bruh, in academic setting, if you were found out that you plagiarize someone's work you're going to be fired
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IGN removes their Dead Cells Review, investigating plagiarism. (Update: Writer Responds)
- Thread starter Chessguy1
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Yeah, the end of Gametrailers and Easy Allies are thankfully like this as well. They were talking about this on one of their recent shows too, where at the peak of GT, the review got out no matter what, even if they had to pay freelance people. But as the site got more personality focused, they realised that people would wait as long as it was reviewed by someone they're familiar with and have built up that trust/taste index with, so reviews are done when they're done. Like they didn't get an early copy of Octopath, so the review was out this weekend by Ben Moore, resident JRPG guy, and it's a good watch.
I imagine both IGN and Gamespot are still in the GET IT OUT BY EMBARGO camp.
Of course, I was only commenting about the sobering the ego part. In this situation, not only would he have to deal with getting fired, but he also has a family to take care of. That's gotta be seriously sobering as well. That kind of mistake has serious consequences not just for him, but his family as well. Whatever happens, I just hope he learns from it.
you're fucking insane. I'm a filmmaker and a screenwriter and I have never plageeized in my entire life and I never will. And you God damn bed if I plagiarized someone else'sAnd and got caught I would never be able to work in Hollywood again.
again you and the others responding to my post trying to downplay plagiarism is blowing my mind. I pray that you and everyone else defending this don't work in an industry or plagiarism is possible. But I doubt it. Stop acting like plagiarism was a moment of weakness where he screwed up. He knew exactly what he's doing and he knew the risks involved.
EDIT: Honestly after reading the rest of the thread im not actually sure you and the others defending him really know what plagiarism is.
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Can't really blame reviewers for this.
I mean, there aren't that many ways to describe some aspects of gameplay without repeating the same thing over again.
This would be mine:
"In Dead Cell, you need to explore and fight your way through a procedural generated dungeon with different paths that can lead to many rewarding secrets or deadly encounters. At the end of each dungeon, you will fight a stage boss.
Like other rogue-like games, you won't be able to defeat the final stage boss on your first run around; but with each additional run, you get stronger by collecting up new gears and abilities to help you."
It is close enough, but it perfectly describes what Dead Cell is. Metrovania, Rogue-like, procedural, reward. I bet those key words will be found in almost every reviews.
But anyway, IGN, call me.
It's crazy! When someone did it on my site their excuse was "I gave my account to someone to help me write and they did it. Sorry about that". Basically along those lines.
I mean, even if that was true (which it most definitely wasn't), You were hired as the writer!
I'll never understand the mentality of some.
That's more of a summary of the gameplay than an opinion on how it plays, there's tons of different ways to explain an opinion without echoing someone else.
I feel like a lot of people here must not understand the severity of plagiarism. Plagiarism is not tolerated in academic and professional settings because it indicates disrespect not only for the work of others, but for their own work and for their employer/faculty/school. Not to mention it's a tremendous waste of everyone's time. Accusations of plagiarism are a scarlet letter because the accused becomes someone who is difficult to trust in a professional capacity.
It reminds me of the FAQ I wrote for Blue Stinger a long time ago. Some folks stole it and then claimed that they thought it was "public domain" and that it was okay for them to reproduce it word for word...but with my contact information removed. People....
I agree. I am a network engineer and I know what is like to work long hours to do your own things. I not trying to say that what he did is ok, I was just trying to show some sympathy since I like Filip, and he always looked like an honest guy to me. I just hope that whatever IGN decides (its their say), he is able to learn and grow from here.
This thread is BRAZY! Are people seriously expecting someone's life to be destroyed over making a mistake in a VIDEOGAME review? This is his first review, it's natural that he'd make a misstep in it as all beginners do. I hope IGN don't listen to the pitchfork mafia and do the responsible thing which is simply giving him a warning and helping him with his future reviews.
To let Filip get away with this would be a disservice to all the other journalists that work at IGN and complete their assignments in an ethical manner. It is also would be a spit in the face of the content creator for the smaller YouTube channel who had their work stolen.
