This is a topic I’ve been meaning to talk about for some time. It is a very serious topic and one that can have serious consequences. The reason I bring up plagiarism as a topic is because of something that happened fairly recently in the world of gaming. For those that know me, I love video games. Like many people, gaming is a big hobby of mine. Before I really begin, I’m going to be posting links to the articles and videos I’m mentioning here at the end of this post, so if you’re curious about what’s going on, you can check those out. About 3 weeks ago, a YouTuber by the alias of Boomstick Gaming released a video review of a side-scrolling game called Dead Cells. He gave the game a very positive review, as did a lot of people. What’s interesting, and my timeline might be a little off, is that two weeks later an editor for the gaming site, IGN, posted his review of the game. Nothing really out of the ordinary, right? Not so fast. A little over a week ago, Boomstick Gaming released a video basically accusing this IGN editor, Filip Miucin, of plagiarizing his video. In this video, Boomstick provides a side-by-side comparison between his review and Filip’s. Towards the end of the video, it becomes very clear that Filip had literally used Boomstick’s video as a template for his own. The pacing and the sentence structure are just too similar to be a coincidence. IGN got wind of this and quickly took down Filip’s review while they investigated. Not even a full day later, IGN permanently removed the review and fired Filip Miucin. They also issued an apology to Boomstick Gaming and their audience for the situation and said they would be putting up a new review of Dead Cells the following week. A few days later, we finally get a response video from Filip himself trying to explain what happened, poorly, I might add. Mere hours after he posted that video, he pulled it after he was caught monetizing the video. In the video, Filip basically challenged the internet to find any other instance of him plagiarizing other reviews. Bad move, Filip. Bad move. Jason Schrier, an investigative journalist at Kotaku, took Filip on his challenge. According to Variety, Filip is no stranger to plagiarizing reviews. He’s been doing it for a while. About a day or so ago, IGN had announced that they were taking down ALL of Filip’s work on their site to see which piece of work was plagiarized and which ones weren’t.
I waited to bring this story up, because I wanted to see how it was going to play out, and it didn’t disappoint. Filip Miucin’s career as a “gaming journalist” is pretty much over at this point. That’s what happens when you get caught plagiarizing someone else’s work. So, what is plagiarism? Simply put, plagiarism is the act of taking someone else’s work and passing it off as your own. In other words: It’s theft. Plagiarism is something that can affect everyone anywhere. There is a reason why your school teachers tell you to do your own work and not copy someone else’s. The consequences of plagiarism can range from getting a bad grade in school to ruining your entire career and life. Everybody has done it some point in their life and sometimes it’s just a simple case of not citing your sources. What happened with Filip Miucin is one of the most egregious of plagiarism that I’ve seen in a while. The worst part about it is that he never apologized for it. He never took responsibility for copying someone else’s work and he had the audacity to call out Kotaku for investigating him. He was only remorseful for getting caught.
As a blogger and writer, plagiarism is something I try to avoid like the plague. Yeah, people do it all the time, and some don’t get caught. However, in this day and age of the internet and social media, it’s a lot harder to get away with it, because not only do you have investigative journalists like Jason Schreier keeping on eye on things, you’ve got millions of people basically scrutinizing everything you say or do on the internet. The internet does not forget and it certainly doesn’t forgive. Even 40-50 years go, if you got caught plagiarizing, it would kill your career. If you were a student, your educational prospects would be dashed on the rocks. Nobody would take you seriously. If you were working for a major publication, the damage your plagiarism could do to that organization could be irreversible. While plagiarizing might not land you in jail, the other consequences of such an activity are far more severe. It’s a selfish and lazy way of getting work done. The lesson here is do your own work and if you have to borrow a quote or something, cite the source and give credit to the original author/s, whether or not they are still alive. It’s the right thing to do, and it’s going to save you a great deal of misery in the long run. Plagiarism is a very dangerous trap to fall into and yet, it is the easiest one to avoid. There are few things in this world that are more satisfying than getting your work out there for people to see. Do it right and don’t steal someone else’s work.
Sources cited for this post:
Boomstick Gaming’s Dead Cells review
Boomstick Gaming’s IGN Copied My Dead Cells Review: What Do I Do?
Kotaku Article IGN Pulls Review After Plagiarism Accusations(Updated)
Variety Article IGN Fires Editor, Pulls Posts After Plagiarism Accusations Surface