"NPC" applied to real people is usually an alt-right dogwhistle. A cursory glance at the contents of TFA confirm that that's the sense in which it's being used. Hard pass.

If you'd like a source, the dude has a podcast listed on his own Substack with the title "Does Woke Ideology Make People Sick?" He is not, as they say, hiding his power level.

Seems like a person who has a lot of strong political opinions they don't seem to be aware of, writing a long post about how other people are silly for having political opinions.

"God it must really suck to have this kind of life, thank goodness I am fully in control of everything I do" I think as I keep scrolling through HN like I do every day.

...actually it made me close the tab and do some chores instead.

Everyone is the hero of his own tale. Anyone who behaved otherwise would be a reverse narcissist. (Inappropriately diminishing his own importance and value). We are all our own main player. The question is are we a main player to anyone who doesn’t know us personally?

A more interesting framing for “player category” would be “if an article called you out by name would anyone know who you are?” The answer for most of us is “no”. Because we’re not famous. I, for one, prefer it that way. Michael Jackson would have paid a million dollars for a single day when nobody knew who he was. There could be some interesting here, but that doesn’t seem to be the thrust of the article.

The NPC framing for common behavior patterns is nonsensical. Sure we fall into common behavior patterns but so do names everyone recognizes. Either discuss player category or discuss behavior ruts. The two areas of inquiry travel in different directions.

There might be something here (potentially two things) but the author loses the opportunity to convince by adoption a false and inappropriate framing. Revise and resubmit.