There are consequences to the actions you take. If Filip wasn't ready to face the consequences tied to plagiarism, then he shouldn't have stolen someone else's work.
Simple as that.
There are consequences to the actions you take. If Filip wasn't ready to face the consequences tied to plagiarism, then he shouldn't have stolen someone else's work.
Simple as that.
This is far from his first review. Not that it would be a valid excuse anyway.
And should be his last review if he can't handle the pressure or can't just say "Hey guys, listen, I won't finish the game in time and I want to write a proper, good review, so give me 3 more days". Besides, I doubt his LIFE will be destroyed. It's not a full time job.
I think you're misinterpreting the Pitchfork Mafia for people who rightly assume that someone would be fired for plagiarism. People get sued for this shit, stop downplaying it like it isn't a big deal. Just because you probably plagiarized on an English essay in high school doesn't mean that he can do it in a professional capacity
Yeah, honestly, they should just sue Boomstick Gaming and era's mafiosis for slander.
What? No. Plagiarism is theft, it's inexcusable. You don't keep on a cashier who steaks from the til, nor do you go easy on a plagiarist. It's sad for Filip, but he fucked up royally and probably will face the consequences.
None of this is a mob takedown. It's discussion on the logical consequence of stealing work from others.
God I can't stop thinking about how stupid this is.
I really don't understand how you could plagiarize like a middle schooler in your adult job. Even if you were backed into a corner and had to get some "inspiration", why not use multiple sources for your plagiarism? Dead Cells had been in early acess for a while and there were bound to be plenty of early impressions and reviews.
But being so lazy as to only choose one and switch around a couple words is baffling.
I really don't understand how you could plagiarize like a middle schooler in your adult job. Even if you were backed into a corner and had to get some "inspiration", why not use multiple sources for your plagiarism? Dead Cells had been in early acess for a while and there were bound to be plenty of early impressions and reviews.
But being so lazy as to only choose one and switch around a couple words is baffling.
Plagiarism isn't just "a mistake". Plagiarism is the worst bullshit someone in his position can pull.
You can all argue in circles if you want, but he'll need IGN to be extra benevolent to not terminate him.
You can all argue in circles if you want, but he'll need IGN to be extra benevolent to not terminate him.
What gave you the impression it's his first review? He's been reviewing games for IGN for a while now:
Nine Parchments: http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/12/08/nine-parchments-review
Skyrim: http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/11/16/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-for-switch-review
Bayonetta 2: http://www.ign.com/articles/2018/02/14/bayonetta-2-for-nintendo-switch-review
Trailblazers: http://www.ign.com/articles/2018/03/31/trailblazers-f-zero-meets-splatoon-2
Innerspace: http://www.ign.com/articles/2018/01/16/innerspace-review
Someone please think of his children, it's just a videogame review that pays per word! It's just some words he might have or might have not copied! It's not like he's Brian Crecente and graduated from the school of abnoxious journalists! I mean, even I plagiarized my signature from my dad, does that mean all my documents are fraud? No! It just means I'm lazy as fuck and looked up to my dad, you sick fucks!
It's IGN's fault for not using Turnitin! His children shouldn't suffer because of one big old mistake. I mean, Christ, we even forgave Bill Clinton, and he still lived in White House with Hilary up until the last election!!!
It's IGN's fault for not using Turnitin! His children shouldn't suffer because of one big old mistake. I mean, Christ, we even forgave Bill Clinton, and he still lived in White House with Hilary up until the last election!!!
Plagiarism story:
There was an online pixel-art MMO game that used select user-drawn images as content in the game.
One creator was very prolific, made tons of very good art, and basically became part of the "official" team of artists (gets priority on every new content).
Everything goes well until one very busy expansion. There, one of the icons for a new drop is found by a mod to be copied from the sprite of a crystal from a JRPG.
Some other "inspirations" are found. Basically edited icons of semi-obscure JRPGs made to fit the style.
