Fired IGN Nintendo editor responds to plagiarism accusation (Update: More examples discovered)

This week's NVC was indeed a bit more natural and fun than it has been, as Filip wasn't really as strong a personality - he was improving though. The apology sucks a bit because there is no admittance, I don't know to what level IGN allows him to fully admit to plagiarism, but the reactions from his colleagues are making me believe his intentions less and less.

I think he definitely used the other review as a firm template that he simply reworded, perhaps because his initial drafts were being constantly rejected, and the deadline was looming with crazy amounts of pressure - and I wish he had gone to that level of detail in his response, instead of painting a picture of "I read lots of things and I just happened to reconstruct one specific review by accident".

In reality, he was probably ignorant of the gravity of doing that rewording to begin with, coming from youtube - but that doesn't take away from the seriousness of the offense, I'm getting to understand that more as I read more about it. A full admittance even if the intention wasn't to cause anyone harm, would have been a more respectful approach to the public.

However, he already got enough punishment, and to the extent that the industry deemed appropriate, which is fair - now I hope he moves on as a human and finds another path.

Batatina said:

This week's NVC was indeed a bit more natural and fun than it has been, as Filip wasn't really as strong a personality - he was improving though. The apology sucks a bit because there is no admittance, I don't know to what level IGN allows him to fully admit to plagiarism, but the reactions from his colleagues are making me believe his intentions less and less.

I think he definitely used the other review as a firm template that he simply reworded, perhaps because his initial drafts were being constantly rejected, and the deadline was looming with crazy amounts of pressure - and I wish he had gone to that level of detail in his response, instead of painting a picture of "I read lots of things and I just happened to reconstruct one specific review by accident".

In reality, he was probably ignorant of the gravity of doing that rewording to begin with, coming from youtube - but that doesn't take away from the seriousness of the offense, I'm getting to understand that more as I read more about it. A full admittance even if the intention wasn't to cause anyone harm, would have been a more respectful approach to the public.

However, he already got enough punishment, and to the extent that the industry deemed appropriate, which is fair - now I hope he moves on as a human and finds another path.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

But he didn't own up and he put shade on Kotaku for reporting another case of plagerism. People deserve to be mad and upset to this video as he didn't apologize and own up for what he did. I hope other gaming media shows highlight this such as Kinda Funny, Giant Bomb and etc.

jschreier said:

Wow. Wow. I can't believe he went after me personally and denied the (very obvious) FIFA 18 NintendoLife plagiarism. Clearly this guy has not learned anything. I wonder how many other times this has happened that we don't know about yet.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Exactly I hope you call him out. You have a huge following.

Perhaps someone should make a YouTube video of his response about him not taking ownership. He states it was unintentional, this YouTube video should show evidence how this is not unintentional. Show the transcripts and order of the reviews he copied. Also show that he has not actually apologised and him going after Kotaku for showing another case of plagerism is out of order.

The reason I say a nice put together YouTube video is because his audience can actually understand this. A nice write of on Kotaku is also good but a YouTube video would go much further for his audience.

This guy probably should have just not said anything. It was pretty open and shut but now this has made him look like an actual dickhead.

saenima said:

It's at a little over 4.000 now. He lost around 20.000 patrons in less than a year. Even if we took the number of patrons as the sole indicator of his success as an Historian, he could still be considered a failing one, at that loss rate. Though 4.000 is still too much for the nonsense he produces. And the history videos are only 1 of 4 things he produces btw.

Not that any of this nitpicking matters. It was a joke, so...

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

where'd you get wild numbers like that? only two creators on patreon have more than 20,000 patrons total. at his peak moriarty had like 6.5k patrons and has now plateaued at around 4+k.

Milennia said:

He actually goes after Jason in this for doing his job, at least Jason does his job properly.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Yeah not the smartest idea to go after a guy who literally wrote his own book and had to have impeccable sourcing in order for it to get published...

I had some sympathy for the guy before this video, assuming he was just young, naive and made a mistake trying to deal with the pressures of a role above his skill level.

But this video shows no understanding of his mistake, no attempt to understand, and no serious apology or remorse. He still appears to think he has done nothing wrong?

In no way does he deserve the abuse he has received, but I can't help being really disappointed by this. I really wanted to be on his side, but it seems he still has a lot of growing up to do.

