David Chalmers shared his opinion in a conversation with the PC Gamer portal. He said that if people can recreate a full-fledged simulation of the human brain on a computer, they will get a consciousness similar to ours.
Chalmers stressed that any conscious being has the right to life. This should equally apply to NPCs in games.
The professor is also convinced that the metaverse will eventually become no less real than the usual physical reality. Therefore, with the development of the metaverse and NPCs in them, people will begin to devalue the time spent playing games less.