Non-Player Characters in the Real World: A Threefold Problem for Theodicies

Non-player characters, or “NPCs", are characters in video games and in tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons who are controlled by the game itself or by the storyteller, rather than by one of the players. NPCs in the real world would appear as normal living creatures, yet they would lack phenomenal consciousness. According to a popular theodical approach, God enables evil to exist because it is necessary for bringing about a greater good. However, some theodicies are built around greater goods that are obtainable even if conscious creatures hardly ever suffer and instead instances of evil mostly affect NPCs who conscious creatures cannot recognize as such. I characterize these theodicies as “NPC-inviting theodicies”, as they invite the thought that God should make NPCs exist in the real world to bring about plentiful goods with hardly any creaturely suffering. Examples of NPC-inviting theodicies include several free-will theodicies and the soul-making theodicy. I argue that NPC-inviting theodicies cannot explain why God would enable conscious creatures to undergo a great deal of suffering rather than NPCs, and I show this to be problematic for those theodicies in three ways. I then consider four possible responses on behalf of NPC-inviting theodicies.