An 11-year-old in Mill Creek, Washington, was stabbed multiple times in a dollar tree after calling a 29-year-old man an “NPC.” NPC stands for Non-Player Character and is used to describe any character in a video game that is not controlled by the player. Friendly NPCs often engage in repetitive, predictable behavior, leading to the term “NPC” being used as an insult when used to describe another person. While it’s nothing new for NPCs to be used as insults, it seems to have become more prevalent recently.
The term is used to insult someone’s intelligence since NPCs are forced to do whatever they’re programmed to do and aren’t smart enough to really make their own decisions. Social media is full of people calling each other “NPCs” and even going so far as to purposely act like real-life NPCs in prank and comedy videos.
On Wednesday, March 22, Joshua Fedorov and his 11-year-old friend yelled at a stranger, identified as Joshua Fedoroff, 29, according to Fox 13 Seattle. david burns. The children called Pence an “NPC,” and Pence allegedly responded by brandishing a knife and herding the children into a Dollar Tree store. Pence reportedly stabbed the 11-year-old multiple times, injuring his lungs and liver. The 11-year-old was hospitalized but survived the attack and returned home. The family has set up a GoFundMe for those interested in donating. Meanwhile, Pence has been arrested and charged with two counts of assault, one of assault with a weapon and one of assault on a child.
Whenever there are news stories about real-world violence involving video games in some way, they usually revolve around sales blunders, not someone using a video game-related insult. Over the years, there have been multiple reports of people being attacked when trying to sell or buy a video game console after meeting someone they met through sites like Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace.
In other cases, people themselves have been attacked for video games. For example, there was a reported incident in Malaysia where a teenager was beaten by angry fathers who allegedly took bribes for the man’s son to win a game they played at a gaming store, but won anyway. In another incident, a Pokemon GO player was jailed for seven years for hitting other players with a metal pole.
Photo by Scott Rodgerson on Unsplash