The artist gets immediately banned, and ALL of his work, starting from the beginning of the game, even the pieces that were obviously original work, had to get replaced to be safe. He was basically struck from the records.
Being also part of the priority list, I pleaded to keep some of the art that wasn't proven to be plagiarised (some cool robes). But we still had to remake everything. Plus we had to only keep the "idea" behind, and remake it entirely.
It even had repercussions on all the other creators. We had to change every piece that even was a reference to an existing piece of media (Ash Ketchum costume changed to generic Pitcher for example).
There was a case where I remade one of the monster the guy made, but my change was refused because it was too similar in concept to the original. I had to come up with something so the eye with tentacles then became an eye with fish fins instead.
To say, most players weren't happy with the changes, especially losing equipment that were references. It also slowed down all the future work. The game shut down some times afterwards.
Moral of the story: plagiarism has both an effect on all of your previous work, your past and future reputation,
as well as the reputation of the group you work for and all your colleagues.
There was an online pixel-art MMO game that used select user-drawn images as content in the game.
One creator was very prolific, made tons of very good art, and basically became part of the "official" team of artists (gets priority on every new content).
Everything goes well until one very busy expansion. There, one of the icons for a new drop is found by a mod to be copied from the sprite of a crystal from a JRPG.
Some other "inspirations" are found. Basically edited icons of semi-obscure JRPGs made to fit the style.
The artist gets immediately banned, and ALL of his work, starting from the beginning of the game, even the pieces that were obviously original work, had to get replaced to be safe. He was basically struck from the records.
Being also part of the priority list, I pleaded to keep some of the art that wasn't proven to be plagiarised (some cool robes). But we still had to remake everything. Plus we had to only keep the "idea" behind, and remake it entirely.
It even had repercussions on all the other creators. We had to change every piece that even was a reference to an existing piece of media (Ash Ketchum costume changed to generic Pitcher for example).
There was a case where I remade one of the monster the guy made, but my change was refused because it was too similar in concept to the original. I had to come up with something so the eye with tentacles then became an eye with fish fins instead.
To say, most players weren't happy with the changes, especially losing equipment that were references. It also slowed down all the future work. The game shut down some times afterwards.
Moral of the story: plagiarism has both an effect on all of your previous work, your past and future reputation,
as well as the reputation of the group you work for and all your colleagues.
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If you plagiarize an essay, you get expelled from college. If you steal another person's work and plagiarize it for your gaming publication, you sure as shit deserve to be fired.
It's a freaking videogame, it's not an essay. Is reviewing games such a chore? Especially a good one.
What a moronic thing to say. Not that I'm defending what he did, it's absolutely absurd, but writing takes work. People do that for a living and many work hard at it. On the other hand, it would have been better if he shat out a review like you say.
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Being a beginner has nothing to do with choosing to steal someone else's work and plagiarism is not a "misstep"
I mean, it'd be just as bad if it was his first, lol. What, he'd want to make a good first impression so he stole a good one he couldn't create? And who said his life should be destroyed? He just shouldn't write/present. Get another job. Let someone fit for it do this one. I used to run a Half-Life series mods fan site by myself, I was super into it and spent like 12+ hours a day on my freaking dial up checking every single relevant website, blog and forum for tidbits of information and media and dev updates and so on, building a huge database of links, emails, everything. I got to interview Valve (Erik Johnson) and SiN/Episodes developers Ritual Entertainment (Levelord and Steve "Badman" Hessel) among tons of mod teams, I was noticed for my labour of love and was given a Steam press account, got to take part in press previews of stuff like Day of Defeat: Source, the whole shebang. The site was objectively the de facto source of scene news for those who knew of it, not just for the biggest mods' big media releases but everything about everything, maybe if the news was too small on its own then I'd have it compiled in a daily or weekly separate "quick news bits" or similar post (which the other websites also copied the format of after I started doing that, lolol). The big websites like filefront/hl2files/planethalf-life and others at the time got wind of it and started literally copy pasting my posts. After being called out by myself, they started slightly rephrasing them. And there was nothing I could do back then. My e-mails about it went ignored after a while, I was banned from their forums, etc. You have no idea how much that sucked for me. This shit is inexcusable and people making noise against that behavior is a GOOD THING. You shouldn't be able to steal people's work like that. I wasn't so lucky back then and I imagine this still happens to the small time writers.
