About This Presentation: This is a philosophy and game studies presentation featuring the game, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (2014, 2015), a first person horror adventure game developed and published by The Astronauts. The presentation explores the rhetoric and the ethics of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter using the following theories: Baruch Spinoza's monism. Additional themes explored are: Conformity vs. Individuality, Fantasy vs. Reality, Child Abuse, Trauma, Confronting the Truth, Unreliable Narrator, Fragmented Memory, Memory and Identity, Memory and Truth, Multiple Consciousness, Subjectivity and Reality, Multiplicity of Truth. ------------------------------------------------------------------- This presentation was featured at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Games and Simulations Network live webcast on April 29, 2018. The live webcast video was recorded and made available on Youtube, as well as made available in this presentation. Please feel free to watch the video while exploring the presentation.

1. Ethics & Games:
Sherry Jones
Philosophy & Game Studies
Twitter @autnes
The Vanishing
of Ethan Carter

2. About this Presentation
This presentation was featured at the International Society for Technology in
Education (ISTE) Games and Simulations Network live webcast on Apr. 29, 2018.
The live webcast video was recorded and made available on Youtube, as well as
made available in this presentation.
Please feel free to watch the video while exploring the presentation.

3. Recorded Live Webcast

4. ⧞ What is The Vanishing oF Ethan Carter?

5. First Person Horror Adventure Game
❖ The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (2014, 2015) is a first person horror
adventure game developed and published by The Astronauts.
❖ Released on MS Windows, Playstation 4, and Xbox One.
❖ Famous for its innovative storytelling techniques, harmonious
gameplay, and environmental design, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
won the “Best Game Innovation Award” at the 2015 British Academy
Game Awards (BAFTA).
❖ One of the game’s innovations is the use of photogrammetry
technology to create realistic environments.

6. Example
Photo-
Grammetry
Used In The
Game

7. Game Story: Key Elements
❖ TVEC is set in the fictional town of Red Creek Valley, Wisconsin.
❖ The game story revolves around Paul Prospero, a paranormal
investigator who receives a fan letter from a 12 year boy named Ethan
Carter, who lives in Red Creek Valley.
❖ Prospero decides to visit Red Creek Valley, but discovers unsettling
paranormal activities that reveal abuse, murders and deaths that
occurred in Ethan Carter’s family.
❖ Playing as Prospero, the player is led by the voice of Prospero who is
acting as the player’s avatar and as the narrator of the game.

8. Narrative Design of the Game
The Astronauts team applied the “4 Layer Narrative Design Approach” by
Thomas Grip (of Frictional Games) to create the narrative of TVEC:
❖ Layer 1 - Gameplay (Coherency, Streamlining, A Sense of
Accomplishment, Action Confirmation).
❖ Layer 2 - Narrative Goal (Mystery, Uncomfortable Environment,
Character Conflict).
❖ Layer 3 - Narrative Background (Story Fragments, Complementary
Dialog, Emotionally Significant Assets).
❖ Layer 4 - Mental Modeling (Danger, Goal-Focused Mystery, Social
Pressures)
-- Thomas Grip (2014)

9. Game Situations and Themes (Mature)
❖ The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a horror adventure game, so some of
the game situations and themes, which include murders and deaths,
are more appropriate for a mature audience.
❖ Themes: Conformity vs. Individuality, Fantasy vs. Reality, Child Abuse,
Trauma, Confronting the Truth, Unreliable Narrator, Fragmented
Memory, Memory and Identity, Memory and Truth, Multiple
Consciousness, Subjectivity and Reality, Multiplicity of Truth.
❖ The gameplay experience shows the strangeness of reality by making
scenes, people, and objects disappear or reappear.

10. A Railcar
Disappears
Into Thin Air

11. ⧞ Ethical Theory Relevant to the Game

12. Baruch Spinoza’s Monism and Ethics
❖ Known as one of the greatest rationalist in 17th century western
philosophy, Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) created a
rationalist philosophy (proposing a monist view of God) that
influenced the ideological development of the 18th century
enlightenment era.
❖ In latter half of this presentation, I will apply Baruch Spinoza’s monist
view of God to analyze the ethics of detective Paul Prospero’s actions
in The Vanishing of Ethan Carter.
❖ First, we will need to analyze the game narrative and mechanics for
meaning.

