Plagiarism Controversy Thread

Mr E

Seems like some drama blew up overnight - Filip from IGN has been accused of plagiarising a review from Boomstick for his Dead Cells review. Seems pretty blatant too. Did he not think anyone would notice? Apparently IGN have pulled their review so they are taking it seriously...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKF6xnvaCsE

chrislad

I thought it looked familiar when I watched, as I had watched a couple of videos prior to pre-ordering Dead Cells. How can you think you'd get away with something like that in this day and age?

blockfighter

Yikes. NVC will be interesting this week. I still haven't completely warmed to him as a presenter. He's very rigid. But getting better slowly.

CastorTroy

Fillip has been fired

https://twitter.com/IGN/status/1026972177881427969?s=19

manual_man

one strike and you're out

Mr E

Good statement from IGN though. I kind of feel sorry for the guy - I thought he was doing a good job.

Change of career time too.... it will be hard for him to get another job as a journalist.

I saw this on the NVC group:

manual_man

Mr E wrote: »

Good statement from IGN though. I kind of feel sorry for the guy - I thought he was doing a good job.

Change of career time too.... it will be hard for him to get another job as a journalist.

I saw this on the NVC group:

That other example is absurd. I'd imagine every single review expressed the same in similar (how could it be otherwise?) words.

My issue isn't Filip's guilt. As regards the Dead Cells review, the proof is pretty blatant. It's the EAGERNESS to destroy a person's career upon a single slip-up. All of us are human. For all we know, it could have been a simple case of Filip leaving it late to get the review done, and in desperation he plagiarised a review from another source to meet his deadline. Absolutely not good. But worthy of him losing his job? I'm sorry but no. It's this horrible attitude to destroy a person when they slip-up that has become an aspect of modern life (ESPECIALLY in the digital sphere) that disgusts me no end. Let he without sin cast the first stone, etc. etc.

Disgusting.

copperspock

manual_man wrote: »

That other example is absurd. I'd imagine every single review expressed the same in similar (how could it be otherwise?) words.

My issue isn't Filip's guilt. As regards the Dead Cells review, the proof is pretty blatant. It's the EAGERNESS to destroy a person's career upon a single slip-up. All of us are human. For all we know, it could have been a simple case of Filip leaving it late to get the review done, and in desperation he plagiarised a review from another source to meet his deadline. Absolutely not good. But worthy of him losing his job? I'm sorry but no. It's this horrible attitude to destroy a person when they slip-up that has become an aspect of modern life (ESPECIALLY in the digital sphere) that disgusts me no end. Let he without sin cast the first stone, etc. etc.

Disgusting.

Absurd? The structure and a lot of the words are identical, just switched around. There are other reviewers who are capable of writing reviews without plagiarising. Once would maybe deserve a slap on the wrist, but twice? Nah, the dude doesn't deserve the job.

manual_man

copperspock wrote: »

Absurd? The structure and a lot of the words are identical, just switched around. There are other reviewers who are capable of writing reviews without plagiarising. Once would maybe deserve a slap on the wrist, but twice? Nah, the dude doesn't deserve the job.

That second example is a GIANT leap to claim plagiarism. In any case, my point stands. The EAGERNESS to condemn(without possibility for absolution) in society today is fúcking DISGUSTING. None of us are perfect but this horrible vindictiveness prevalent in modern day society is a horrible reflection on a large portion of modern-day society and the utter hate in their hearts. I'll play no part in it.

Tom Mann Centuria

manual_man wrote: »

That second example is a GIANT leap to claim plagiarism. In any case, my point stands. The EAGERNESS to condemn(without possibility for absolution) in society today is fúcking DISGUSTING. None of us are perfect but this horrible vindictiveness prevalent in modern day society is a horrible reflection on a large portion of modern-day society and the utter hate in their hearts. I'll play no part in it.

I don't want to be part of a witch hunt either, I wish I no ill on the man, its laziness, not murder, but the second example of supposed plagiarism really doesn't need a giant leap, or any kind of leap, to see it. It's there.

blockfighter

He had to go unfortunately. His credibility is ruined but he doesn't deserve the abuse he's getting online. People make mistakes and he's been punished. That should be the end of it.
Not sure he was a good fit for the podcast. Would probably have been better to bring him in as a panellist first.

manual_man

Tom Mann Centuria wrote: »

I don't want to be part of a witch hunt either, I wish I no ill on the man, its laziness, not murder, but the second example of supposed plagiarism really doesn't need a giant leap, or any kind of leap, to see it. It's there.

