Short answers, pulled from the story.
A non-player character refers to any game character not controlled by a player. These entities exist only because the gamemaster decides they should be there to sell swords or offer clues about a dragon's lair.
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar marked a shift from non-branching monologues to interactive dialogue trees starting in the early 1980s. This development allowed conversations to branch into multiple paths rather than remaining static.
Replica Studios unveiled AI-developed NPCs for Unreal Engine 5 through cooperation with OpenAI in 2023. This technology enabled players to hold interactive conversations with unplayable characters using natural language processing instead of fixed scripts.
Around 2018, the term non-player character transformed into an insult used primarily online to suggest someone lacked independent thought. A grey-faced expressionless version of the Wojak meme illustrated this perception of people unable to form their own opinions.
July 2023 marked the beginning of a trend where influencers made profits from acting as non-player characters on TikTok. Pinkydoll gained 400,000 followers in the same month she started streaming while mimicking NPC behaviors and earned up to $7,000 in a single day through viewer donations.