IGN's Review Removed Due to Claims of Plagiarism

At some point, any major journalism site is going to come into some form of issue with plagiarism. Today IGN got that when their video review of Dead Cells was, at points, word for word copies of a Boomstick Gaming YouTube review from a week earlier, and at the other points minor differences in them.

IGN has since removed their review with a notice that they are investigating the issue.

N4G's policy is to remove plagiarized content, and we have. If the source refuses to remove it or doesn't take note of it, we tend to ban them as well. Luckily, IGN has recognizing the issue and, hopefully, is taking the necessary measures to prevent it from happening again as well as recognizing the seriousness of the offense.

You may watch the Boomstick Gaming video detailing the similarities below.

[UltraNova]

Too much plagiarism 6/10: IGN

[NewMonday]

LOL! XD

I never got caught in highschool because I change the whole sentence structures and make deliberate mistakes, also proof read my plagiarism. turns out to be good training for my job as an editor.

[soulrebel]

Haha, excellent work!

[Da12RespectA]

Haha! XD

People never got caught in school because they'd change the whole sentence structures and make deliberate mistakes, also proof read their plagiarism. Turns out to be great training for our jobs as editors.

[darthv72]

I watched that last night and clearly IGN used the majority of the same verbiage in the same context as well.

[RyanShutup]

"Students seldom get caught due to changes in their sentence structure. If an aspiring writer can make deliberate mistakes this also helps, and in turn will provide great training for future jobs as copy writers."

[NewMonday]

@RyanShutup

that's great work, completely omitting "roof read my plagiarism" is a pro move.

you qualify for a job at IGN, they have an opening now.

[thorstein]

Then why else did you fail my class?

[OB1Biker]

It's kinda sad they can't even do it in a clever way now. I guess that's what happens when reviewers keep checking others reviews and get over confident.

[Crazyglues]

copy and paste much..... complete fail... dude get's an F / IGN step your game up...

[RyanShutup]

edit: quote the wrong person... ah man!

[-Foxtrot]

"If the source refuses to remove it or doesn't take note of it, we tend to ban them as well"

Lol...this site would never ban IGN

IGN would go mental at Newsboiler

They can't even ban Kotaku

[OB1Biker]

Not a chance.
I've already seen it n twitter the recurring trend of blaming the gamers to deflect the BS.
For this one it's blame the gamers who blame IGN.

[Christopher]

If they refused to acknowledge content theft or plagiarism, yeah, I would. I'm certain the owners would override me, but I have no issues treating them the same as other sites in this regard.

[Thomaticus]

That's a high score. 4/10 imo. I guess you gave extra points for IGN using their own gameplay footage.

[UltraNova]

Nope, its just the fact that IGN's lowest score seems to be around the 7/10 marκ, oh and the fact that they had the balls to post such a blatantly plagiarized review like that ;-)

[TerminalGamer]

I see similarities, but it's the same game so it might just be coincidence. I wouldn't call it outright plagiarism, though.

[Kaze88]

the whole structure of the review and bullet points are the same, only the wording is a little different.

[TerminalGamer]

If the reviewer uses that same structure for all of their reviews, as most reviewers do, then it's coincidence.

You could look at past reviews of the IGN reviewers and see if it matches up if you wanted too.

[GottaBjimmyb]

I agree terminal, could be plagerism, but could also just be that there are only so many ways to describe a game, especially the more specific/niche it is.

Not saying he did not steal the format and wording, just saying maybe he did not do so intentionally and that the differences seem pretty reasonable enough to see it as possibly just a similar writing style and take on the game.

[Christopher]

The similarities are too similar, with even parts of it utilizing exact words. The probability of that happening is extremely low. There are so many words you can use to describe elements, but they both use the exact same ones and in the exact same order.

@below: Terminal, I'm not sure you understand this well enough. If I had you play the game and asked you to describe the game in a few sentences as well as hundreds of other people, the probability that any of you would use the exact same sentence is lower than the chance that you would win two lotteries in a row. There are so many ways to describe every game, but they utilized words that aren't commonly used in general to describe the exact same thing about it.