I respectfully disagree. It's a point that i imagine was raised in the majority of reviews. There's only so many words or so many ways you can use to express the point in case.

copperspock

manual_man wrote: »

That second example is a GIANT leap to claim plagiarism. In any case, my point stands. The EAGERNESS to condemn(without possibility for absolution) in society today is fúcking DISGUSTING. None of us are perfect but this horrible vindictiveness prevalent in modern day society is a horrible reflection on a large portion of modern-day society and the utter hate in their hearts. I'll play no part in it.

Each sentence matches in content, and a lot of the words are identical. It really isn't a leap.

The guy stole another person's work and tried to pass it off as his own. Not only did he steal, he also damaged the reputation of the company he represented. He's shown himself to be untrustworthy.
He's not the victim here, all of this mess is entirely his own fault.
I wouldn't call it vindictiveness to want such a person to be replaced with someone who is capable of doing the job properly.
Maybe he'll be able to redeem himself eventually, but he'll need to work very very hard to achieve that.

Tom Mann Centuria

manual_man wrote: »

I respectfully disagree. It's a point that i imagine was raised in the majority of reviews. There's only so many words or so many ways you can use to express the point in case.

We'll agree to disagree, which seems perfectly reasonable! I do take your point otherwise about a feeding frenzy of people these days waiting to pounce. As I said, he's not a murderer.

To any people who doubt he's a serial plagiarist, read the rest of the article on Kotaku. No doubt in my mind that it's blatant plagiarism too.

Here’s an excerpt from a NintendoLife review of Fifa 18 for Switch posted on September 29, 2017:

However, because it’s not running on the Frostbite engine, FIFA 18 on Switch doesn’t play exactly like the other current-gen versions. The pace is slightly faster and player animations and physics aren’t quite as fluid, lending the game an ever-so-slightly more arcade feel (but not to any major degree).

And an excerpt from a video review from Miucin posted on October 1, 2017:

Only this time, it’s running on a custom engine that EA designed specifically for Switch, which means that it doesn’t play exactly like the Xbox One and PS4 editions of the game do. The animations and physics are definitely not as fluid and the pacing feels slightly faster, ultimately leaving the game feeling a little less realistic and slightly more arcadey.

NintendoLife:

It actually works well; as long as you aren’t a stickler for intricate animation detail, you’re going to have fun here. It runs smoother than a greased-up jazz musician too, with a full 60 frames per second in both docked and handheld mode making for a silky performance and the general feel that you’re playing a high quality product. Although its (slightly less silky-smooth) cutscenes and other close-up moments reveal that the character models are a good deal less detailed than their Xbox One and PS4 counterparts, squint a bit during normal gameplay and you’d genuinely struggle to tell the difference.

Miucin:

But when you’re playing the game, it actually works really well, and it’s easy to look past the graphical setbacks. Because whether you’re playing docked or undocked, the game seems to run at a consistent 60 frames per second, which looks silky smooth and really leaves you feeling like you’re having a true triple-A home console experience but on a console you can take with you on the go. However, when you get up close and get a good look at some of the character models, it’s pretty clear they do have a good amount of less detail than the Xbox One and PS4 versions do, but any imperfections are pretty much unnoticeable during gameplay.

CastorTroy

For all we know he could've been on a warning or probation and this is just what we're hearing about.

CiDeRmAn

You wanted a plagiarism thread you got one.

I'm thinking though now of having a very similar, almost identical thread created, but called "the thread of plagiarism controversy" and fill it with exactly the same content... for humour/meta purposes.

Notorious

manual_man wrote: »

I respectfully disagree. It's a point that i imagine was raised in the majority of reviews. There's only so many words or so many ways you can use to express the point in case.

You do that in the education sector and you’re gone. A lot of colleges wouldn’t give you a second chance either. It’s harsh, but that’s life.

You’d have to wonder about the firing. IGN Could have wanted to appease the masses by giving the plagiarist the bullet.

chrislad

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

You wanted a plagiarism thread you got one.