Juke Joint Jezebel said:

It's a standard confession/apology/statement staple. There's a good video from Bobby Burns breaking down these kind of videos:

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Watching this first and then clicking on the video in the OP where it opens with the *sigh* sure gave me a laugh

Boomstick gaming needs to release another video and shred him apart.

"The bottom line is this wasn't intentional"
"Research"
"All journalist work the same way"

The fuck. We need major players like Kotaku, and Boomstick gaming to respond to this terrible video

He never once directly admits to plagiarism. Fucking say it man.

Then on top of not admitting guilt for plagiarism, he goes after other people (Jason Schreier) in the same video.

Nice.

The Silver said:

Watching this first and then clicking on the video in the OP where it opens with the *sigh* sure gave me a laugh

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Yup, I knew the video from some other thing, and whenever you see the sigh now, you absolutely know what you're in for. It's so predictable once you're being shown.

A thief is a thief and it cannot be undone with an apology.

Funny how everyone who does wrong shit on the net immediately makes an apology video. You do not need to imho. Actions speak louder than words. Improve yourself and after a while people might judge you differently.

"My review process isn't really that different from other reviewers that I've met while working as a professional in the games media industry, and the formula stays the same for whatever product I'm reviewing. I do as much research as I can about it, wether it's a game, a product, or an eventm I try to look at all resources that I have available to me before I start formulating my own critical opinions, so that I can offer the most cohesive possible review."

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

I find this bit kind of insulting to actual reviewers, who you know play the game, as it implies they too simply read the info kit and "research" a review to re-use as their own.

big_z said:

I find this bit kind of insulting to actual reviewers, who you know play the game, as it implies they too simply read the info kit and "research" a review to re-use as their own.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Is it all that surprising that a plagerist has zero respect for reviewers?

Reading the Twitter replies for this video gives me hope. There aren't as many people attacking him outright, but disagreeing and upset at this terrible video. As long as people expose him for what he is.

So not a actual apology, dude is actually trying to claim it was accidental lmao

You can't plagiarize the original as close as he did without being intentional . It's impossible.

Has any apology video ever NOT backfired?

saenima said:

Failing Historian looking to get back into gaming by attaching himself to the latest outrage. Sad!

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

I remember Colin's last podcast with Kinda Funny, he kept going on about finally doing something that mattered and covering games was a waste of time. No one cared about his political videos and he ran back to gaming.

He even fails at sucking up and trying to show as the better man by having nothing but good words towards the people he wronged since soon after that part he goes after people calling him out, implies everyone else works the same, he never really admits doing anything wrong (in which case he should sue IGN for an unjust firing or whatever and make big money if he really finds there's nothing wrong in his actions) and ultimately there's no real response there, at best he's implying but not even directly saying that it was an accident just because he had seen that review among many many others before doing his so it wasn't intentional he just somehow thought of a near identical approach without realizing he's copying what he already had seen, lol? And then he plays the victim card like this is his first day on the internet and he never had, intentionally or not, mobs of people who didn't like a video of his or whatever, trash talking online.

MoFo2 said:

Has any apology video ever NOT backfired?

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

A non-insignificant number of people will always find some insufficiency and blow it up in any public apology.

That being said, Filip's apology is worse than most other apologies I've seen, and its deficiencies are readily apparent.

That being said, a bad non-apology is not a horrible crime (the plagiarism was worse, and he already got fired for that), so people should leave him alone and let him find a way to recover and be better. It's not surprising to me that he's not responding to a firing and self-inflicted up-ending of his life in the healthiest way.

Anybody else from IGN react to this? I know Dan Stappleton, Tom Marks, and Justin Davis have, but I wasn't sure if anyone else had since I went to bed.

SchuckyDucky said:

Anybody else from IGN react to this? I know Dan Stappleton, Tom Marks, and Justin Davis have, but I wasn't sure if anyone else had since I went to bed.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

What did they say

Also I can't actually believe he is monetising the apology video

Kingpin Rogers said:

He didn't go into too much detail tbh, just says that what happened wasn't intentional which is hard to believe considering how similar the two reviews were.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

I guess he means getting caught wasn't intentional.

I dont think no one said here that he is a sociopath. What i and other people said is that he seems like a sociopath because of the lack of empathy for the copied youtuber, IGN and his friend there, and the people watching this mess. And sociopaths are not inherently bad. In this case I think is more a defense than anything. If not, wtf is he thinking.