[TerminalGamer]

You can only describe gaming stuff in so many words. A reviewer can't license a phrase and get mad if someone else uses it.

[TerminalGamer]

Not if both were game writers that play a lot of the same games and you're describing a 2D platformer that is using an old stale format.

[Christopher]

***Not if both were game writers that play a lot of the same games and you're describing a 2D platformer that is using an old stale format.***

He copied things that have nothing to do with the specific game, though. For example, why would both bring up "Most games limit your most useful skills with long cooldown timers or limited mana system" word for word, at the exact same point in the reviews. What are the chances they would both make that exact same reference, at the exact same point in the review, referencing the exact same systems from other games?

"Fights are fast, fluid, responsive and hands down one of the..." is clearly plagiarism and no way in heck would two people come up with that description exactly in the same order and utilizing the 'hands down' in that specific instance as well.

And nothing in this review is old or stale, that's the whole point of the review. It is the opposite of old or stale. So you saying that makes me question if you understand what the reviewers are saying, let alone whether you understand plagiarism and how likely it is to have these number and level of similarities.

[UltraNova]

Terminal,

Watch the video again. Its definitely plagiarism. Don't forget its people who write these reviews and people react to each game/experience differently. The fact that IGN's matches words for words, lows and highs all with the same prologue, main body and conclusion elements/structure is quite telling.

[RoseSapphire]

Terminal, you're grasp of plagiarism is tenuous at best. Turn back.

[Damrock]

Did you even watch the video? Either your a huge IGN fanboy or you work at IGN not to see they ripped of this dudes review.

Structure, Bullet points and even using 99% of the dudes words yet your still defending IGN......

[Loadedklip]

^ this. If you look at the reviews, it is bullet for bullet the same exact review.

It's way too similar. Easy to spot rip off.

As for the game itself, played it on Steam Early Access, it is fantastic.

[admiralvic]

Here is the thing. While I get where you're coming from, as I've seen a fair amount of witch hunting/demonizing -a great example being someone calling attention to IGN saying almost every level having a timed door and pointing out it's actually only around half-, there are too many similar things.

Like, even if we consider structure a coincidence and similar experiences, the two reviews read less like two separate experiences and more like an editor rewrote the other. I mean, they didn't even change the order things were mentioned, nor is there different information found in one of them. This is particularly interesting, since there is a lot of things left out.

These include optional paths, hidden blueprints, daily events, higher difficulties with special doors, unusual mechanics and other things that could've been covered. I'm not saying either are bad, it's just too much of a coincidence that they're basically the same for me to believe it isn't a case of plagiarism. The IGN writer could've added something, honestly anything, to make it seem different or at least change the order and/or swap something out.

Like, removing the time gate point and talking about daily events would've made this more ambiguous, where as this is more like 'do you really think two people out of a small handful played the same game, had similar thoughts, expressed them relatively the same way and exact order independently of one another?'

[zodiac909]

@TerminalGamer What department of IGN do you work for? And how much did they pay you to say this?

[Kran]

Did you even watch the video?

You say you seem similarities but if you'd watched it fully, you'd notice it's almost a carbon copy... heck EVEN SOME OF THE SHOTS THEY USED ARE SIMILAR.

[I_am_Batman]

That's what I thought a minute into the video as well. But with the same bulletpoints appearing in the exact same order and being articulated in a suspiciously similar way it would've to be one hell of a conincidence. Statistically it seems more likely that the reviewer just copied the other review.

To be completely fair though it is obvious that the video only cuts to the very similar parts (of which there are quite a few). It also leaves out some of the parts (probably parts that are different). Unfortunately the ign video has been taken down so we can't compare the full videos to each other.

[Thomaticus]

Send me all your college papers please. I'd like to make some similarities.

[Gh05t]

I was all ready to come to the defense of IGN (not because I like them but because I believe plagiarism has a pretty high bar) Then I watched the video and I dont know how you can defend it. They clearly took one persons ideas and passed them off as their own. He clearly copied words and Idea from the other source and gave no credit. This is clearly plagiarism.

