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IGN has taken down a review of the game Dead Cells, after it was found the video was almost word for word when compared to a video by Boomstickgamer, uploaded to YouTube over a week earlier. Boomstickgamer uploaded a video comparing the two videos and contacted IGN for an explanation. IGN pulled the video almost immediately but has yet to comment on the event outside of stating that the review has been taken down and that they are investigating.

Source - Boomstickgamers video
Source - IGN's statement [mod edit] Original link removed from IGN, archive.org copy

 

[Subtle Demise]

In my eyes plagiarism is worse than copyright infringement. It requires more effort to plagiarize something than to copy and distribute it. That in itself demonstates willful intent to defraud both the audience and the original author.

 

[Kigiru]

Meh, with open internet and easier than ever access to information directly from the source, any kind of journalism is just irrelevant.
Instead of firing that dude, IGN should just cease to exist along with few other shitholes like Kotaku etc... Tho Kotaku is obviously already on the route to extinction along with the rest of Gizmodo Media Group so it's slowly happening...?

 

[TotalInsanity4]

In most cases plagiarism has to be word for word. Now the creativity level of Filip leave much to be desired, but as a person that finish college level english myself, I know enough to see that although the sentence structure and the construction of the paragraph are heavily inspired by Boomstick Gaming, the use of verbiage is changed enough for it to not be considered plagiarism (Most of the other terms used were game mechanics verbiage).

In your college level writing class, do you recall them teaching you that if you even paraphrase another person's work, you are to credit them as a source or else you've plagiarized their work?

 

[SushiKing]

I for one think he got off to easy and should be hanged.

 

[starburst]

Not getting into the details about what is the legal definition for plagiarism, as it doesn't really matter if it is plagiarism or not.
The IGN ex-employee's work was to produce an original review of the game, based on his original analysis of the game, and not in someone else's.
He failed to do his job properly, and brought in doing so very bad PR and potential loses to his employer.
The employer probably couldn't care less about the legal definition of plagiarism. For them it resulted in bad PR and loses due to an employee not doing his work properly, and I hope, not complying with the binding terms of his contract. Good riddance.

That is exactly how I see this problem, mate. Even if this were indeed not plagiarism --in which case, we should use a different word to typify his wrongdoing--, the failed at the task that he had been assigned. And in doing so, he also created a lot of 'negative noise' for the company that he works for.

 

[DaveLister]

He should know better than to copy that floppy.

 

[spectral]

Those saying he shouldn't have been fired, of course he should. He was employed as a game reviewer and now he has no credibility. No readers/viewers would trust his opinions going forward, so what exactly would they keep him employed to do?

 

[Obveron]

Explicit technical plaigerism or not, this guy is hired to play a game and review with his personal opinions, it's clear he didn't do that. He was outed and hurt the credibility of IGN, that deserves a firing.

 

[Heran Bago]

Source - IGN's statement

Dead link

 

[Uiaad]

Dead link

Will update with a screenshot of the original post when I get back at a pc, but your really not missing all that much.

 

[FAST6191]

Ooh. I wonder why it was removed. Hopefully they have a revised and updated statement to follow.

Archive.org had a copy ( https://web.archive.org/web/2018080...articles/2018/08/06/dead-cells-review-removed ) so I stuck that in the OP for the time being.

Edit.
Apparently there is a new statement on the matter (I don't know when the text post went down in this). Here it is
http://www.ign.com/videos/2018/08/09/igns-statement-on-the-dead-cells-review-investigation

 

[Song of storms]

Bumping this thread for more updates.

Filip made an """apology""" video, where he dared people to find more "plagiarism" by him because he claimed he didn't (now deleted). Someone took him seriously and found more plagiarized content:

https://twitter.com/joseph39151/status/1029209709394444288

He used a comment from a NeoGaf thread for one of his videos, word by word.

starting 0:30

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/how-does-hd-rumble-work.1336582/ post #10


How can anybody still defend this hack is beyond my comprehension. This is the kind of shit douchebag youtubers do all the time and they get away with it, profiting from others' work and claiming it as their own. This needs to stop.

 

[Chary]

To those asking - All of the author's scripted bylined content is being proactively removed for now, regardless of whether it was found to have an issue. Some of it may be restored later, some important coverage may be redone by other writers, and much of it will remain offline.

— Justin Davis (@ErrorJustin) August 15, 2018

How to ruin your career in 3 easy steps. It's especially foolish of him, as the past two guys with this job went to work cushy jobs at NINTENDO

 

[Edgarska]

The funniest thing to me is that he destroyed his career by plagiarizing game reviews.
He was getting paid to play videogames and write his opinion on them, and that was too hard for him. Other people do the same for free whether people want to read/watch it or not.

