Academy of Ideas

The Psychology of NPCs – The Unthinking Masses

“Today we come across an individual who behaves like an automaton.”   Erich Fromm, Escape From Freedom In video games, an NPC, or non-player character, is a background figure who is governed by the programming of the gam...

2026-10-04

Episode notes

“Today we come across an individual who behaves like an automaton.”   Erich Fromm, Escape From Freedom In video games, an NPC, or non-player character, is a background figure who is governed by the programming of the game and capable only of performing assigned actions and repeating prewritten lines. An NPC is also a metaphor for […]


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