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Forums - Gaming - Gamepro plaigarizes IGN's review

famousringo on 09 July 2009
Final-Fan said:
twesterm said:
blaydcor said:
It seems that all of you people screaming "Coincidence!1" didn't actually read the article, which highlighted blatant similarities alongside the several WORD FOR WORD quotes (this does not happen by coincidence) AND the fact the the guy ADMITTED TO THE PLAGIARISM. Seriously, read more than the title before you post and defend the guy.

I admit I didn't read the last quote saying he admitted to it, but I don't see the big deal to the part he copied.  Both of those pieces could have been copied straight from a manual they are so generic (I know there isn't a manual, just saying it's incredibly straightforward explanation). 

If the actual creative parts of the review had been copied, yes, there is a reason to be angry, but the he copied the most straightforward part that even if he had written himself it probably would have ended up sounding almost exactly the same.  It's not a big deal.

If it hadn't been for this "fiasco" maybe 20 people would have read both of those reviews anyways.  Would you really want to spend all your time on a review that isn't going to get read by many people or get that review finished and move on to the bigger ones that make the site more money?

Again, if he had actually copied the creative parts of the review, yes, that would be inexcusable, but those parts that are the same, who cares?  There are only so many ways you can say those things.  I bet if you asked 100 people to play most any simple game to the point they could review it and then ask them to explain the mechanics you would see results pretty close to the one above.

This just in, twesterm only cares about intellectual property if it's games, not words, being stolen. 

Ouch. That one really cuts to the quick.



"The worst part about these reviews is they are [subjective]--and their scores often depend on how drunk you got the media at a Street Fighter event."  — Mona Hamilton, Capcom Senior VP of Marketing
*Image indefinitely borrowed from BrainBoxLtd without his consent.

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sapient on 09 July 2009

The idea is, why was he reading a review of the game he was supposed to be reviewing himself?

Isn't his review supposed to be "his" experience with the game?

I am sorry he got fired especially in this climate but this is not acceptable behavior for a "journalist".



 

thekitchensink on 09 July 2009
the2bears said:
dsister44 said:
Saki said:
dsister44 said:
Wow!

he got fired over one line. I hope they can sleep soundly at night

Wow you think he is not at fault?

Its a Wiiware game. If you cant give your own opinion over a fucking Wiiware game then you shoulnt be reviewing games.


No! there should have been some kind of punishment, but i do not think he should have been fired. 

Pretty standard response for plagiarism.  I guess they take it far more seriously than you do.


I'm a writer, and plagiarism isn't just a breach of journalistic etiquette.  It is completely, 100% illegal.

By the way, linking to plagiarism is illegal, too, but I think we can let the OP off with a warning, considering he was just doing it to tell us that they plagiarized 



Could I trouble you for some maple syrup to go with the plate of roffles you just served up?

Tag, courtesy of fkusumot: "Why do most of the PS3 fanboys have avatars that looks totally pissed?"
"Ok, girl's trapped in the elevator, and the power's off.  I swear, if a zombie comes around the next corner..."
JaggedSac on 09 July 2009

LOL. What a dummy.

How far does this sort of thing permeate gaming journalism?



Mr Khan on 09 July 2009
Ari_Gold said:
hahahahah, thats hilarious, what a pathetic way to ruin your journalistic career.

I agree. Taken down over a WiiWare title about squirt guns. Damn.

(not trashing the game, but it is very trivial in the scheme of things)



Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.

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senortaco on 09 July 2009

Really HOW is this the Review editor(s) there still employed too?



The Interweb is about overreaction, this is what makes it great!

...Imagine how boring the interweb would be if everyone thought logically?

Legend11 on 09 July 2009

In a perfect world the person that discovered the plagiarism would have reported it directly to GamePro instead of making a thread about it on a popular discussion website. That way GamePro could have silently removed it and fired the writer who likely wouldn't ever do it again after that experience.



Samus Aran on 09 July 2009

Lol, they fire him for that? Just cut in on his paycheck for a while or something, but firing over a mediocre wii ware game is pretty hard. It's not like gamepro reviewers are good at what they do because most reviews are written like crap anyway.



exindguy on 09 July 2009
noname2200 said:
dsister44 said:
Wow!

he got fired over one line. I hope they can sleep soundly at night

It was actually several lines, but only three (I missed one the first time, will bold now) were copy-pasted directly from IGN's review. Remember, plagiarism is more than simply copy-pasting. Moreover, the fact that a supposed professional is plagiarizing even one line is a huge ethical no-no. Remember the Stephen Ambrose bru-haha a few years back over a single paragraph in a 300 page+ book?


Actually, in the case of Ambrose, it turned out he was a serial plagiarizer with at least a half-dozen of his books cited as containing material from works not his own (even dating back to his bloody doctoral thesis!).




Crazymann on 09 July 2009
Alasted said:
blaydcor said:
It seems that all of you people screaming "Coincidence!1" didn't actually read the article, which highlighted blatant similarities alongside the several WORD FOR WORD quotes (this does not happen by coincidence) AND the fact the the guy ADMITTED TO THE PLAGIARISM. Seriously, read more than the title before you post and defend the guy.

I don't see the big deal about the part he copied.  Both of those pieces could have been copied straight from a manual they are so generic (I know there isn't a manual, just saying it's incredibly straightforward explanation).

If the actual creative parts of the review had been copied, there is a reason to be angry, but the he copied the most straightforward part that even if he had written himself it probably would have ended up sounding almost exactly the same.  It's not a big deal.

If it hadn't been for this "fiasco" maybe 30 people would have read both of those reviews anyways.  Would you really want to spend all your time on a review that isn't going to get read by many people or get that review finished and move on to the bigger ones that make the site more money?

If he had actually copied the creative parts of the review, yes, that would be inexcusable, but those parts that are the same, who cares?  There are only so many ways you can say those things.  I bet if you asked 100 people to play most any simple game to the point they could review it and then ask them to explain the mechanics you would see results pretty close to the one above.


HA HA HA, clever!