13. ⧞ Game Narrative Puzzles and Mechanics

14. Design of Narrative Puzzles and Mechanics
❖ There are 10 main narrative scenes (levels) in The Vanishing of Ethan
Carter. Each game scene offers various types of puzzles with different
mechanics.
❖ Mechanisms include:
➢ Point-and-click on puzzle pieces in chronological order.
➢ Insert objects in the correct slots of a puzzle.
➢ Sync elements to the right location to activate a puzzle.
➢ And more.

15. By the Way,
No Hand
Holding
Offered.

16. ⧞ Puzzle Mechanics: Sense Trap, Reveal Rift

17. Sense Trap,
Reveal Rift
(1 of 11)

18. Sense Trap,
Reveal Rift
(2 of 11)

19. Sense Trap,
Reveal Rift
(3 of 11)

20. Sense Trap,
Reveal Rift
(4 of 11)

21. Sense Trap,
Reveal Rift
(5 of 11)

22. Sense Trap,
Reveal Rift
(6 of 11)

23. Sense Trap,
Reveal Rift
(7 of 11)

24. Sense Trap,
Reveal Rift
(8 of 11)

25. Sense Trap,
Reveal Rift
(9 of 11)

26. Sense Trap,
Reveal Rift
(10 of 11)

27. Sense Trap,
Reveal Rift
(11 of 11)

28. ⧞ Puzzle Mechanics: Sync Words To Location

29. Sync Crow,
Reveal Rift
(1 of 2)

30. Sync Crow,
Reveal Rift
(2 of 2)

31. ⧞ Puzzle Mechanics: Point-and-Click Light Puzzle

32. Light Puzzle
(1 of 9)

33. Light Puzzle
(2 of 9)

34. Light Puzzle
(3 of 9)

35. Light Puzzle
(4 of 9)

36. Light Puzzle
(5 of 9)

37. Light Puzzle
(6 of 9)

38. Light Puzzle
(7 of 9)

39. Light Puzzle
(8 of 9)

40. Light Puzzle
(9 of 9)

41. ⧞ Puzzle Mechanics: Reading Notes Activate Dialog -
A Dialog Between Grandpa Ed and Ethan

42. Note On Sap
Activates
Ed-Ethan
Dialog
(1 of 5)

43. Note On Sap
Activates
Ed-Ethan
Dialog
(2 of 5)

44. Note On Sap
Activates
Ed-Ethan
Dialog
(3 of 5)

45. Note On Sap
Activates
Ed-Ethan
Dialog
(4 of 5)

46. Note On Sap
Activates
Ed-Ethan
Dialog
(5 of 5)

47. ⧞ Puzzle Mechanics: Inspect Scene,
Make Deductions

48. Railcar
Inspection
(1 of 8)

49. Railcar
Inspection
(2 of 8)

50. Railcar
Inspection
(3 of 8)

51. Railcar
Inspection
(4 of 8)

52. Railcar
Inspection
(5 of 8)

53. Railcar
Inspection
(6 of 8)

54. Railcar
Inspection
(7 of 8)

55. Railcar
Inspection
(8 of 8)

56. ⧞ Puzzle Mechanics: Newspapers Reveal
Narrative Background (Clues)

57. News About a
Fire
(1 of 3)

58. News About a
Fire
(2 of 3)

59. News About a
Fire
(3 of 3)

60. News About
Moonshine
(1 of 2)

61. News About
Moonshine
(1 of 2)

62. News About
NASA
(1 of 2)

63. News About
NASA
(2 of 2)

64. ⧞ Game Narrative Expresses Game Rhetoric

65. Rhetoric of Memory Fragments and Character
Dialogs
❖ Throughout the storyworld of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, there are
numerous notes, magazines, and objects strewn around the
environment that reveal the game’s rhetoric on issues such as the
multiplicity of reality.
❖ Characters’ dialogs, as well as Prospero’s internal dialogs, also reveal
the game’s rhetoric that influenced Ethan Carter’s thinking.

66. ⧞ Game Rhetoric: Is Ethan Omniscient?

