Dr Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
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edwinet.bsky.social
Dr Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
@edwinet.bsky.social
1.2K followers 56 following 77 posts
News editor at RockPaperShotgun, previously seen at Eurogamer, The Guardian, Wired and Edge - writing about (video)games, art, culture, technology - PhD poetics with a focus on procedural and erasure-based verse. He & him.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Dr Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
mackeza.bsky.social
I do not know what editors are supposed to do about the flood of AI-generated pitches. I can't be the only editor who's been caught out once or twice over my career by a writer (or a source) who was making something up. Now you can make up a whole article in seconds.

thelocal.to/investigatin...
Investigating a Possible Scammer in Journalism’s AI Era | The Local
A suspicious pitch from a freelancer led editor Nicholas Hune-Brown to dig into their past work. By the end, four publications, including The Guardian and Dwell, had removed articles from their sites.
thelocal.to
November 29, 2025 at 6:04 PM
edwinet.bsky.social
The Seashell and the Clergyman - "this is not a dream, but the very world of images that leads the mind where it would never have consented to go, the mechanism is available to everyone" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Th...
November 29, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Reposted by Dr Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
gaxix.bsky.social
I am building my own world 🌱
June 22, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Reposted by Dr Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
pjrobichaud.bsky.social
I discovered ‘Penda’s Fen’ in 2018, when I was writing on the poet Geoffrey Hill and stumbled upon this fascinating essay that reads the play alongside Hill’s ‘Mercian Hymns’ (1971):
Strange English Work: Geoffrey Hill’s Mercian Hymns and David Rudkin’s Penda’s Fen
“Child be strange, dark, true, impure, and dissonant.” Penda’s Fen. “Not strangeness, but strange likeness. Obstinate, outclassed forefathers, I too concede, I am your staggeringly-gifted child.” M…
corsepresentblog.wordpress.com
November 22, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Reposted by Dr Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
brownmoon.rip
I don’t post much on here but this came out today & I’m very proud of it.

Thanks RPS & @edwinet.bsky.social for letting me do this.

Skating, videogames…both things have had a profound impact on how and why I write, so to be able to put this article out in the world means a lot to me.
November 14, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Reposted by Dr Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
brihughespoet.bsky.social
Photos from the 2025 Small Publishers Fair! Drop by the @royalholloway.bsky.social Poetics Research Centre table for new work from the poetry and poetic practice MA pathways, PhD candidates, and staff 🧡
Three students stood behind a table covered in books and book art, some works fold out in unexpected ways across the table, whilst others sit as codex books in a range of dimensions A close up of a section of the table, featuring a matchbox with a scroll inside, envelopes with poems extending outwards, a copy of speculative frequencies Same view of table from a slightly different angle - this offers a view of ‘Millers Girl’, an envelope in pink with intricately detailed multimedia collages Photograph taken from an upper balcony of small publishers fair. Lines of tables covered in books of various colours and shapes. The room is filled with of guest moving around, some holding books and observing in close detail
October 25, 2025 at 7:01 AM
Reposted by Dr Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
brokensleepbooks.bsky.social
SUBMISSION CALL: We are open for poetry pamphlet/chapbook submissions until 30th November.

A very small percentage of people who submit actually buy a book from us. If everybody who submitted bought a book it'd be a massive boost to us.

Full guidelines here: www.brokensleepbooks.com/submissions
Poetry pamphlet submissions open! 1st October - 30th November brokensleepbooks.com/submissions
October 22, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Reposted by Dr Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
konayma6.bsky.social
Valnet unfortunately let go of the entire TheGamer features team today alongside several other staff members.

Many incredibly talented and hard working writers I've had the pleasure of working with over the past several years.
October 22, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Reposted by Dr Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
deephelldotcom.bsky.social
deep-hell.com/erotic-rifling

NEW, HOT, DARK, BEYOND: CITADEL
EROTIC RIFLING - ROSES ARE RED, VIOLENCE IS TOO
There are dozens of games like Beyond Citadel buried on Steam and itch.io, some that consider themselves artworks of erotic gore and others that split themselves into the category of surreal hyper vio...
deep-hell.com
June 30, 2025 at 10:33 PM
edwinet.bsky.social
I tried to relitigate "immersion" using Nietzsche's Apollonian-Dionysian binary. It's all Frictional's fault for turning him into a deep sea desk ornament. Also I accidentally published this on Nietzsche's birthday. HBD, Friedrich. www.rockpapershotgun.com/how-a-nod-to...
How a nod to Nietzsche in Soma got me thinking twice about that suffocating buzzword, immersion
Frictional's ocean-going philosophical horror game offers a way of rethinking the marketing cult of immersion, with some help from a legendary philosopher.
www.rockpapershotgun.com
October 16, 2025 at 7:13 PM
edwinet.bsky.social
Nice to chat with these hooligans again. Also nice to rediscover Mass Effect, sort of, and inflict knowledge of the Krogans on Nate.
totalplaytime.com Total Playtime @totalplaytime.com · Sep 25
The second episode of Text Adventure is live for Patreon backers, in which @edwinet.bsky.social joins us to judge the prequel to Mass Effect: Andromeda and Nate attempts to guess what Asari look like. Find it on Patreon and Spotify. www.patreon.com/posts/text-a...
September 27, 2025 at 6:58 AM
edwinet.bsky.social
Re. RPS freelance, I now have a budget for irregular (maybe 6-12 pieces a year) 2000-3000 wordish, more granular and specific reporting and investigative criticism that broaches a new topic or addresses a gap in knowledge regarding something familiar.
September 17, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Reposted by Dr Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
jamesandstuff.bsky.social
We're shortstaffed on RPS and need some rad PC-minded freelancers for urgent review work. Specifically:
- Borderlands 4 (yes I know it's out already)
- Dying Light: The Beast
- Silent Hill f