He states he takes ownership of what happened

But says every reviewer works like him

He said he did research and it was unintentional

How can you take ownership but not agree to plagerising it doesn't make sense. Why not put a case against IGN firing if you disagree.


Or is he just unhappy he got caught and using basic tactics such as playing victim, taking a deep breath before this non apology, saying stop bullying IGN etc and the hate mob who send silly messages is a good thing to address and I agree with him but everthever else seems like he has actually not addressed this at all I hope he is reading comments and responding but I have a feeling he is blocking and deleting constructive criticisms of his new apology video.

I can't believe he made a response like this. It's basically 5 minutes of him dancing around the issue and not even apologizing or acknowledging he fucked up. Better then to not post anything at all.

At least we now know we he has to plagiarise the writing of others. This script isn't an effective apology.

No apology will be effective if it's monetised, of course.

best non-apology of 2018 so far
I like his style, they should hire him over at IGN

Why not, I guess? He was already getting thrown out on his ass, might as well shit his pants and land softly. There's surely a crowd out there that's into that kind of thing...

lemonade said:

Colin has developed a victim syndrome. The truth is he quit on his own over something he thought was big but in truth just a stupid joke not that many people cared after two days.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Two days? Era hated his guts after that joke (and they still do) that were banned from. Along threads about him here.

Masterspeed said:

The people defending him on Twitter blow my fucking mind. I'm seeing stuff like "We all make mistakes" and "He lost his job, stop kicking him while he's down"

This is ridiculous that people think like this.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

As opposed to what? Kicking him while he's down?

Some of you want blood spilled here.

I don't want to give him a click but I also want to hear the asinine malarkey he uses to defend his blatant plagiarism.

AztecComplex said:

As opposed to what? Kicking him while he's down?

Some of you want blood spilled here.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

The people sending him abusive messages are in the wrong.

However people have given concise informative arguments why this apology is not right. Instead he ignores it, likes the omnebts that blindly praise him, monetizss his apology video. Says he takes onwershil but doesn't admit to plagerising, goes after Kotaku for exposing him for another similar time he did the same thing, still doesn't apologize for.copying Boomstick, says he knows other reviewers do the same thing.

I don't see it as a bad thing people disagreeing and upset at this video just as long as they do it without being abusive

AztecComplex said:

As opposed to what? Kicking him while he's down?

Some of you want blood spilled here.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

No, we want someone who plagarized and stole content to own up and accept responsibility for his actions. The fact he's doubling down on not owning up to it while he has people like you saying "don't kick him while he's down" is how people get away with not learning from their mistakes.

Jersey_Tom said:

I don't think you'd need to be an expert in FIFA to say that it's a big deal that they're getting the Champion's League this year or make a comment about the Ultimate Team feature.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Well if you haven't read previews or other coverage of the game and hadn't played recent entries you literally wouldn't know those things were even new.

So while I can form my own opinion on these features and what they add, I might actually need to be told that they're new. That's what I mean by making sure you hit the right beats. It's something of a necessary evil sometimes.

None of this really applies to Dead Cells which is neither part of a series nor something that requires any familiarity with a genre, though.

BassForever said:

No, we want someone who plagarized and stole content to own up and accept responsibility for his actions. The fact he's doubling down on not owning up to it while he has people like you saying "don't kick him while he's down" is how people get away with not learning from their mistakes.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

but why? What benefits do we as a society gain from Filip Muicin coming clean? His reputation is already dirty. People are either going to throw him out or stick with him, despite what he did.

and who cares if he learns from his mistake.

angelgrievous said:

but why? What benefits do we as a society gain from Filip Muicin coming clean? His reputation is already dirty. People are either going to throw him out or stick with him, despite what he did.

and who cares if he learns from his mistake.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Because these people often find themselves teaming up with the alt right/white nationalist. See people like snake boi Colin reaching out to him. As a society we all benefit if people actually learn from their mistakes and do the right thing. Letting these people fall into the cracks and become radicalized is how we get into the mess we have today.

angelgrievous said:

but why? What benefits do we as a society gain from Filip Muicin coming clean? His reputation is already dirty. People are either going to throw him out or stick with him, despite what he did.

and who cares if he learns from his mistake.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

So you think people shouldn't expect for someone to own up after proof that he plagerised, people shouldn't be dissapointed with his monetised non apology and not call him out for it. I understand no one should send hateful messages but people are allowed to call him out for this video.

