I am not trying to be snarky here, but NPC means Non-Player Character. Consequently, you cannot have a player playing an NPC.

Now, if you are talking about a human being playing a character that is integral to the game, or a character that has a specific task such as handing out quests or something, would not be very cost effective at all, since essentially, the person playing said NPC would have to be on 24 hours per day in order to accommodate all players time schedules, or the parent company would have to employ that "NPC" as shift workers. Both cases would increase the overhead. Not something most businesses would be willing to do since a little programming will have the NPC there forever with no oversight.
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I think paid characters that are part of a game's story line or quest system is a great idea! I'd assume that there are thousands of MMORPG players out there who'd love to take on an "official" role in a game for very little money (maybe just a few cents per hour). I suspect that the main incentive for players would be to have fun taking on these roles, and the money is just a minor extra benefit.
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