Standard rate is £200 GBP per review, make yourselves known at [email protected]
September 15, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Dr Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
rockpapershotgun.bsky.social
I have been dreaming of labour in Easy Delivery Co
Easy Delivery Co. is not quite reminiscent of Silent Hill and Animal Crossing, but it's not entirely unlike them either.
www.rockpapershotgun.com
September 15, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Reposted by Dr Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
oma-metal-flesh.bsky.social
TRUE ACCESS TO REALITY GUIDE
collage of lava, mountains, a time diagram, a baby in the sky the word FATE and the text: there is an absolute truth to all reality and it can be accessed through these means: A CORRECT MODE TO APPREHENDING REALITY AND ASCENDING TO INFINITE KNOWLEDGE a diagram of an aerial view of a coastal town with a red ring around the bay. Text: the true access zone. the long true reality - a young child has been born in a village in the mountains on the west coast of the peninsula. a card has been pulled from a deck and placed at its birth cot. but what can we know? a cordon has been set up around the area. collage of hand, fountain and ring on red glass with text The Year of Access a while before this year begins a finger will be extracted from the stomach of a young woman, on its base a ring. at this point a real belief is now being made it can be intensely perceived. look for a valley and a fountain. a red plane of glass, behind which there can be seen some kind of new being. diagram of pacific with a target and arrow and north sea with pacific and arrow and a crate of aluminium packages text: after the arrival of the being. there was a cold fusion event and spontaneous cratering. wo long crates lowered into the earth that must be accessed simultaneously. this cannot be done alone and you are to create a group. in the past there was a large collision, a sister collision with that in the sea. the silver pit. uncover these during a year of access.
September 6, 2025 at 2:03 PM
edwinet.bsky.social
I'm looking to commission a freelancer with knowledge of the Russian games industry and preferably some ability to read/speak Russian. If that's you, my email is in my bio: www.rockpapershotgun.com/authors/edwi...
September 8, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Reposted by Dr Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
goatsarah.org
I want to explain a few things and then it might be clearer why UK trans people are upset.
In 2001 I married my wife, Sylvia.
In 2005 I started medical transition. (1/13)
August 29, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Reposted by Dr Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
ignunion.bsky.social
Ziff Davis and IGN routinely decide that work done by our laid off colleagues is not important. But inevitably, that crucial work falls onto those who remain.