67. Intro: Secrets
(1 of 9)

68. Intro: Secrets
(2 of 9)

69. Intro: Secrets
(3 of 9)

70. Intro: Secrets
(4 of 9)

71. Intro: Secrets
(5 of 9)

72. Intro: Secrets
(6 of 9)

73. Intro: Secrets
(7 of 9)

74. Intro: Secrets
(8 of 9)

75. Intro: Secrets
(9 of 9)

76. ⧞ Game Narrative: Reality Is Not What It Seems

77. Not an
Ordinary Place
(1 of 5)

78. Not an
Ordinary Place
(2 of 5)

79. Not an
Ordinary Place
(3 of 5)

80. Not an
Ordinary Place
(4 of 5)

81. Not an
Ordinary Place
(5 of 5)

82. ⧞ Game Rhetoric: To Conform Is To Be Real

83. Don’t Rock
the Boat
(1 of 6)

84. Don’t Rock
the Boat
(2 of 6)

85. Don’t Rock
the Boat
(3 of 6)

86. Don’t Rock
the Boat
(4 of 6)

87. Don’t Rock
the Boat
(5 of 6)

88. Don’t Rock
the Boat
(6 of 6)

89. ⧞ Game Rhetoric: Blame the Child
(Attribute Supernatural Causes)

90. It’s Ethan’s
Fault
(1 of 9)

91. It’s Ethan’s
Fault
(2 of 9)

92. It’s Ethan’s
Fault
(3 of 9)

93. It’s Ethan’s
Fault
(4 of 9)

94. It’s Ethan’s
Fault
(5 of 9)

95. It’s Ethan’s
Fault
(6 of 9)

96. It’s Ethan’s
Fault
(7 of 9)

97. It’s Ethan’s
Fault
(8 of 9)

98. It’s Ethan’s
Fault
(9 of 9)

99. ⧞ Game Rhetoric: The Future Is Unknowable

100. The Magician
(1 of 9)

101. The Magician
(2 of 9)

102. The Magician
(3 of 9)

103. The Magician
(4 of 9)

104. The Magician
(4 of 9)

105. The Magician
(5 of 9)

106. The Magician
(6 of 9)

107. The Magician
(7 of 9)

108. The Magician
(8 of 9)

109. The Magician
(9 of 9)

110. ⧞ Game Rhetoric: Does Your Moral Actions
Affect Your Future? (Question Your Morality)

111. The Witch
(1 of 8)

112. The Witch
(2 of 8)

113. The Witch
(3 of 8)

114. The Witch
(4 of 8)

115. The Witch
(5 of 8)

116. The Witch
(6 of 8)

117. The Witch
(7 of 8)

118. The Witch
(8 of 8)

119. ⧞ Game Rhetoric: Time Is Indestructible
(Time Is Forever)

120. The Train
Puzzle
(1 of 19)

121. The Train
Puzzle
(2 of 19)

122. The Train
Puzzle
(3 of 19)

123. The Train
Puzzle
(4 of 19)

124. The Train
Puzzle
(5 of 19)

125. The Train
Puzzle
(6 of 19)

126. The Train
Puzzle
(7 of 19)

127. The Train
Puzzle
(8 of 19)

128. The Train
Puzzle
(9 of 19)

129. The Train
Puzzle
(10 of 19)

130. The Train
Puzzle
(11 of 19)

131. The Train
Puzzle
(12 of 19)

132. The Train
Puzzle
(13 of 19)

133. The Train
Puzzle
(14 of 19)

134. The Train
Puzzle
(15 of 19)

135. The Train
Puzzle
(16 of 19)

136. The Train
Puzzle
(17 of 19)

137. The Train
Puzzle
(18 of 19)

138. The Train
Puzzle
(19 of 19)

139. ⧞ Game Conclusion
(SPOILERS AHEAD!)

140. The Game Conclusion: It Was All An Illusion 1
The conclusion of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter remains one of the most
surprising and most shocking in game stories. Here is the reality:
❖ Paul Prospero finds out that he is only a figment of Ethan Carter’s
imagination; Prospero is only one of many personalities created by
Ethan’s writing.
❖ Ethan hides in a room inside his family’s mansion to get away from his
abusive family, who denigrates Ethan’s desire to write, to fantasize.
❖ His mother accidentally sets fire to the mansion, leaving Ethan with no
way to escape from his room.

