Game journalism is a career path that’s been under fire for a rather long time. Plagiarism, inaccurate reporting, work conditions, the list goes on. Not to mention, entire companies have been under fire for things such as this, which is where we come to today. We’ll be taking a look at how one reviewer has thrown their credibility completely out the window.
To expand on that first note slightly, plagiarism is a very serious accusation and action. In its most distilled definition, it’s copying another person’s work and passing it as your own. Doing so will completely ruin any credibility you may have, and can potentially ruin you if the offense is too severe (or repeatedly done).
Filip Miucin should be a name that’s familiar to the Dead Cells community, and to people that follow IGN. His actions regarding one of the topics above are why we’re here, and to also discuss his history with how he’s dealt with it. Brief spoiler alert; he’s acted incorrectly on both fronts.
The First Dead Cells Review
On August 6th, 2019, IGN released Miucin’s “original” review of Dead Cells for Nintendo Switch. Seems normal, they’ve put out another review as they do on an almost daily basis. Before long, a YouTuber that’s known as Deadite (as part of Boomstick Gaming), had shined some light on how the IGN review plagiarized his review from two weeks prior, which you can watch here (video credit: Boomstick Gaming on YouTube).
What you can see is that most of the plagiarism is quite clearly not subtle, and has verifiable proof (as evidenced by the two videos playing side-by-side). IGN took notice as this was unfolding, and decided to release a public statement regarding releasing Miucin and removing any of his reviews that may have potentially been stolen, as well. These include Switch reviews of Bayonetta 2, DOOM 2016, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and Octopath Traveler.
A Very Weak “Response”
As if, to be obvious, Filip had posted a response not long after he and IGN came under fire for his actions (it’s since been publicly Unlisted, but can be viewed through this link). Spoiler alerts again; public reception was not kind to him on this video, and even glancing the comments showcases that people aren’t buying what he’s saying.
In this first response video, he explains that he supposedly takes “complete ownership over what happened with the Dead Cells review.” Then, not even a few minutes later, he doesn’t go and apologize for his actions. He goes on to mention various other topics, including:
- His review process
- About how it sucks that developer Motion Twin’s product got caught in the middle of this mess (though, depending on who you talk to, the exposure could be seen as a net positive)
- How he has respect for Boomstick Gaming and wishes well for his success (and mentions how he started as a YouTuber)
- How he got hired by IGN (to which he’s stated bluntly “is, in fact, my own work”)
- Casually name-dropping Kotaku and daring them to find more hints of plagiarism from him
- Throwing shade at Jason Schreier for thinking another of his reviews (FIFA 18) was stolen (see below for a link to this and other stolen reviews)
- Complaining about how it isn’t fun to be attacked by a “lynch mob” with receiving hate and other various bits of info
As you can quite clearly see, this mess is just all over the place in terms of what the video’s contents are. To summarize, it seems like it’s rather aimless, and doesn’t zero in on what he’s done. Thus, the video is less like an apology, and more like a man who’s complaining about being kicked when they’re already down.
From Being Exposed to A Failed Comeback
Take note of how Filip Miucin dared Kotaku to find more dirt on him and plagiarism. Then apply that to the fact that not even a few days later, Jason Schreier (the same person Miucin threw shade at) found other reviews of his to be plagiarized, one of them being Metroid: Samus Returns (credit: Jason Schreier).
"You can keep looking, Kotaku, and please let me know if you find anything," Filip Miucin said in his video addressing the plagiarism allegations last night.
Well… https://t.co/8157Uim84z pic.twitter.com/WtBfJnTMXh
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) August 11, 2018
You can read the similarities Kotaku found with his Samus Returns review to another’s here (including the above excerpt), as well as other similarities they’ve found. A ResetEra poster known as Axe also put a list of other reviews and articles that Miucin stole information for. The list could be outdated, but it was written almost two years ago.
After the Kotaku article went public about his various other reviews that have had content stolen from them, Filip went silent for multiple months. Eventually, he came out with a new video that made it seem like nothing ever happened.
To which, the simple answer is… No. You don’t plagiarize reviews of multiple high-end games and do so from various sources, and expect people to still believe a word that comes out of your mouth, or entertain watching your content and think it’s credible. That video bombed reception-wise and did not go as planned.
After that mess, he came out with a second apology video. This time around, he admits to everything he’s done on the topic of plagiarism and apologizes for his actions towards Boomstick Gaming and other outlets (including NintendoLife for his FIFA 18 review, to which Jason Schreier was right). Well, okay, he apologized for his actions now and admitted to them. We can move on, right?