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So let's spin this further.
Let's say IGN decides he can stay. So what could happen?
IGN could loose visitors and/or advertisement deals, because of the bad reputation. Which would lead to less income.
Once this happens their parent company, Ziff Davis, will intervene and ask Peer Schneider as Chief Content Officer / EVP and Tina Amini as Editorial Manager, Games why they decided they way they did. If they feel they can't entrust them IGN anymore, they will be let go and this would be pretty bad, especially Peer.
He is a household name there and can shitshield his staff from higher ups. so that they can do what is needed. If he would be gone, Ziff Davis would entrust IGN someone who would be happy to do what Ziff Davis wants and from here on everything will go south.
Let's say IGN decides he can stay. So what could happen?
IGN could loose visitors and/or advertisement deals, because of the bad reputation. Which would lead to less income.
Once this happens their parent company, Ziff Davis, will intervene and ask Peer Schneider as Chief Content Officer / EVP and Tina Amini as Editorial Manager, Games why they decided they way they did. If they feel they can't entrust them IGN anymore, they will be let go and this would be pretty bad, especially Peer.
He is a household name there and can shitshield his staff from higher ups. so that they can do what is needed. If he would be gone, Ziff Davis would entrust IGN someone who would be happy to do what Ziff Davis wants and from here on everything will go south.
I remember when he said on his YouTube channel that he was "joining forces with IGN", except he wasn't joining forces, they were hiring him. Big difference.
Why does that matter? Because at the end of the video he went on to say how he couldn't wait to upload lots of new videos on his existing channel soon, even though he knew full well that IGN prohibit employees from having personal game channels.
He's been out of his depth since day 1.
Video for reference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P87Jfpl1_I
Why does that matter? Because at the end of the video he went on to say how he couldn't wait to upload lots of new videos on his existing channel soon, even though he knew full well that IGN prohibit employees from having personal game channels.
He's been out of his depth since day 1.
Video for reference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P87Jfpl1_I
His life won't be destroyed by being dismissed from a job where one of the core tenets is that you don't rip off others. In the real world there are consequences for this sort of thing.
No doubt hes gonna get fired for this. I feel bad for the guy, he moved out to san fran for the role He definitely seemed a little out of his depth in the role but he was getting better; this smacks of he had a deadline he couldn't hit and tried to find a quick fix.
Also, while plagiarism is definitely wrong and a fireable offence, I find the comparisons with academia to be a little far fetched. Plagiarizing work that's based on e.g. years of research and training is different to ripping off some bullet point from a game review
Also, while plagiarism is definitely wrong and a fireable offence, I find the comparisons with academia to be a little far fetched. Plagiarizing work that's based on e.g. years of research and training is different to ripping off some bullet point from a game review
Looking at the tweets he's getting, I agree it's sad how everyone is jumping on the guy with the usual bullshit. People are calling him a degenerate and all that kind of nonsense. But he's a professional paid to do a job, he can't be plagiarising his work. He's ruined his own rep and damaged IGN's, so probably needs to go. But if IGN does stick by him and supports him to do better, that would be kind of cool too.
You don't necessarily get expelled. You will be disciplined and one of those possible punishments could be expulsion but it's not the only outcome.
I hope Filip didn't copy this review. It reads like a press-release but I'm sure we will hear more soon.
Side note, was he hired to review games? I got the impression that he was hired to be a personality, since he came from a YouTube background.
In many, many other professions he'd be given the axe without question, especially considering it's his second offence as reported by others in the thread (whether or not this is the case, I am not reading 12 pages to find out so).
