NPCs are “non playable characters”, the characters that inhabit the video games that we play. They exist to populate the world and for specific interactions, but who are they when the player’s gaze is not around?
Total Refusal identify themselves as a “pseudo-marxist media guerrilla” and focus on artistic intervention work in the world of contemporary video games, with Hardly Working fitting into this vein of investigation/contestation of capitalist structures. Here, the idea is to give the spotlight to game’s characters that exist as background characters, providing colour and dynamism to the world but without a purpose in the game beyond their most basic function as extras in these digital worlds: the NPCs, non-playable characters. What are their days like when they’re not part of the main narrative? They become machines forced into a single constant path, without detours, until a programming glitch can release them from their servitude. (Ana Cabral Martins)
