Disgraced ex-IGN editor, Filip Miucin, was fired from the media news site when a Reddit thread sharing a video of how he plagiarized a lesser known YouTube reviewer went viral last week. Shortly after the news first hit, Kotaku released an article noting similarities between Miucin and Nintendolife’s review of FIFA 18. This effectively started a hunt by IGN, other news media outlets, and many impassioned netizens. The result? Numerous pieces written by Miucin were discovered to have also been plagiarized from a variety of sources leading IGN to have no choice but to review and remove most posts written by him.
Just how many articles did Miucin plagiarize? Tons of users on the board Resetera started combing through all of his work to find out the exact number. Here are a few examples of what they found:
1. He practically copied verbatim a post by “Cartho” from a NeoGAF forum on the Switch’s HD rumble feature.
Twitter user “Joseph” discovered that Miucin stole word for word what Cartho wrote in the forum for use in his own YouTube video. Here’s what Cartho wrote.
“HD rumble uses linear actuators, similar to apple’s ‘Taptic engine’ which is what they use for the Force Touch stuff in the new iPhones and Apple Watch. I BELIEVE that these are different in that they are more like weighted electro magnets, rather than a simple spinning motor. This means you can create a much, much more subtle variety of sensations compared to a rumble motor which is pretty much just a spinning motor – all they can really do is produce differing speeds of vibration.”
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And here’s Miucin’s video.
https://youtu.be/2lkqfPfXkcE
2. His Bayonetta 2 review borrowed heavily from Polyon.
Resetera user “The era of Luigi” found several striking similarities between Miucin’s review and Polygon’s.
Polygon:
Bayonetta 1 and 2 are coming to the Nintendo Switch for the first time this month, bringing the two hack-and-slash classics together for the first time since the Wii U. The Switch versions don’t feature the most significant changes over the originals — but that’s not a bad thing.
Miucin:
Bayonetta is back and better than ever on Nintendo Switch. With both the original and sequel launching together later this month on the young hybrid console, the Switch versions of the games don’t feature too many noticeable differences from the original — but trust me, that’s a good thing.
But there’s even more.
Another Resetera poster, “Burly” found this other segment which reads just like the Polygon review.
Polygon:
Miucin:
The fact that he even copies the TV size in his post ups the ridiculousness level to a point where you can’t help but sigh.
3. Miucin also copied fellow IGN writer Seth Macy’s work on Octopath Traveler.
In another discovery by Resetera user Burly, Miucin was also revealed to have stolen fellow IGN writer Seth Macy’s words without giving any credit or using quotations.
Seth Macy:
Octopath Traveler is a JRPG dream come true. Both its battle system and aesthetic pay loving tribute to the Super NES era while moving the formula forward in exciting and novel ways. This isn’t merely a modern retread of past classics, but a phenomenal homage with genuinely fresh ideas in a fantastically charming wrapper of old-school meets new. While the eight different character stories could’ve used a little more connection between them, I’m looking forward to going back to complete them all, explore the many side areas, battle optional bosses, and unlock the final job classes.
Miucin:
While Octopath Travelers’ aesthetics pay a loving tribute to the SNES era, its gameplay mechanics shouldn’t be overlooked either. It’s no retread of past classics either. Instead, it delivers a host of genuinely fresh ideas that come all bunched together in a fantastically charming mixture of old-school meets new. Players can use special character traits from each of the eight characters within the game to interact with the world in unique ways. For instance, Therion the Theif can steal from valuable items from NPC’s all over the game world, while Primrose the dancer can allure townsfolk and later use them as a summon in battle.
IGN editor Dan Stapleton followed the Resetera thread and went back to remove virtually everything that Miucin had published on the site.
FYI, we’ve seen enough now, both from the thread and our own searches, that we’re taking down pretty much everything he did. It’s a process, but you’ll start seeing stuff come down tonight.
— Dan Stapleton (@DanStapleton) August 15, 2018
What’s most mindboggling about this whole story is that Miucin had the audacity to call out Kotaku’s reporting on the incident and actually challenged them in a since taken down YouTube video to find more instances of his “alleged” plagiarism saying: “You can keep looking, Kotaku, and please let me know if you find anything”
Well Miucin, I’m pretty sure this constitutes as having found something.
Featured Image Source: MundaneMatt (YouTube)