"All of the following are considered plagiarism:
-turning in someone else's work as your own
-copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit
-changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit
-copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work,
whether you give credit or not (see our section on "fair use" rules)"

(Source: Plagerism.org, lest people accuse me of plagiarizing of the standards for plagiarism. XD)

[MegaMohsi]

Dude are you being serious? If that isn't plagiarism, I don't know what is.

[Dragonscale]

@terminal, there must be something in it or ign wouldn't have removed it, some people seem to have a very loose definition of plagiarism. Tbh its lazy journalism on behalf of ign and they got rumbled. Anyhow whats with the defense of ign, didn't realise they had fanboys as well lol.

[CorndogBurglar]

"I see similarities, but it's the same game so it might just be coincidence. I wouldn't call it outright plagiarism, though."

I see similarities, but it's the same game. It might just be a coincidence. I wouldn't accuse him of plagiarism, though.

There. I just plagiarized your sentence and did it by only using similarities. What happened here is no different.

[AspiringProGenji]

Colin and Greg were right to leave that place. Ever since that the die has been going downhill

[coolbeans]

Are we really supposed to pretend they were the talent though?

[showtimefolks]

Cool

Yes Colin is awesome but Gregg since leaving has become too big and obnoxious

And the first chance he got to stab Colin in the back instead of standing up for his friend

[coolbeans]

@showtime

-Eh...I can admit to being a bigger fan of Colin's more political-oriented work. He does put in a great effort for his Colin's Last Stand gig. But in respect to being a game reviewer (what I was focusing on in 1st comment)? Both have never struck me as being insightful, and both have been a part of the IGN that handed out 9/10's like they were candy throughout the 7th gen--and still continues.

And in regards to the meat of their reviews, the memory of Greg Miller's Dead Space 2 review is still seared into my brain: http://calmdowntom.com/2011... .

I'm just not sure how someone who's been paid for years to review games thought that was a satisfactory end-product. Obviously that's just ONE singular example but my memories of IGN during 7th console gen are filled with disappointment, especially as prominent YouTubers made their way on the scene.

-"And the first chance he got to stab Colin in the back instead of standing up for his friend"

Agreed. That was a crappy move.

[generic-user-name]

Keep an eye out for drama involving Marty Sliva next.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

Are anyone major news outlets worth their salt these days? I find smaller Youtube reviews to be a better bet and even then I can cross reference with half a dozen or more.

[RoseSapphire]

Hella plagiarized. The IGN reviewer should be fired and I suspect Boomstick is going to gain himself a lot more followers.

[OhMyGandhi]

reviewer should be fired and replaced by Boomstick.

[dillydadally]

Dead Cells is a relatively smallish indie game. Usually these games only get reviewed by interns or non-staff freelancers. My guess is that's what happened here. Either an intern or freelancer sumbitted it, it looked good, so IGN published it. Probably the last time IGN will accept anything from him.

[porkChop]

Filip reviewed it. He's the host of their Nintendo podcast, and is not just some intern or freelancer. To make things worse, this appears to be his first review for IGN since he joined them 9 months ago.

[dillydadally]

@porkChop

Ouch. In that case, dude should know better and is likely to be in big trouble.

[Ausbo]

Fire him. Plagiarism is a serious offense. Dude just ruined his career over this

[eezo]

A serious matter

[TheUndertaker85]

Why not leave your original comment eezo?

[KwietStorm_BLM]

It was plagiarized.

[TheUndertaker85]

It was. It was a pisspoor attempt to have a news outlet completely banned from the site due to a single writer.

I plagiarized “why not” from their original comment. 😝

[-Ghost]

@KwietStorm LOL

[EazyC]

That's pretty awful, but I still think they do have a few great reviewers. The Australian guy who does the driving games is one of the best reviewers around.

[Christopher]

Definitely not a slight against the whole site and could even just be a mistake from a person who's actually a good reviewer. Deadlines and all, people do stupid stuff sometimes.

[TheUndertaker85]

...Then shouldn’t your whole spiel here be about a writer, not a site?

You kinda label IGN repeatedly yet never once the actual writer. In layman’s terms you’re not practicing what you’re preaching.

