Poppy Wilde

Tabletop scene of a cyberpunk tabletop role-playing game setup. Spread across a wooden table are Shadowrun materials, including a “Zipfile: Dwarf Decker” character dossier booklet featuring illustrated cover art, an open rulebook, a large fold-out map of a compound, character sheets, pink-and-black dice, a pen, and handwritten notes on lined paper. Alt text from ChatGPT.

Great session of #Shadowrun this evening with @doktornick.bsky.social @harriresearches.bsky.social @andrewbell.bsky.social! I still don't feel like I actually understand the mechanics, but great world and characters (and fellow players and GM of course!) 🙌 #TTRPG 🎲🎲🎲

Hey! Scholars! If you're using someone's work in your class, sometimes it's nice to email them and tell them, because then they might feel good about their research instead of entirely crushed by the academic humanities' ongoing descent into the grave

Yesterday, those who teach Intro to Sociology at Florida colleges (as opposed to universities) received a ready-made curriculum from the state and were ordered to teach it.

Yes, you read that correctly. The *state* is enforcing a curriculum on college profs, complete w/ the following restrictions:

Bet he isn't. #RedditDown

Meowdle by Gareth Moore, Laura Jayne Ayres | Waterstones Buy Meowdle by Gareth Moore, Laura Jayne Ayres from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.

Five puzzles down of 75 from this Christmas present, which includes (entirely believable) scenarios such as "Beans, Pawl McCartney and Clive have each decided that their owner is enjoying life too much. As a result, they have each chosen to consume a plastic bag"

www.waterstones.com/book/meowdle...

A tall, narrow tower of brightly colored wooden blocks stands on a round table, with several small wooden climber figures perched on different levels near the top, suggesting multiple players ascending the structure in the game The Climbers, set against a softly blurred indoor background. (Alt text from ChatGPT)

Reader, I did not win.

Photo of the challenge climb game The Climbers, photographed with a softly blurred indoor background. A small wooden figure stands atop a tall stack of colorful rectangular blocks arranged like a stepped tower on a round table, with additional blocks scattered at the base. (Alt text from ChatGPT)

Happy Holidays to all who celebrate! A Boxing Day game of The Climbers here with the Wildes (I may win this round...)

A cup of hot chocolate with intricate leaf-shaped latte art sits on a saucer with a spoon, placed on a light-colored table. Behind it, a colorful pirate-themed board game is set up, with game pieces, cards, and tokens arranged around the board. The game is "Feed the Kraken". Alt text via ChatGPT.

Lovely evening field trip to Game Guru board game cafe for the Game Cultures research cluster! We played Feed the Kraken, me and co-pirate @harriresearches.bsky.social scored a victory against @doktornick.bsky.social @andrewbell.bsky.social @eugeniotriana.bsky.social (+ Will & Mark, non-bskyers) 🐙🏴‍☠️

Deadline for Expressions of Interest for the funded Doctoral Landscape Awards is Monday 17 November at noon. EoIs aren't mandatory, but are encouraged if you're thinking about applying. #PhDfunding #research

I'm keynoting the Animex Symposium next week! My talk is titled "The promises and pitfalls of posthuman and postanthropocene games". It currently consists of a series of bleak, existential questions. And some pics. What more could you ask for?! #GameCultures #NetZero

www.tees.ac.uk/minisites/an...

DiGRA 2026 Conference | Maynooth University, Ireland Join the DiGRA 2026 conference at Maynooth University, 14–18 June 2026. Theme “Intersectional Pleasures.” A global hybrid event for game research, culture, design, and industry.

PSA - reminder that #DiGRA2026 submissions due THREE WEEKS TODAY (deadline for full papers and abstracts Monday 1 December).

Obligatory "how is so soon??" "what I am going to submit??" panic may now commence.

www.digraconference2026.com

Really enjoyed working on mine + @doktornick.bsky.social co-authored chapter "Autoethnography as Historical Method: A Plague Tale and Authentic Experiences of the Past" for this collection, we presented the work at DiGRA25 + loved discussing the themes + methodology. The ToC for the book looks ace!

For @bcmcr.bsky.social - wrote about the our university's reading group's thoughts on a book about populist feminism, resistance against anti-gender thought, and affect-based politics. It was a fun conversation!

bcmcr.org/research/cul...

