Posthumanist, post-apocalyptic, and post-anthropocentric possibilities: Kantian morals and posthuman ethics in My Friend is a Raven

Wilde, Poppy (2024) Posthumanist, post-apocalyptic, and post-anthropocentric possibilities: Kantian morals and posthuman ethics in My Friend is a Raven. Journal of Games Criticism, 16 (A). ISSN 2374-202X

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Abstract

This paper analyses My Friend is A Raven (Two Star Games, 2019), a short post-apocalyptic game with four potential endings. Playing as the lone survivor of the world, Lutum, we unlock different endings through our exchange with the titular Raven. Depending on the navigation through the game, I argue Lutum either demonstrates an anthropocentric disregard for the Raven, or a posthumanist ethic of viewing the Raven as an equal, and even a friend. I explore how the game echoes either humanist or posthumanist ideologies. On the one hand, morality tales are often centred around ideas of individuality, responsibility, choice, and self-reflection. These all align with humanist ideals of the ‘rational self’, rather than questioning wider structures, environments and affects. However, there are still examples in the game of how the different endings suggest right and wrong ways to act that move beyond the human. Drawing on wider discourses around humanistic, Kantian understandings of morality versus posthumanist ethics, I consider how ‘the good ending’ offers a potential for an ethico-onto-epistemological way of being. Through my analysis I therefore demonstrate that the gameplay offers a range of perspectives on the response-ability of humans when confronted with post-apocalyptic scenarios, with the labelled endings suggesting lessons for a post-anthropocentric future. I also explore how material meaning-making occurs through the intra-action between player and game, allowing different material configurations of the world to emerge.

Item Type: Article
Dates:
Date
Event
25 September 2024
Accepted
20 December 2024
Published Online
Uncontrolled Keywords: posthumanist, post-apocalyptic, post-anthropocentric, morality play, Kantian morals, posthuman ethics, multiple endings, My Friend Is A Raven, meaning-making, intra-action, ethico-onto-epistemology
Subjects: CAH24 - media, journalism and communications > CAH24-01 - media, journalism and communications > CAH24-01-05 - media studies
Divisions: Faculty of Arts, Design and Media > College of English and Media
Depositing User: Gemma Tonks
Date Deposited: 07 Jan 2025 10:20
Last Modified: 07 Jan 2025 10:20
URI: https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/16060

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