 

[jpxdude]

The plagiarism content in the HD Rumble example is completely indefensible.

 

[gameboy]

when it comes to plagiarism i see it all the time across all forms of media that it really disgusts me when people point the finger just at him when i know ive see everyone do it and not always give credit where credit is due. And its really F*CKED up.

Plagiarism is something that was very serious when writing was basically the only form of media and entertainment before radio then tv and vice versa, but now its the year 2018 and there are more ways to express "plagiarized" 'opinions' or 'created' content or think that an idea is completely original when they were unknowingly created when a IDEA was "plagiarized" and none of it can be controlled.

Take Amy Schumer for example, half the people say she plagiarized jokes the other half say she didnt, and its impossible to know where the joke originated and if that was stolen too but popularized by someone else and so on and so forth. I was listening to Colin Moriarty's take on it and the way he expressed his written opinions just seemed constructed in a cookie cutter rhythm and pace and beat that for sure as hell was definitely 'plagiarized'. Im not not saying his expressed opinions were plagiarized but his way of expressing it sure as hell were to someone elses rhythm, beat and cookie cutter video essay structuring. But its a crazy world we live in where elitists exist and they must exact their elitism unto others

 

[Edgarska]

when it comes to plagiarism i see it all the time across all forms of media that it really disgusts me when people point the finger just at him when i know ive see everyone do it and not always give credit where credit is due. And its really F*CKED up.

Plagiarism is something that was very serious when writing was basically the only form of media and entertainment before radio then tv and vice versa, but now its the year 2018 and there are more ways to express "plagiarized" 'opinions' or 'created' content or think that an idea is completely original when they were unknowingly created when a IDEA was "plagiarized" and none of it can be controlled.

Take Amy Schumer for example, half the people say she plagiarized jokes the other half say she didnt, and its impossible to know where the joke originated and if that was stolen too but popularized by someone else and so on and so forth. I was listening to Colin Moriarty's take on it and the way he expressed his written opinions just seemed constructed in a cookie cutter rhythm and pace and beat that for sure as hell was definitely 'plagiarized'. Im not not saying his expressed opinions were plagiarized but his way of expressing it sure as hell were to someone elses rhythm, beat and cookie cutter video essay structuring. But its a crazy world we live in where elitists exist and they must exact their elitism unto others

The difference is, there is clear evidence in this case, so there's no question that his reviews weren't original. The best you could argue is that the people he stole from also stole from someone else, but that doesn't excuse him in any way.
As for it being elitism, that's just stupid, he was being paid to do a job, he didn't do it, he got fired over it, because that's what happens when you get caught not doing your job.

 

[sarkwalvein]

Plagiarism is serious. It was serious, it will always be serious.
That many people are lucky get away with it makes it no less serious.
I assure you many rapists got away with their crimes, never being identified or somewhat avoiding the legal system.
It doesn't make rape any less serious, and pointing out that you are mad some offender is being targeted while there are many that got away with it makes no sense to me tbh.

 

[gameboy]

The difference is, there is clear evidence in this case, so there's no question that his reviews weren't original. The best you could argue is that the people he stole from also stole from someone else, but that doesn't excuse him in any way.
As for it being elitism, that's just stupid, he was being paid to do a job, he didn't do it, he got fired over it, because that's what happens when you get caught not doing your job.

evidence or not, im pointing the finger at everyone else thats pointing the finger at said editor. We can all say it was a crediting issue and he was fired for not being original enough. It is elitism and a lot of time hypocritical. Sure, if everyone dug deep into everyone, we'd all be fucking ridiculed for plagiarism then. Most people in the world are cookie cutter people plagiarism cookie cutter ideas and passing it as their own, from writing to speaking to expression to likeliness and efverythi you can thing of.. Plagiarism extends way beyond writing now but some people only acknowledge it when it comes to writing and plagiarize everything else. What it really comes down to though for most is profit

 

[Edgarska]

evidence or not, im pointing the finger at everyone else thats pointing the finger at said editor. We can all say it was a crediting issue and he was fired for not being original enough. It is elitism and a lot of time hypocritical. Sure, if everyone dug deep into everyone, we'd all be fucking ridiculed for plagiarism then. Most people in the world are cookie cutter people plagiarism cookie cutter ideas and passing it as their own, from writing to speaking to expression to likeliness and efverythi you can thing of.. Plagiarism extends way beyond writing now but some people only acknowledge it when it comes to writing and plagiarize everything else. What it really comes down to though for most is profit

That's nice, but again, it doesn't excuse the one that did get caught. Now, if you want to go after anyone who has ever knowingly plagiarized anything, be my guest, I'd honestly like for everyone who has claimed someone's ideas as their own to be punished for it.
I still don't understand what you mean by saying it's elitist to hold people accountable for their actions.