I disagree, It's the top story on the Nintendo Switch Reddit and if you type in Dead Cells into Google 2/3 stories are covering this scandal. I think IGN will fire him and deservedly so.
Plagiarism is like the cardinal sin of any professional writing situation. You basically become untouchable if you get caught and it's so easy to get caught when you have the collective oversight of the internet involved. It's basically the most foolish nuclear option. He could have delayed the review if he was under so much pressure if we follow along your made up scenario. That's still better than stealing from someone else's content.
Because plagiarism isn't making a bad decision. In a job where reputation is everything, throwing that reputation away is everything. You have never seen a journalist of any kind getting caught plagiarising and then given the chance to do it multiple times after in the same job. Recurrent behaviour my ass lol.
Not sure if anyone has posted this yet but here’s executive editor of reviews Dan Stapleton from IGN lmao
If you are a journalist and you choose to sell your integrity and start plagiarizing at least edit the text a bit. This is blatant af lol
It always baffles me how people think that there should not be consequences for ethics violations in journalism based in video games because it is "video game". It is as if some people are still stuck in the 1970s and think it is "kids' stuff" and is utterly inconsiderate of what the medium has achieved and what they are monetarily and culturally worth today.
What a damn idiot. Kinda funny that he stole content from the very place that's making mainstream media more and more irrelevant every day though.
Why are people acting like an IGN editor is a full-time job? I think a lot of people are overestimating how much these editors make. He definitely has another job that's his main source of revenue. With that said, IGN should stop working with him. Not only becuase he plagiarized, but also becuase whatever he reviews now will be the butt of a joke. He has no more use for the site.
In journalism if you plagiarize an entire article you lose your job. It's beyond unethical, and people who usually have a history of doing it which is only found later during investigations.
Since like 50 people in this thread have used the word "journalism," I feel it should be pointed out that a video game review is not journalism. Not that it makes a difference when it comes to appropriate punitive action for plagiarism.
What? You clearly don't know what you're talking about. I know the work I'm doing now requires dramatically more time investment than all my years doing programming and IT work (which I did for more than a decade prior). Do you really think the workload is so low for this stuff? I'm often working 6 to 7 days a week just to keep up and often 10-12 hours a day during the busy times. I just did that last week, actually, again.
As someone who writes for a living and has seen several scandals like this before I do feel a certain degree of sympathy for the guy, even if it was an insanely dumb thing to do and he's probably torpedoed his career for at least the next 5 years, and he'll need to work his ass off in the (possibly unpaid) doldrums to fix his rep. The main problem seems to be the same among people I've spoken to about it; tight deadlines with a focus on being the first past the finish line, a ridiculous amount of pressure from higher-ups who don't understand or care how long something takes and a lack of compensation for time spent on said task (especially in games journalism where a lot of outlets basically won't pay you to play the game because it's "fun"). In previous jobs I've completed tasks fast and my editors have basically rubbed their hands and assumed I can do 25% more work next week. It gets very dehumanising and hard to say no when you're in a spot 1000s of people would kill for. Again, trying to pull this sort of thing at IGN of all places is just mind-boggling, but I can appreciate how insane levels of stress and anxiety about your job can lead you to make a very irrational decision.
He will probably have to move away from journalism since plagiarism is a black mark for anyone's career.
I don't get the people defending him. This is a pretty clear case. The wording is almost 1:1 the same and even the order and timestamps in the video match up. There's nothing to defend. He should have to resign. His journalistic integrity is gone and IGN wouldn't look that good if they'd just try to bury it.
And if they don't terminate his position, how can I trust an outlet that doesn't give a shit about their people plagiarising others.
What? He's not just a review editor for videogames but also accessories and other stuffs, possibly also guides if he does that, he's the person they send at nintendo events for the press, and he also has to manage the weekly podcast. Pretty sure that's a full time job.
I used to always think that the left guy made the thing, and the right guy was like "no, now I made this", but I realise the right guy actually did make it. I think the other reading is funnier though.
I'm convinced the people downplaying this never went to college or even high school and took an english class. Shit is not a joke.
Top three informative posts in the thread for posts that come up frequently: Transcript of the compared parts for people that don't look at the comparative video: Link to the press kit for the "both might be based on the press kit" scepticals: For the "he didn't even play the game" people:
In journalism plagiarizing a whole article/review isn't just a mistake. It's often a career ending mistake.
IGN Editor is a full time job. I freelanced for IGN for years. The editors I dealt with were full time, salaried, positions. I agree though, there is no room for plagiarism.
As a fellow content producer, I'm frankly baffled at the quality and amount of content you create John - I just finished watching your DF Retro on water simulation through the years and was really impressed with the depth of research, quality of writing and overall production.
The thing is, plagiarism is so unbelievably easy to catch out these days. I don’t know what the thought process going into this was really.
If what you're suggesting is that the editor who edited the writer's review should have had to look at every single YouTube review of Dead Cells before IGN's review went live just in case of plagiarism: you do not understand what you are saying or how editorial works. This is completely on the writer, though it would seem that both the IGN review and the YouTuber's review were just rewrites of a press release.
He's not for me when it comes to that podcast. I miss Jose. I stopped listening a few weeks after Filip joined because he didn't feel genuine to me. He very well could be -- I don't know him. Just my experience. Still love Peer.
It just rubbed me the wrong way because it reminds me of when I’m at work and offer help to people who I know will say no just to appear more helpful and nicer than I actually am. And it works. And it worked here.
no doubt about it for me. it's straight up plagiarism. i don't like to call for people to get fired but why would you want someone like this to work for you? I think IGN should fire him but that's up to them to decide after their investigation.