Not this time. Not anymore.
FROM NOW UNTIL FEBRUARY 13TH IGN CREATORS GUILD IS GOING TO... DO OUR JOB! OVER THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS, IGN MANAGEMENT HAS GOTTEN AWAY WITH LAYING OFF OUR COWORKERS OVER AND OVER. MEANWHILE, MANY OF OUR COLLEAGUES HAVE LEFT THE COMPANY IN NO SMALL PART DUE TO BUYOUTS, OVERWORK, AND FEELING UNSUPPORTED, EACH TIME, THE COMPANY HAS REFUSED TO BACKFILL MANY ESSENTIAL ROLES, CLAIMING WE'RE ON A HIRING FREEZE, IT'S NOT IN THE BUDGET, OR THAT WE'RE GOING TO DO LESS WORK THIS TIME. AS A RESULT, IGNCG MEMBERS HAVE BEEN FORCED TO TAKE ON MORE OF THEIR FORMER COLLEAGUES' WORKLOADS. MANY OF US NOW WORK LONGER HOURS THAN WE USED TO. A LOT OF US RARELY TAKE LUNCH BREAKS. SOME OF US DO NOT TAKE ADEQUATE TIME OFF DUE TO THERE BEING NO ONE TO PICK UP THE SLACK. OTHERS OF US ARE STUCK DOING WORK WE WERE NEVER HIRED TO DO IN THE FIRST PLACE. UP TO THIS POINT, WE'VE ALL ACCEPTED THIS AS NORMAL, BECAUSE WE CARE DEEPLY ABOUT IGN AND THE WORK WE DO. BUT WITH SO MANY OF US STRUGGLING MORE AND MORE AS EACH NEW WAVE OF OUR COWORKERS ARE DEPRIVED OF A LIVELIHOOD, THIS CYCLE CAN'T CONTINUE. MANAGEMENT IS UNWILLING TO STOP IT, SO IT FALLS TO US. WITH THE LAYOFFS OF EIGHT OF OUR COWORKERS, IGNCG HAS NEGOTIATED A SIX-MONTH RECALL LIST. WHAT THAT MEANS IS THAT, FOR THE NEXT SIX MONTHS, IF IGN WANTS TO FILL ANY OF THOSE ELIMINATED ROLES AGAIN, THEY MUST REHIRE OUR LAID-OFF COLLEAGUES. WE WANT THEM TO HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO GET THEIR JOBS BACK IF THEY WANT THEM, AND IF NOT, WE WANT THOSE ROLES BACKFILLED TO EASE THE BURDEN ON THE REST OF US. SO STARTING TODAY, LENCE MEMBERS ARE COMMITTING TO DO OUR JOBS. NO MORE, NO LESS. WELL SHOW UP TO WORK ON TIME AND LEAVE ON TIME. WE'RE TAKING ALL OF OUR LUNCH TIME, EVERY DAY. IF WE WORK LATE, WE WILL FIRMLY ASK FOR OUR RIGHTFULLY EARNED COMP TIME. AND IF IGN WANTS OUR LAID-OFF COWORKERS' WORK TO GET DONE, THEY'LL HAVE TO REHIRE THEM TO DO IT INSTEAD OF FOISTING IT UPON US. HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT IGNCG IN ALL THIS? SHARE THIS POST, AND TELL IGN MANAGEMENT THAT Y…
August 25, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Reposted by Dr Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
jessdkant.bsky.social
EHRC now saying that not only should trans people be excluded from sex segregated spaces, but ALSO those matching birth sex:

“A legitimate aim for excluding a trans person from … service for their own biological sex …to prevent alarm or distress for other service users.”
archive.ph/2025.08.07-2...
The Times understands that the guidance is still being finalised and it will not decree that services have to provide single-sex spaces, but that if they do - for example if a lavatory is intended for women - transgender women would be excluded from using it. To allow someone of the opposite sex to use the facilities would be very likely to amount to unlawful discrimination. It will also make clear that it will not be deemed as discrimination to exclude trans people from those facilities and that services will be allowed to request birth certificates to ensure single-sex services are protected. It read: "A legitimate aim for excluding a trans person from a separate or single-sex service for their own biological sex might be to prevent alarm or distress for other service users. "A trans man might be excluded from the women-only service if the service provider decides that, because he presents as a man, other service users could reasonably object to his presence, and it is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim to exclude him".
August 8, 2025 at 1:36 PM
edwinet.bsky.social
If you work at Microsoft and are participating in No Azure for Apartheid, I'd love to interview you as an anonymous source. My email is in my bio: www.rockpapershotgun.com/authors/edwin-evans-thirlwell
August 3, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Reposted by Dr Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
rockpapershotgun.bsky.social
Graham Smith is leaving RPS, come say goodbye
Graham Smith is leaving Rock Paper Shotgun after years of editorial direction. Come say goodbye.
www.rockpapershotgun.com
August 1, 2025 at 4:36 PM
edwinet.bsky.social
I wrote about Big GenAI and the scaresome poetics of generators, in what is also a "show of human disparity and ugliness straining against smooth synthesis". www.rockpapershotgun.com/we-need-to-r...
We need to reclaim software's wishing well from the cruelty of generative AI
A personal essay on the poetics and psychology of generative AI "companions" such as ChatGPT and Copilot.
www.rockpapershotgun.com
July 30, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Reposted by Dr Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
oma-metal-flesh.bsky.social
British? (ew) follow this one easy trick to access the sexual horny robot cum games of metal + flesh metalflesh.neocities.org
metal & flesh
metalflesh.neocities.org
July 29, 2025 at 3:13 PM
edwinet.bsky.social
We're finally getting rid of the miserable old bastard, with his funny ideas about "not preordering" and being "honest about your feelings". www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-sunday-p...
The Sunday Papers
The Sunday Papers is our weekly roundup of great writing about (mostly) videogames from across the web.
www.rockpapershotgun.com
July 27, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Reposted by Dr Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
igd.bsky.social
Two million people are being threatened with forced starvation in #Palestine, as the US government continues to support ongoing ethnic-cleansing.

We've created a list of on-the-ground mutual aid groups in #Gaza that you can support, amplify, and follow. itsgoingdown.org/your-guide-o...
Your Guide on How to Support Mutual Aid Groups in Palestine as Humanitarian Crisis Deepens
As we speak, up to two million people in Gaza are being threatened with starvation, as the state of Israel, backed by the US government, continues to blockade humanitarian aid into Gaza, attack basic ...
itsgoingdown.org
July 25, 2025 at 6:52 PM