To make that worse a good majority of comments here involve IGN as a whole rather than again, the actual writer. So that toxicity and finger pointing in the wrong direction is occurring. One could argue because of your representation of the “facts” involved.

[Christopher]

***...Then shouldn’t your whole spiel here be about a writer, not a site? ***

You're mixing policy, which is to hold the site accountable, and personal opinion. My comments are personal, my post is official.

Regardless of my opinion, our policies dictate holding people to the same standards and baking sites accountable for their staff.

[PrinceVegeta]

Imitation is the purest form of flattery, but this IGN reviewer needs to be reprimanded.

[Lynx0207]

I wonder how many reviews are written that way.

[Cobra951]

No one can get away with it now. Someone will catch it, and then everyone will know. Internet says hi.

[Eonjay]

They will probably look at past reviews to see if it's a pattern.

[zodiac909]

IGN is the biggest joke in the industry, right up there with EA & Activision.

[CaitSith]

And Kotaku (Gawker), Polygon, NeoGAF, etc.

[Christopher]

Why people gotta leave N4G out of the 'biggest joke' list?

[NateBOY]

it was in kotaku that I found a review that agreed with me about the struggles against tiresome trolls that the new god of war had

[rob-GP]

Blatant copying but I think the bigger issue is - why was a video review posted before the embargo lifted for ALL video and written reviews which lifted yesterday? Unless he did it and omitted the score? Either way - it was clearly mentioned that all reviews of any kind were under the embargo - something they seemed to ignore?

[Gh05t]

how is breaking an embargo of a review a greater concern than arguably one of the largest video game sites reviewers are lazy and stealing the work of a smaller youtube channel?

Not saying they arent both issues but embargos get broken all the time (on purpose and by accident) and that can be handled but that is nothing in scope to a large company having to copy reviews rather than put in the time to make an honest review.

[Cobra951]

I'm all for breaking embargoes, frankly. Gags on information never sit right with me.

[deafdani]

Embargoes only apply if your copy was provided by the dev / publisher. Otherwise, they can't demand jack shit, at best they can ask you to pwetty pwease not spill the beans.

Maybe that is the case here.

[rob-GP]

The game is digital only apart from physical copies which aren't out yet. He will have obtained it off a publisher, dev or PR - I got mine via Terminals and it came with strict instructions not to break the embargo and only steam/gameplay footage with no opinions was allowed before yesterday.

sure, I agree that this issue is bigger than the whole "putting out a review early" but still, if he hadn't put it out early then the guy wouldn't have copied and this situation wouldn't have happened. Thanks to all the publicity this event is getting I would imagine whoever gave the code to the reviewer will be sure not to issue the guy with any more review copies going forward.

Breaking an embargo may seem like nothing but in the gaming industry it can actually cut off access to quite a lot of things if the team who gave you the code is one which you use a lot.

[RabbitFly]

The game has been in early access for a year.. What is this about an embargo all og a sudden?

[KwietStorm_BLM]

Super weak sauce. Regardless of "recognizing the issue," this is going to have lasting effects on their site and reputation.

[mrmikew2018]

Not really, IGN has been accused before in the past of stealing smaller site’s content.

Personally, I hope some type of punishment is set in place for these type of actions from any site is unacceptable.

However, If nothing happened back then, I don’t see anything happening now.

[Seraphim]

IGN. Bunch of Hacks who can't even play the games and write their own reviews.

[SegaGamer]

It's like i said in the other topic about this, it's pretty obvious he copied it. It also makes me wonder how often this happens and goes unnoticed.

[CrimsonWing69]

Wow, that’s pretty low.

[CarlDechance]

Damn. Career suicide right there.

[MasterCornholio]

What a way to damage credibility to your site.

They really should be ashamed of themselves.

[Cobra951]

It isn't the first time one employee's actions harm a company, and it won't be the last. I'm sure IGN is in full damage-control mode right now. Most likely, this guy's gone, along with his toxicity.

[GamingSinceForever]

What bothers me the most is that the IGN reviewer probably didn’t even play the game before reviewing it.

