Serious Question. Intelligent Answers Only. Do you really think NPCs can't think for themselves?
Short answer:
No they can't really think independently. They can think to some extent but their ideas are mostly copied from mainstream. The older word for NPCs is sheep. I don't know how old the term is but it's at least as old as Animal Farm from 1945. Read Animal Farm, it is 100% accurate. My theory is that sheepness is an ancient phenomenon rooted in biology/genes. If you'd read the old greeks from 400 BC I think they probably documented the phenomenon as well (can someone chime in and confirm this?). I believe the opposite to sheepness is autism. As an autist you are don't trust anyone and you do all the thinking yourself. Doing all the thinking oneself is actually very ineffective. Just blindly trusting mainstream can be a very effective strategy, especially in countries with very strict (religious) norms, values and virtues proven over centuries to create strong societies: Just mimic the saints faggots. How do you get successful as quickly as possible? You mimic someone very successful, you do whatever they do. Monkey see monkey do is ancient behaviour for good reasons. It is a highly effective strategy.
Roleplay analogy:
NPCs are like Fighters they start out with good stats and level quickly. Autists are like Mages they starts out useless and level up slowly, however at higher levels we get overpowered.
I like that analogy
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