I think journalism as an industry is lenient as a whole, so don't expect any groundbreaking changes from this.
The most pertinent point to take from this, is that an aspiring professional has had his work plagiarised and shared across a much bigger platform (IGN). Yes, adversely he may gain many subscribers but the point is the work this guy has put in has been shamelessly copied by someone new to his role in a lazy, discreditable manner and yet the snowflake generation on here defend his actions saying he needs to feed his family.
I think journalism as an industry is lenient as a whole, so don't expect any groundbreaking changes from this.
The most pertinent point to take from this, is that an aspiring professional has had his work plagiarised and shared across a much bigger platform (IGN). Yes, adversely he may gain many subscribers but the point is the work this guy has put in has been shamelessly copied by someone new to his role in a lazy, discreditable manner and yet the snowflake generation on here defend his actions saying he needs to feed his family.
nah, the comparison is perfectly valid and he did far more than rip off a bullet point or two.
Also, plagiarism in any form is punishable by expulsion at most universities. It could be a one page paper for your 90's Television elective about your favorite episode of Seinfeld. It doesn't have to be a 20 page thesis.
Damn I was starting to like the guy... When he first replaced Otero it was rough and he seemed out of his element (the truth is, he doesn't seem to know Nintendo stuff that well) but he was getting better as a host and the chemistry with the other guys was better and better. What a bummer.
And you know, as an aside... It's so easy to rewrite something to make it your own. You read the thing you want to copy, you extract the bullet points, and you write it again with your own words. I did it in college when I needed to and it's never a problem. If you're gonna cheat, at least put a little effort into it.
IGN has been consistently not good for a while ago. The articles are subpar, the reviews are carried by the size of IGN not by the content
Also I hate when websites redesign and claim people are nostalgic that's why it's bad. The video player is garbage, layout sucks, and comment section is consistently broken on my computer.
Will firing this guy help? Probably not, but they need to do better.
Also I hate when websites redesign and claim people are nostalgic that's why it's bad. The video player is garbage, layout sucks, and comment section is consistently broken on my computer.
Will firing this guy help? Probably not, but they need to do better.
Well I just mean the bullet point good things. It's not a good look for the guy, I admit.
Folks, I'm pretty sure Horse Armour's post is satirical in nature. Come on now.
By the way what's even more confusing to me about people not seeing how serious of an offence plagiarism is is that I myself subscribe to the ideas of every creative endeavour indeed being a thinly veiled remix of other works and that society should thus restrict most copyright laws in the long run. EVEN with this perspective in mind, I think someone should indeed, without question, be fired for plagiarism in a case like this (if that's the conclusion the evidence points to). You don't get to publish someone else's work pretty much verbatim without crediting or compensating them within a professional field without facing harsh consequences.
In fact, in order to avoid journalistic bias in my review (or hell, in my own experience playing a game as a consumer – as was the case for me with La-Mulana 2 this past week) I would actively be seeking to AVOID reading any other opinion about the game in order to make my own genuine judgement known to the people who trust my sense of taste (which is presumably why they are reading my opinions in the first place.) This is basic shit and goes even further beyond actual plagiarism, which is just indefensible.
By the way what's even more confusing to me about people not seeing how serious of an offence plagiarism is is that I myself subscribe to the ideas of every creative endeavour indeed being a thinly veiled remix of other works and that society should thus restrict most copyright laws in the long run. EVEN with this perspective in mind, I think someone should indeed, without question, be fired for plagiarism in a case like this (if that's the conclusion the evidence points to). You don't get to publish someone else's work pretty much verbatim without crediting or compensating them within a professional field without facing harsh consequences.
In fact, in order to avoid journalistic bias in my review (or hell, in my own experience playing a game as a consumer – as was the case for me with La-Mulana 2 this past week) I would actively be seeking to AVOID reading any other opinion about the game in order to make my own genuine judgement known to the people who trust my sense of taste (which is presumably why they are reading my opinions in the first place.) This is basic shit and goes even further beyond actual plagiarism, which is just indefensible.
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