Hoo boy, here we go.

I can hear the “REEE” already. No, I’m not going to complain about violence, sex, or laziness. I’m thinking of subtler, more insidious damage. I’m talking about the damage that comes from solely interacting with NPC’s.

According to Wikipedia, an NPC, or “non-playable character, is any character in a game which is not controlled by a player. In video games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer via algorithmic, predetermined or responsive behavior, but not necessarily true artificial intelligence.” In a single-player game, this is every inhabitant of the world, aside from you — the player. You’re Link, and Zelda and all the villagers are NPC’s. The damage from this is two-fold.

First, the assumption that other people exist for a single purpose and have no life outside of that. In a game, a character might exist solely to ask you to gather her lost chickens and give you a reward when you’re done. That’s it. If you’re lucky, she’ll have an extra line of dialogue which she repeats every time you try to talk to her. If you transfer that mentality to real life, then you think the smart guy next to you in math class only exists to help you with your homework. He’s a real person, growing and changing every day. Humans are not static like NPCs. Treating them as such can do real damage to your interpersonal reactions and respect for other people.

Second, every conversation with an NPC is one-sided — but not the way you think. The player character is designed to be as generic as possible so that you can insert yourself into his shoes, which means he hardly does any talking. Every time you talk to an NPC, they steer the entire conversation and you’re just left to agree with them. This is even more damaging than the first point because it undermines your initiative. You treat life like a story that’s happening to you and wait to be told what to do. There’s never a shortage of people telling you what to do, but do they tell you to do what you want to do?

I’m not saying that kids shouldn’t play video games, but mixing in multi-player games and interactions with real life friends is important. Kids should also be encouraged to write their own stories, whether through creative fiction or playing make-believe. And when you take your kids to a doctor or restaurant, let them make their own choices and speak for themselves, even though they’ll feel uncomfortable and awkward. They’ll thank you in twenty years.