NPC

npc (non player character)
usually used to refer to characters in an mmorpg that are computer controlled
wow that npc is selling cheap swords!
non-player character. in general, any character (human or otherwise) in a role-playing game that is not controlled by someone playing the game.

in a tabletop rpg, the game master or equivalent (the person running the game) will generally act/speak the parts of all npcs. these npcs can range anywhere from an innkeeper the players talk to in order to rent a room to the mysterious woman who follows your party along for her own unknown reasons only to backstab you right when you were starting to trust her. it’s up to the gm.

in larp, the people running the game will again play the npc parts, and may enlist others to be npcs. in an ongoing game, larp npcs tend to be the characters who are either too temporary or too important to be done by a given player.

in single-player video game rpgs, npcs are anyone who isn’t your party. they generally aren’t referred to as such in this context because “the guy next to the weapon shop” works just as well. these npcs have a set dialog, and most will repeat the same thing they say every time you try to talk to them. several webcomics have poked fun at this.

and in a mmorpg, the npcs are the characters controlled by the server. they often have some kind of distinguishing feature, such as listing their trade in their status window or their name being displayed in a different color of text. as with single-player rpgs, these npcs will tend to have set patterns of behavior and often must be interacted with to achieve some objective or another.
i need someone who’s not playing a regular character to be a npc today.

talk to the npc by the gates to start the item collecting quest.
any of a wide variety of unthinking, robot-like employees who provide the terrible customer service that defines many venues of one’s commercial pursuits. npc activity is varied, but includes:

-responding to all questions with rote, scripted dialogue, whether it applies to the current situation or not.
-attempting to continue with a procedure, even though it has become quite clear that a required piece of equipment is obviously not functioning, or absent.
-generally refusing to recognize that the stimulus of their npc behavior is a human being, and not another npc.

alternatively, an npc is any automated phone answering system that attempts to do anything but connect you with the party to whom you most need to speak.
1. i’ve been on hold with customer support for over half an hour because the npcs can’t stop using the pre-scripted questionnaire long enough to know that my problem is not on their list!

2. customer: hi, can i get a diet c-ke and 6 orders of french fries?
npc: would you like fries with that?
unimportant people in life. basically, people you never could or would care about. they may occasionally provide useful information, but they tend to repeat it over, and over, and over, until another important event occurs for them to talk about.
that guy is is such an npc. what’s his name? never mind, i really don’t care.
non-pc, not politically correct
r-t-rd is a npc term for a mentally challenged person.
national people’s congress – china’s non-elected legislature, it’s highest lawmaking body.

fits perfectly with the common definition of npc as “non-player character” as the lawmakers in the npc are government (computer?) controlled and not accountable to the chinese people.
the npc quashed hopes of universal suffrage in hong kong
fict-tious persons who feature heavily in the social lives of some people.
i’m in love with that npc.