[Cobra951]

Yeah, this. Got busy with other stuff. Deadline loomed. He couldn't play the game, let alone write it up. So he did what he did. Or so I imagine.

[rob-GP]

I don't wanna name anyone but this is an issue I have with another site. A guy put out a review for a PSVR game which isn't even showing up on their only console as ever being played - yet they did a written and video review over it. I also see many reviews for games which he spent about 10-15 minutes playing based on in-game timers. One such was OnRush - the in-game profile said they had spent 25 minutes playing and that was enough for him to give it a full review supposedly.

[HeisenbergX]

This game really makes you feel like batman

[babadivad]

IGN are irrelevant, professional trolls.

[The 10th Rider]

I remember some study looking at Plagiarism in professional papers, finding that it is rampant.

In schools they're so highly against plagiarism that it's gotten ridiculous. I know someone who was away from internet for long periods of time while doing an online class, so she would go online and save the questions she had to answer for any given week to a computer and answer them offline, then upload them at the end of the week. Well apparently the teacher changed some of the questions at some point after the class has started because she sent an e-mail saying that the student's answers were based on last year's version of the question and they therefore *must* be plagiarized from last year. Even though she was on the other half of the country and there was absolutely no other reason to suspect that the answers were plagiarized, she had to have a skype meeting with the school board about it. I've also had teachers tell my class that sharing notes with other students is academic dishonesty and could lead to disciplinary action.

Once you're out of school it's like no one even bothers to check.

[Christopher]

Sharing notes is academic dishonesty? Makes no sense, the person still has to learn from those notes. What's next, loaning books is academic dishonesty? Sharing printers?

[The 10th Rider]

Yeah, it was rediculous. To be fair though in that instance the other teachers came to our defense and said that is absolutely not academic dishonesty.

[Gh05t]

"Sharing notes is academic dishonesty?"

Context matters a ton in this respect. For instance if I took notes about the questions on an exam that I just had and shared them with the class that hadn't happened yet, I did not give them the questions or the answers but I was still giving them an unfair advantage. (This happened a lot in one of the universities I attended). Clear eexample

Also it depends on what you are talking about. For instance If I shared my notes from the Physics or Chemistry labs then the student would have been able to completely bypass the "Lab" section of the lab and just strait up do the write ups. Clear example

Also collaboration on topics unless otherwise told it is okay is also a form of cheating at universities, which is basically sharing notes. Ambiguous but the point is do your own work unless you are told to do work as a team. Really though it is hard to prove but as long as the teacher puts it in the Syllabus or states it outright then they set the expectation, to collaborate after that fact is by definition cheating.

[ShadowWolf712]

Hell, when my mom was in college she actually wrote a report on the topic requested by their prof and got accused of plagiarizing her textbook.

When she hadn't even gotten that book yet.

[The 10th Rider]

@Gh05t,

For sure. The whole class was pretty accepting about the situations where it would be academic dishonesty . . . if she had been talking about those situations no one would have batted an eyelash. She blatantly said taking notes to study for the class and sharing those notes with another student in the same class to aid with their studying is academic dishonesty . . . basically because they should be doing the work themselves or something like that. That's just ridiculous and the other teachers in the program agreed with the students.

We also had worksheets that had to be done before the start of every single class (twice a week) and took ten hours to complete, on top of the expected reading of about four hours for each class and tests to study for. Nearly the entire class got a test question wrong because it specifically said to round to two decimal points when the typical rule is to the nearest quarter (0.25) . . . apparently the point of the question was for us to not follow the directions of the question and to go with the typical rule for rounding in that circumstance. Needless to say nearly half the class failed.

@ShadowWolf712,

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. They basically throw out an accusation of plagiarism the second there's a single hint of it, no matter how inconsequential that hint is. I think they try to shock/scare a student into admitting it, which isn't really right. If a teacher suspects plagiarism the school should first gather all the evidence and see if there's a strong case for it before straight up accusing the student of it and threatening to kick them out of the school. The amount of plagiarism in the professional world shows that their attempts to stamp it out during school don't work.

[JokerBoy422]

What? Oh no, say it isnt true! Haha anyone surprised lol?