141. The Game Conclusion: It Was All An Illusion 2
❖ Ethan creates the personality of Paul Prospero to help himself
confront the “truth” of his situation, and to help himself eliminate the
fantasies that serve to protect Ethan’s mind from experiencing pain
and suffering (due to smoke inhalation and being burned alive in his
room within the mansion).
❖ Accepting the reality of his own identity as a figment of Ethan’s
imagination, Prospero helps Ethan accept the reality of the fire, and
helps Ethan pass on to death.

142. Applying Philosophy
and Ethics of Baruch
Spinoza’s Monism to
Examine the Game,
The Vanishing of
Ethan Carter

143. Review: Baruch Spinoza’s Monism and Ethics
❖ Known as one of the greatest rationalist in 17th century western
philosophy, Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) created a
rationalist philosophy (proposing a monist view of God) that
influenced the ideological development of the 18th century
enlightenment era.
❖ Spinoza’s view of God as an absolute being of substance (an essence
that precedes and includes nature) serves as an argument against the
Christian view of God as an absolute being of spirit (a being that is
separate from and rules over nature).
❖ Let us discuss, in-depth, what Spinoza’s view of God is.

144. Spinoza’s God 1
❖ In his book, The Ethics, Spinoza argues that God is a substance from
which all beings are derived, and from which all thoughts are
conceived. In other words, God = Nature.
❖ The Monist Philosophical Argument: There is no separation between
being and God; Since God is a substance that is eternal and indivisible,
and consists of all things, all beings are thus derivatives of God (i.e.
parts of the totality of God).
❖ Spinoza’s God consists of infinite attributes, but the two attributes
that are knowable to human beings are “extension” and “thought.”

145. Spinoza’s God 2
❖ “Extension” and “Thought” are two completely different attributes of
God that have no causal relationship (since neither attributes are
based on matter, which follows the law of causality in the physical
universe).
❖ All bodies are extended from God’s attribute of “extension,” an
essence.
❖ All reasons follow God’s attribute of “thought.”
❖ Using reason, human beings can intuit ideas about Nature based on
sense experience of Nature (even if our knowledge about Nature is
limited by our finite sense experiences).

146. Spinoza’s God 3
❖ If all human thoughts follow from God, and all human knowledge are
mere intuitions of our limited sense experiences of God, which is
Nature itself, then what does it mean to be an ethical and virtuous
person? What ethical rules should human beings follow?
❖ For Spinoza, to be an ethical person is to exercise our intellect (ability
to reason) for the purpose of knowing God (Nature).
❖ To follow our passions (desires) is a way to lead us astray from
reason; to be ethical, we must deny our passions, and exercise our
intellect to know God.

147. Connection Between Spinoza’s God and The
Vanishing of Ethan Carter 1
❖ Paul Prospero, who is a figment of Ethan Carter’s imagination, is a
being whose body and thoughts are extended from Ethan Carter.
❖ In this sense, Ethan Carter is God and Nature that consists of Paul
Prospero.
❖ As an ethical being, Prospero explores Nature (Red Creek Valley) and
intuits knowledge about Red Creek Valley, and in turn, knowledge
about Ethan Carter.

148. Connection Between Spinoza’s God and The
Vanishing of Ethan Carter 2
❖ At the end of the game, upon discovering the truth that he is only a
figment of Ethan Carter’s imagination, Prospero resisted the
temptation (desire) to deny his reality as an extended being of Ethan.
❖ Prospero acted ethically by accepting his reality, accepting what Ethan
Carter is and means to him, and helps Ethan Carter transition to the
after life.
❖ It is in the act of denying his passion (desire) to deny, the truth, to
flee away from the knowledge of himself and of Ethan Carter, that
Prospero acted as an ethical person.

149. Presentation by:
Sherry Jones
Philosophy & Game Studies SME Lecturer,
Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design
ISTE Games and Simulations Network Leader
http://about.me/sherryjones
Twitter @autnes
sherryjones.edtech@gmail.com