Aww shucks 🥹 thanks Reuben!

Doctoral Landscape Awards The AHRC Doctoral Landscape Award is a major new funding scheme from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). Its aim is to grow the UK’s capacity for doctoral research in the arts and humanit...

Want to do a (funded for UK students) PhD with me? If you're interested in games, posthumanism, avatars, affect, embodiment or any of the other stuff I do (or my colleagues do for that matter) take a look! www.bcu.ac.uk/research/doc... #PhDfunding #PhDstudentship #AHRC #DoctoralFunding #GameStudies

Taking zombie studies seriously with a Dead Red Zombie cocktail!

Obviously I rarely use twitter anymore but any time I am looking at it on my laptop (e.g. for my social media lectures) my little act of defiance is going to twitter./com rather than x./com just as a dig to piss off Elon Musk

Love how some games are like "this game is played with a controller" and I'm like, you *clearly* have not experienced me using a controller. WSAD ftw 👩🏼‍💻

A photo of several sets of dice used for Dungeons and Dragons (from D4s up to D20s) coloured black and gold, purple and gold, teal and gold, iridescent green and gold.

D&D time with the Game Cultures Research Cluster crew 🐲🎲🏰

Furry Studies 2025 Conference Furry Studies conference aims to promote global and cross-field collaboration among furry scholars and those invested in this fascinating and diverse community.

HOOT!

We’ve been a little quiet but we’re thrilled to announce that registration for Furry Studies 2025 in Pacific Lutheran University is NOW OPEN!
👉🏻 furrystudies.org

Hopefully see you there! 🦉

Outdoor courtyard seating area with brick flooring, green plants along the wall, and a laptop on a round table under a large umbrella. The laptop screen shows a presentation slide. In the background, through large glass doors, people are sitting indoors at a table beneath a chandelier, and are watching the same presentation slides projected to a full room of people. A decorative wall fountain and potted shrubs add detail to the courtyard.

Having a great time at #DDD17 with @annawilde.bsky.social this week! Presented my paper on death games in the "Digital Death I" panel first thing, then the "Digital Death II" panel was so full myself and others watched along on my laptop from the garden behind the conference room! @ddd17.sites.uu.nl

Broken lift bars disabled visitors from Wimbledon theatre New Wimbledon Theatre's only accessible lift was temperamental before it stopped working in March.

This is appalling - how can the theatre say they are "committed to being an accessible venue for all" when evidence shows this clearly hasn't been the case? BBC News - Broken lift bars disabled visitors from theatre
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Is anyone working on the Online Safety Act and specifically impacts on social media? I'd like to run a class on it this autumn semester for my third year undergraduates. Any resources/ideas/people happy to speak etc. greatly appreciated! #OnlineSafetyAct #SocialMedia #OnlineSafetyBill

It was supposed to be a "quick" recap, then I ended up recording a 20 minute video talking about the different roles and research, but, you know, if you're looking for something to procrastinate with... 😅 there's also a transcript on the site, + links to my abstracts and those of others in my panels

Wrote up a short piece about the Interactive Games PGR conference that took place a few weeks ago. There really were too many excellent papers to list in detail, but here I share the main idea of my keynote: allowing yourself to experiment and push theory in new directions. bcmcr.org/research/key...

Pretty wild that a month ago was the start of #DiGRA2025 - it all feels like a distant memory! This year I was lucky enough to act as a track chair, respond to student papers in the PhD consortium, and present both a co-authored paper and solo paper. I give a recap of my experiences and work here 👇

Really enjoyed today's @historygamesnet.bsky.social panel on Gender, excellent panelists and engaging discussion. A great way to end the day and a lovely opportunity to paint some (not so) innocent doors while listening 😛

Studying anything death-related for #PhD or #Masters? Join us for an informal Zoom on all things death-related - cemeteries, grief, bereavement, death and dying - all welcome. JULY 30th, 9 - 10AM free tickets here deathandsociety.org/eventsandgro... #death #dying #research #PhD

Sign the Petition Tell MasterCard, Visa & Activist Groups: Stop Controlling What We Can Watch, Read, or Play

petition links

www.change.org/p/tell-maste...

action.aclu.org/petition/mas...

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/72...

Great to meet you too Liam, really enjoyed your presentation and look forward to hearing how your work progresses!