December 31, 2019. A Reddit forum or subreddit exclusively for "right wing, political" NPC memes without "extremist content" called r/NPCMemes was created on October 10, 2018.

Characteristics

In appearance, the NPC character is gray in color and simple in its design, with an expressionless face with a pointy nose and a blank stare. The shape of the NPC face resembles that of Wojak, and is drawn crudely.
The initialism NPC refers to non-playable character, a term used in video-games for characters the player cannot control. As such, a non-playable character in a game is controlled by the computer, and typically interacts with the player through simple and repetitive actions, such as communicating the same sentence each time the player approaches the NPC. As such, NPCs have "no internality, agency, or capacity for critical thought", they rely on scripted lines and do not think by themselves. Following the analogy of non-playable characters, the NPC meme is used to satirically depict individuals who are unable to engage in a discussion, but respond using lines resembling scripted lines in video games. If a person reasons politically incorrect, an NPC responds with discomfort. Despite being co-opted by right-wing movements to "mock leftists," both left- and right-wing NPC variants exist.
•⎳• is a kaomoji version of the NPC meme.

Media coverage

The NPC meme has been featured in major and minor news outlets alike, with frequent coverage during the peak of the NPCs popularity in fall 2018. According to The Verge, a few articles sparked a "domino effect" and led to increased spread of the meme on Twitter, YouTube and through articles. The NPC meme has been covered by news agencies of varying political stances, including Kotaku and Breitbart News Network. The conservative news media watchdog Accuracy In Media commented on the media coverage of the NPC meme ahead of the 2018 United States midterm election and stated that general news coverage of the meme was subject to "Clear Bias". This conclusion that mainstream news organizations, in general, are "politically biased" with respect to the NPC meme is also shared by the conservative news media watchdog Media Research Center.

Notable events

Twitter mass ban

In October 2018, users of r/The_Donald, a large subreddit that supported United States President Donald Trump, coordinated in creating accounts presented as NPCs on the American microblogging and social networking service Twitter. According to The Week, the accounts spread "bland, politically correct messages intended to mimic and provoke liberal pronouncements". Following the mass creation of NPC Twitter accounts, the term "NPC" was used over 30,000 times on Twitter in a time span of 24 hours. Twitter responded to the event by banning more than 1,500 of its users presenting themselves as NPCs. The created accounts typically used profile pictures of NPC with slight modifications, such as colorful hair or partially covering masks. According to one or more anonymous sources quoted by The Week and The New York Times, the users were banned for violating a term of use by Twitter against "intentionally misleading election-related content", ahead of the United States 2018 midterm election. The claim that NPC memes were used to spread misinformation about the 2018 United States midterm election is also reported by other news agencies, including The Verge, BBC and The Independent, although no examples are presented. The decision by Twitter to remove NPC accounts has upset many conservatives according to BBC, and following a review of Twitter's banning of accounts, the conservative nonprofit media watchdog Media Research Center raised the concern that Twitter was upholding a double standard favoring the political left.

''InfoWars'' competition

On October 17, 2018, InfoWars announced a competition in which participants were given a chance to win $10,000 for submitting the "best Alex Jones, Paul Joseph Watson or other Infowars-themed" NPC meme. The competition ended on October 22, 2018, and hundreds of submissions were reportedly received. Information about the competition was also announced on the subreddit r/The_Donald, and on the 4chan forum /pol/, where over 300 replies to the announcement were posted within the first 24 hours following. The winning submission in the competition, which was reported by Alex Jones on the InfoWars broadcast on November 28, 2018, was a video featuring Antifa, CNN, and the Democratic Party of the United States. The winning video, which is 2 minutes and 20 seconds long, features a man who while walking in a city, sees things around him differently when he is using sunglasses compared to when the glasses are not used. The video was published on YouTube with the title "Another NPC in the Wall" on October 21, 2018, and has been viewed more than 60,000 times.

Billboard defacing

In 2019, the NPC meme was used in the modification of two existing billboards in the United States.
On January 13, 2019, the conservative street artist group The Faction modified a billboard featuring American comedian Bill Maher in West Hollywood using the NPC meme. The billboard, advertising an upcoming season of the TV show Real Time with Bill Maher on the television network HBO, had the face of Maher replaced by that of an NPC, the text "THE WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT" replaced by "THE WHOLE NARRATIVE AND NOTHING BUT", and the text "HBO" replaced by "NPC".
On February 19, 2019, a similar modification was performed on a billboard featuring English comedian John Oliver in Los Angeles, in which the face of Oliver was replaced by that of an NPC, and text "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" was replaced by "The Orange Man Bad Show with John Oliver". The modified billboard also included the text "*MATRIX APPROVED NPC PROGRAMMING" and a speech balloon from the NPC containing a slur. According to The Daily Dot, the modification of the billboard featuring Oliver, also credited to The Faction, was an attempt to counteract the media's "Trump derangement syndrome".