VG 24/7’s deputy editor Kirk McKeand decided to take shots at a trans journalist for publishing an article about the ideological divide taking place within Arkane Studios, and how it’s been affecting their corporate and social culture.
On August 28th, 2018, McKeand tweeted out the following…
As ever though, it was essentially an article created to harass two hard working women in the games industry. Weird how they always have an issue with women isn’t it?
— Kirk McKeand (@MckKirk) August 28, 2018
Actual scumbag who hides behind a pseudonym while sending people after folks in games. Proper, full blown cowardice. Angry that not every game is made specifically for him. Never seen anything so pathetic.
— Kirk McKeand (@MckKirk) August 28, 2018
Others chimed in to inform McKeand that the author of the article, Sophia N., for which he directed his indignation, is transgender.
“Him”? Nice misgendering, well done.
— Pebble&Feather (@PebbleFeather) August 28, 2018
You know she’s a trans woman, right?
— Saltasaurus (@BigSaltyBoi) August 28, 2018
that person you are referring to is a she. you wouldn’t want to seem transphobic now would you?
— Seishin (@pretendods2) August 28, 2018
This didn’t phase McKeand, though. He rounded out the initial tweet thread by telling everyone exactly how he felt about the transgender author of the article and the current situation.
Hi, I’m mad.
— Kirk McKeand (@MckKirk) August 28, 2018
McKeand’s invective towards Sophia encouraged others to take on similar frames of criticism.
Games journalists and developers who align with the Liberal agenda were quick to join in on McKeand’s pillory of the journalist, such as freelance journalist Babak Abrishamchian and PC Gamer’s Wesley Copeland.
For a subset of people so dedicated to referring to liberal ideals as “cringe,” they’ve got some garbage writing skills
— Babak Abrishamchian (@Geo_Star101) August 28, 2018
Buddy you’re looking way too into this a mysoginistic guy made a really bad take and we’re joking about it, no need to turn twitter into a symposium on the ethics of moderate generelization of mysoginists’ political ideoligies
— Babak Abrishamchian (@Geo_Star101) August 28, 2018
The fact both of us thought it was a dude is because it’s normally gamer dudebros who spout this nonsense. Has absolutely nothing to do with her being trans and you know it.
— Wesley Copeland (@Wesley_Copeland) August 28, 2018
Veteran developer Jon Jones, who produced various Unreal Engine 4 assets and worked on Just Cause 3 for Avalanche Studios, also decided to join in, humoring McKeand by denigrating Sophia.
haha! Clicked to read, then noticed the “oneangrygamer” URL. Ah yes, the angry gamer, the most boring, unclever, overused trope in game media. What an unreadable, whining mess of writing. Anyone that knows how game dev actually works knows what facile, laughable nonsense this is.
— Jon Jones (@jonjones) August 28, 2018
It is. And just to clarify, I have no inside information on the subject at hand. I just know from years as a dev on all sides of the business that the way this guy is explaining how dev works is basically an uninformed outsider that’s trying too hard to spin this to attack women.
— Jon Jones (@jonjones) August 28, 2018
haha what a doof. The URL was clue #1, seeing ‘social justice’ in quotes was clue #2, then when he went all-in on the ‘SJW’ this and ‘Anita Sarkeesian’ that I realized I’d waded too far in. What a painfully boring type of person.
— Jon Jones (@jonjones) August 28, 2018
Sophia was alerted of the conversation, and actually tweeted a correction to McKeand and Jones, noting that the content of the article had been brewing long before McKeand wrote about the Dishonored franchise being put on ice.
I’ve actually had the Dishonored news for 34 days, which Im going to assume predates your article. A source reached out that i then verified with photo proof they work at Arkane. Nothing in the piece was made up. Ive had conversations with a few ppl from Arkane for awhile now. pic.twitter.com/izMp5zjVNG
— Sophia Narwitz (@SophNar0747) August 28, 2018
McKeand proceeded to block those who even liked Sophia’s tweet.
Nevertheless, the journalist tweeted out about how McKeand – a supposed “Progressive” and Liberal – didn’t mind engaging in transphobia and misgendering so long as the individual is viewed as the opposition.
This VG24/7 editor even calls me a him. I guess transphobia is only cool if it’s against people you dislike. Again, this is what stepping off the reservation means for people like me. And he has the gall to call me a coward. JFC
— Sophia Narwitz (@SophNar0747) August 28, 2018
McKeand caught wind of Sophia’s tweets and decided to fulfill the role of the victim, claiming that he was being called a “transphobe” and that the people attempting to correct him were “pissbabies”.
— Kirk McKeand (@MckKirk) August 28, 2018
GamerGate trying to call me a transphobe now. Good times.
— Kirk McKeand (@MckKirk) August 28, 2018
*Gets a load of shit from pissbabies* Wtf? *Looks at Cheong’s timeline* Ohhhhh, my weird right-wing stalker is at it again.
— Kirk McKeand (@MckKirk) August 28, 2018
As is usual with the Liberal crowd, they decided to circle the wagons and support McKeand and his transphobic and misgendering tweets, but some people attempted to correct McKeand’s audience regarding their assumptions.
Yeah, that’s where I’m up to now.
— Kirk McKeand (@MckKirk) August 28, 2018
I have 4-5 trans friends who are a pretty outspoken gamergaters and I am trans gamergate myself, I was invited into one of the gamergate communities and they have always been nice and respectful to me.
— Katya (@qubitstudios) August 28, 2018
The #GamerGate community has been rallying in support of Sophia, especially on Kotaku in Action and on Twitter, even while Social Justice Warriors and game journalists continue to provoke and demean the budding writer. As of the writing of this article McKeand has not issued an apology.
The VG 24/7 deputy editor is no stranger to courting controversy like this, and was involved with also attacking gamers along with a Green Man Gaming representative not too longer ago.
At the moment, Sophia is still gathering funds through a GoFundme page for corrective surgery.
I attempted to reach out to McKeand to ask why he feels it’s okay to promote transphobia through social media, and what it means for the Liberal movement to maintain what some might consider bigoted stances on these sociopolitical issues, but he has me blocked on Twitter.