[syphon32]

just sad... he's fired...lololol

[CloudStrife900]

Should fire the reviewer and hire the source reviewer. I mean, his content is clearly good enough or else why copy it?

[Elda]

Possibly a coincidence,though their descriptions are somewhat the same but with some different wording.50/50. On another note Dead Cells is addictive but frustrating in a good way.I played when it released 3am on PSN until 7:30am,thank God I'm still on vacation from work...lol.

[MaxiPower90]

Cant stand listening to him on the podcasts. hes such a bore and snorefest. noob mistake from him. how did he think he would get away with it.

[Majin-vegeta]

Any and all revenue made from that review needs to be going towards boomstick

[Smokehouse]

How hard is to right a game review? You can’t describe a game without cheating like it’s a college thesis. This is why gaming journalism is a joke

[ShadowWolf712]

Write*

[Smokehouse]

Lol! True. That post was plagiarized, I had to change a word so it didn’t look suspicious.

[BushLitter]

NOOB

[Neoprime]

Wow, how could you be so lazy?

[Gaming4Life1981]

lol@ign

[SixFragz]

Of course it would be IGN.

Fake gamers and crappy reviewers. Not sure if anyone even takes them as seriously anymore.

[MWH]

Dead Cells will benefit from this exposure.

[Sm00thNinja]

Gotta fire this reviewer over this. This is deliberate

[TheColbertinator]

IGN needs a wake up call

[AK91]

NO surprises here

[Tankbusta40]

What does it take to be a gaming "journalist" these days? Maybe a middle school education and left leaning political beliefs?

[neomahi]

Corporations, man. They know they can get away with anything while the little guy struggling to make a living gets the shift. It pays to get your reviews out quickly too, beat the competition to it! IGN is slow to get reviews out a lot of the time. But, IGN somehow manages to keep going after all of the issues they've had over the last while, not exactly a just world we live in.... Liberals.

[1nsomniac]

Ohh scary, I’m sure IGN is crapping themselves because N4G was going to ban them.

Haha get over yourself!

[Eonjay]

We don't need IGN to collapse or recognize N4G in order to ban them from this site for plagiarism. No one thinks IGN is even aware. Get over yourself. Please. The fact that you think they are to get some special treatment when any other site would be banned as well is really crazy.

[Christopher]

Me explaining policy to you guys isn't a threat to IGN.

[ccgr]

has recognizing the issue ???

[EnsignHiro]

You cant spell ignorant without ign. Yes its old but still holds true.

[FernDiggidy]

DAMN!!! Someone lost their job this morning.

[MoreRPG]

What a way to ruin your career in the gaming industry

[ajax17]

Why do people still visit that turgid website?

[bacrec1]

This guy is done there is no coming back from that.

[coolbeans]

Too much plagiarism 6/10: IGN

...

What? Something I said?

[ReVibe]

While we're talking plagiarism; this game's title.

[Outlawzz]

Why plagiarize a review for a good game lol if it's horrible I mean maybe you don't want to torture yourself but if I had the opportunity to review a good game the words would just pour out of me

[Tankbusta40]

Probably didn't want to play the game. I don't think many of these gaming "journalists" at these big sites are actually life long gaming enthusiasts.

[jznrpg]

Internet Garbage Now

[PCgamer98]

Lol! Did the reviewer really thought he could get away with it?

[mandingo]

Shocking

[TheOpenWorlder]

Ain't shocking. IGN blows.

[Ashby_JC]

I actually watched IGNs review for this game. Sucks that the reviewer looks to have copied someone else review. SHADY!!

[wcas]

Not surprising, IGN is notorious for censoring conservative view points on their website as well. Diversity of thought is forbidden at IGN.

[Nicknasty]

Yea right! I bet people viewers were the ones that recognized it, not ign. They have been a very shady and biased site for awhile now. They've lost all credibility.

[helghastfan]

Just an FYI for the author but Plaigairism is spelled airism and not iarism.

[1-pwnsause-1]

wtf........IGN really WTF....

[Thomaticus]

Might as well subscribe to Boomstick's youtube channel, you can get the latest IGN reviews there. lol