I'm thinking though now of having a very similar, almost identical thread created, but called "the thread of plagiarism controversy" and fill it with exactly the same content... for humour/meta purposes.

Don't be so obvious. Changes the words around. There's built in thesaurus features in Chrome so easy peasy

CiDeRmAn

chrislad wrote: »

Don't be so obvious. Changes the words around. There's built in thesaurus features in Chrome so easy peasy

But, what about using the thesaurus tools in Chrome, it's pretty simple. Incorporating word changes too will make it less obvious....

Ah, I see what you mean...

McLoughlin

I struggled watching NVC with Filip when he started he was just so nervous and out of his depth. I haven't watched NVC in a long while mainly I just don't have the time anymore.

Difficult situation for IGN considering the effort they put into getting him to the company and to be the face of its Nintendo content.

I like how they are possibly giving ad revenue from Filip's review to the original youtuber though that is a nice touch

pasta-solo

NVC hasn't been the same since Jose Otero left, but I liked Filip. This is a shame, and I feel bad for him but I guess he made his own bed. I don't agree with the vitriol aimed at him on Twitter etc, but that's to be expected these days unfortunately.

kerplun k

I feel bad for the guy. It was a stupid thing to do, but what a horrible outcome, now all of a sudden everyone knows the name Filip Miucin, and his name will be forever associated with plagiarism, that’s his whole career gone up in smoke over one very silly, albeit, serious mistake.

Thar_Cian

manual_man wrote: »

My issue isn't Filip's guilt. As regards the Dead Cells review, the proof is pretty blatant. It's the EAGERNESS to destroy a person's career upon a single slip-up. All of us are human. For all we know, it could have been a simple case of Filip leaving it late to get the review done, and in desperation he plagiarised a review from another source to meet his deadline. Absolutely not good. But worthy of him losing his job? I'm sorry but no. It's this horrible attitude to destroy a person when they slip-up that has become an aspect of modern life (ESPECIALLY in the digital sphere) that disgusts me no end. Let he without sin cast the first stone, etc. etc.

Disgusting.

I think you're letting your emotions from other issues cloud this incident. Stealing another person's material and publishing it for profit is unacceptable. It's not a small "slip-up" when it's your job to produce the content.

Corholio

Filip has been doing this for a while. I don't buy the whole 'lost his career over one mistake' thing The difference he's at IGN now so a bigger target for people to genuinely air their grievance too. He also plagiarised Chris Scullion from Nintendolife's FIFA 18 review in his own video review.

CiDeRmAn

Well, I hope he's happy in his new career Filip-ing burgers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObpcGNCU944

ERG89

pasta-solo wrote:

NVC hasn't been the same since Jose Otero left, but I liked Filip.

Fair to say that Jose knew far more about Nintendo than all the guys on the podcast after him, that's why he got a job with Nintendo.
Filip is gone but other than Peer it's the blind leading the blind on that show.
Something weird going on at IGN with Marty Sliva going recently and they announced it on a podcast as if he had committed an atrocity that viewers/listeners were unaware of.

CastorTroy

Haven't listened to NVC in a while but always like Brian and Peer. Will be interesting to see what happens. People wanting Peer to take over as host don't seem to realise it's part of the job as their Nintendo editor. So when they get a new editor, they'll have a new host.

May I suggest Arlo?

ERG89

https://twitter.com/FilipMiucin/status/485293667566252033?s=19

:rolleyes:

Mr E

Filip's last tweet is his Dead Cells review link - he hasn't taken it down (and the replies to that tweet are not kind).

McLoughlin

Mr E

I watched the whole thing (and it's terrible that his family are getting abuse on social media - that's just awful), but he lost me about the minute mark when he said it was not intentional.

I wish him the best though - I liked him on NVC.

blockfighter

His reviewing method seems flawed. He watches and reads other people's opinions and then makes his own review after that? Instead of coming up with his own individual opinion? Odd.
But i hope for his sake the abuse stops. He's been sacked. That should be the end of it.

super_furry

The part where he goes after Kotaku for pointing out that this isn't the first time he's done it is where he ends his career. Such a strange non-apology.

ERG89

super_furry wrote:

The part where he goes after Kotaku for pointing out that this isn't the first time he's done it is where he ends his career. Such a strange non-apology.