He doesn't have to respond but it downstairs make him look good not responding to constructive criticism of his new video.

He wants to survive as a YouTube content creator and I think people calling him out for this non apology will have an impact of his career as a content creator on YouTube so it is working.

Yeah I see a lot of plagiarism in my job, and there's really only two types:

1) I gave an opinion that was heavily formed by someone else's writing and didn't realize it needed to be sourced.
2) I straight up stole someone else's writing because I didn't want to do my homework.

This guy reads a lot more like number 2.

The thing about that video....

It makes it a lot easier to imagine how he reacted when the bosses at IGN pulled him into a room and asked him to explain.

Complete and utter denial I would imagine.

BassForever said:

Because these people often find themselves teaming up with the alt right/white nationalist. See people like snake boi Colin reaching out to him. As a society we all benefit if people actually learn from their mistakes and do the right thing. Letting these people fall into the cracks and become radicalized is how we get into the mess we have today.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Please stop going off topic stuff like this is not actually relatable to the topic at hand and stop mentioning Colin, admins have already warned about this numerous occasions.

Trying to connect this video to being alt right is ridiculous

If call bs, it doesn't line up at all with Altanos statement on Twitter about asking for help. He probably told IGN the truth and word got around.

He is playing the victim card here. Smh, so many better ways to go about it.

KALOSMANI said:

So you think people shouldn't expect for someone to own up after proof that he plagerised, people shouldn't be dissapointed with his monetised non apology and not call him out for it. I understand no one should send hateful messages but people are allowed to call him out for this video.

He doesn't have to respond but it downstairs make him look good not responding to constructive criticism of his new video.

He wants to survive as a YouTube content creator and I think people calling him out for this non apology will have an impact of his career as a content creator on YouTube so it is working.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

No, I don't expect people to own up to their mistakes. Do I think people should? Of course, but I'd be pretty naive to simply expect it.

We all expected the review to get taken down and it did. We all expected the reviewer to get fired and they did, we all expected the reviewer to issue an apology and they did, but we didn't like it, so now what do we expect?

The guy has made it pretty clear where he's trying to go with this. To expect anything else is silly.

I don't have any problem with people calling him out for his non-apology apology video. I just don't see the point in going around in circles with the guy.

Super Smash that like button and Subscribe for more plagiarism!

KALOSMANI said:

Please stop going off topic stuff like this is not actually relatable to the topic at hand and stop mentioning Colin, admins have already warned about this numerous occasions.

Trying to connect this video to being alt right is ridiculous

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

There are a few here that would drop Colin's name in a power rangers thread. They keep trying to tie anything to him with alt-right nonsense.

BassForever said:

Because these people often find themselves teaming up with the alt right/white nationalist. See people like snake boi Colin reaching out to him. As a society we all benefit if people actually learn from their mistakes and do the right thing. Letting these people fall into the cracks and become radicalized is how we get into the mess we have today.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Oh good lord. Didn't take long before someone mentions alt right and white nationalism all due to plagirms. Era going to Era.

Schreier strikes again, ruining more lives in the video game industry.

Funny how the people exposing these sorts of things always get lazy scapegoated.

this reminds me of the nick robinson fiasco - speaking of which, youtube unfortunately keeps pushing his new videos into my recs, and they seem to be doing well in viewcount. so yeah, this guy's career in any credible outlet is totally over, but he could probably claw his way back to a whatever youtuber status with time and smart vids

still, going from ign nintendo editor to this. what an absolute fool, and what a rotten non-apology. the established industry will be done with him, but he might foster some minor cult of personality fandom on his channel with time

Phantom Thief said:

I have very mixed views on this. I agree with his take on the social media lynch mob and I specifically called attention to this in the main thread.

That said, his apology seems inauthentic and weaselly go me. Maybe I am misunderstanding but it doesn't strike me as genuine.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Having read the transcript I agree with you on both counts. This isn't worth him being mobbed. The consequences for his professional career are punishment enough.

His "apology" spends much more time trying to garner sympathy than explaining what went wrong.