Plagiarism among the Gaming Community

Plagiarism among journalism is perhaps one of the biggest crimes you can commit. Here, we have to talk about something incredibly important that affects us deeply.

Earlier, Filip Miucin had been fired from IGN, a media organisation that focuses on video games among other entertainment. IGN had recently posted a statement about the incident that upon the conclusion of their investigation, they deemed him culpable for plagiarism.

Plagiarism and how it harms us

Before I get into the incident, let me explain a little bit about why plagiarism harms us as a gaming community. Plagiarism is basically taking someone else's work and taking credit when it is published. While this problem isn't gaming exclusive, it is just as serious as with any fields that face it.

The reason why it is very harmful to us as a community is that it destroys the legitimacy of the industry. No one would take the gaming industry seriously if developers, journalists and other content creators just copy-pasted their work from another and said they all did it. While there are fringe cases where there may just be a coincidence but that is very unlikely.

As such, many gaming companies or platforms that host gaming content creators have a strict policy in dealing with plagiarism. The incident surrounding IGN and Filip Miucin is just one of the cases of how an organisation devoted to gaming takes this kind of issue seriously.

So what exactly happened?

Boomstick Gaming is a Youtube Channel that dedicates itself to a variety of content surrounding video games. It had done numerous reviews, tips & tricks and other light-hearted content. This incident was to do with one of his more recent content, a review of a game called Dead Cells.

On July 24th, Boomstick uploaded a video that detailed his review on Dead Cells. IGN uploaded a review on the same on the 6th of August (which has been now removed). Boomstick noticed the similarities between the two videos in terms of script and it was big enough for him to warrant uploading a comparison video between the two reviews.

Needless to say, the similarities between the two videos were so close that it was impossible to justify any of IGN's video at any point. Eventually, the allegations caught up with IGN and they took down the written and video review while they conducted an investigation. Eventually, they released a statement that included an apology and their declaration to expel Filip from the organisation.

As a producer of content, I believe that we should always hold ourselves to a high standard when it comes to the subject of plagiarism. Stealing content and passing off as one's own is something completely unacceptable. What do you think of the incident?