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

This paper analyses My Friend is A Raven (Two Star Games, 2019), a short postapocalyptic 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.