I'd nearly half believe him on the FIFA one as those reviews from my time reading them are basically all the same. The Dead Cells one though uses the structure & everything it's a bigger budget remake.
I think I seen that Jason Schrier wants to interview him & so does Colin Moriarity which is no surprise. He might make a bit of money out of this in the short run, long term tho his future is murky tbh.

Mr E

Reaction to video, plus third dodgy review found...

https://kotaku.com/former-ign-reviewer-responds-to-plagiarism-allegations-1828273219

copperspock

Mr E wrote: »

Reaction to video, plus third dodgy review found...

https://kotaku.com/former-ign-reviewer-responds-to-plagiarism-allegations-1828273219

So he's a professional scumbag then. I wonder how many more people he stole from.

Mr E

He has been ripped to pieces online. Everything he says or does is the equivalent of digging a deeper hole.

He has since pulled his video from YouTube...

This is a brilliant breakdown of the whole situation and everything that was wrong with his apology (and yet another youtuber who has gotten a subscription from me out of this).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeeywxava5A

Grumpypants

It's laughable when one if the worst youtubers out there for pulling shady **** is lecturing others on how to behave.

Mr E

Who? Yongyea? I'd never heard of him...

ERG89

Mr E wrote:

Who? Yongyea? I'd never heard of him...

No, think he's on about Filip lecturing Kotaku on their behaviour.
I like YongYea but it's so blatantly obvious he's reading off a screen it's off putting.

copperspock

Mr E wrote: »

He has been ripped to pieces online. Everything he says or does is the equivalent of digging a deeper hole.

He has since pulled his video from YouTube...

This is a brilliant breakdown of the whole situation and everything that was wrong with his apology (and yet another youtuber who has gotten a subscription from me out of this).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeeywxava5A

He ticks a lot of the boxes for what is talked about in this vid too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPhjRVji-WM&t=278s

blockfighter

The most recent episode of NVC with Zach as host was the best episode of the show in a long time. Conversation had a better flow, Zach is a lot more relaxed on camera than Filip.
Not sure who will get the gig full-time but he would be a decent shout.
It will be interesting to see do they give it to a current employee or bring in a new face again.

seraphimvc

There is a difference between 'inspired' by other's opinion or blatantly copy pasting other's work and make it yours (without crediting the source at all). He gets paid to do the writing job, not to steal other people's work; naturally he should be fired.

I am not even talking about the impact to the reputation of the represented company, pride of being a writer/professionalism etc - the whole thing is more to do with basic human decency (i.e. not stealing other people's work). Not even sure how can he tried to play victim or anyone would defend him in some way. This is 2018 like.

Corholio

His list of plagarism goes on, this may be the worst yet. He copied a post on Neogaf word for word on one of his videos about HD rumble. It really is worth listening to for how blatant and ****ty it is.

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

His video here (between 00.30-01.03)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lkqfPfXkcE

kerplun k

That’s crazy. I kind of felt sorry for him, but this is really sh1tty from him and it makes his "apology" video look even more damming.
In his video he actually called people out to find other examples, he said they won’t find any… I don't know why he would say that, because it looks like he's built his career from copying other people’s opinions. It’s bizarre.

CastorTroy

And more examples coming to light, to the point that ign are pulling all his reviews for a start. Like how in his Bayonetta 2 review he compares it to the Wii U version constantly despite having never had a Wii U.

*all information is completely from my own research.

ERG89

CastorTroy wrote:

And more examples coming to light, to the point that ign are pulling all his reviews for a start.

Nearly at the stage where I wonder how he lasted this long & how the hell IGN even hired him. I get the feeling they looked at Nintendo YouTuber's & picked him

Mr E

I see Lily Zaldivar and Brian Altano both posted personal feelings about the whole situation this morning.
They were all blindsided by him, that's for sure.


https://twitter.com/agentbizzle/status/1029605003399331840

https://twitter.com/CoolCatLilyZ/status/1029614486477398018

Very interesting thread over on ResetEra one post in particular:

IGN to scrub Filip Miucin from site almost completely after even more plagiarism surfaces

I bet he regrets calling out Jason Schrier from Kotaku in his "apology" video now. :pac:

Filip: "You can keep looking, Kotaku, and please let me know if you find anything,"
Internet: *cracks knuckles*