Digging His Own Grave
Miucin, in a potential attempt to regain his credibility, tweeted and shared his second review of Dead Cells, entitled “A Very Honest and Original Dead Cells Review”, on July 18th (a few days ago, as of the time of writing). Upon reading the title alone, it begs the question, “Why would you go back to the game that put you in this mess in the first place?” You can watch that below.
Further still, why would he go and review any games further, given that his credibility has since been proven to be non-existent? To the reader, do you know what burned bridges means? It means that he’s severed his connections beyond repair in this scenario. He’s done so particularly severely, especially with this game. But enough about that, he’s posted this video, so we may as well discuss it.
Not even 30 seconds in (at about ten seconds), he attempts to poke fun at the fact that he plagiarized content for his first review, saying, “In fact, it’s so good, that the first time I tried reviewing it, it left me so speechless that I literally went looking for someone else’s opinion to describe it.”
Which, again, no. It’s baffling how Filip Miucin tries to act like he didn’t take shooting yourself in the foot to a whole other level, but in reality, he did. It makes you wonder what it takes to become an actual game journalist, but this is becoming a bit much. Even attempting to pass it off as a laughing matter is incredibly problematic, and is worth noting that he went and also mentioned that “doesn’t know how much more negativity he can take.”
Barring acting like people won’t remember what he did… Saying something like that can be pretty ominous without context. But beyond that, the reaction from Filip after the video was released, is one of the primary causes of this report today.
Filip Miucin’s Scorn and Emotional Instability
After the video’s publishing, Mitchell Saltzman (the Editorial Producer at IGN), reached out and had this to say after viewing it:
The last bit in this video where you said you said "I don't know how much more negativity I can take," made me legit concerned for you, so i'm going against my instincts and replying to this to hope I can get through.
— Mitchell Saltzman (@JurassicRabbit) July 18, 2020
The thread that follows explains how Saltzman understands how Filip wants to come back to YouTube and content creation, but realistically can’t, due to the severity of his plagiarism. He even says in that thread “The bridge has been burnt”, implying that he can’t come back no matter what he does. He also commends Filip for being a great video editor, and that he should be marketing his video editing skills rather than his reviewing and journalism skills. Filip’s response to Saltzman? This:
I find it fascinating that people will denounce me publicly as a game reviewer, but then apologize for doing so and wish me the best of luck privately in my DM’s. https://t.co/NxkTOCICRj pic.twitter.com/2Bv0gzNAAl
— Filip Miucin (@FilipMiucin) July 19, 2020
Which is an immense head-scratcher, because, if you look at Mitchell’s message from that week (marked as Yesterday in that screenshot), he just apologized because his words might have sounded a bit too blunt. Filip’s response left him baffled, and he mentioned how he never intended to flame him. Saltzman blocked Miucin promptly, to which Miucin also commented on in an attempt to bring more to the situation (seen here).
Filip Miucin also went on record and got annoyed that Ryan McCaffrey (Executive Editor of Previews at IGN), gave a knee-jerk but warranted reply to his second Dead Cells review, simply worded, “F–k off” (which has since been deleted). Miucin’s response to that (as strange as this situation already is), can be seen below.
Being told to “fuck off” by an executive of one of the most well known entertainment companies, not to mention a former direct superior, can only happen in the gaming community. No, @DMC_Ryan, you can’t delete your indecency just like I can’t delete my plagiarism. pic.twitter.com/KB5Kl6Wbl7
— Filip Miucin (@FilipMiucin) July 20, 2020
Filtering through blind Twitter supporters, you can find that Ryan replied to this attempted callout tweet with this. What makes the entire situation pretty funny to think about is that Miucin is attempting to take a high road of sorts, as if his actions didn’t bring all this (rather warranted or appropriate) criticism upon him.
Be Original
Overall, with the whole situation building up since 2018, it seems like it came to a head over the course of the past few days. All it really details is how one person stole a review, expecting to fly under the radar. But then, everything changed when Deadite took notice of the stolen work. In addition, Miucin is a case of what not to do when it comes to responding to people calling out your actions with stealing.
From challenging people to find more dirt on him to it blowing up spectacularly, then to try crawling back to the scene after everything he did… It’s astounding how one person can do so much wrong and have the gall to think that they can get on a high road and shout down at former superiors of his. Someone needs a lesson in humility and reaping what they’ve sown.
For those aspiring to get into the gaming journalism career, I’d like to offer a piece of advice. Please, do everything legitimately. It can be hard, tedious, and/or time-consuming at times, but it’s far, far better than being ousted for taking the easy way out and trying to scrounge up credibility after losing so much of it. Basically, do everything the right way, and not how Filip Miucin did.
What do you think about Filip Miucin and the controversy he’s wrought upon himself? Do you agree with the criticism? Do you think it’s warranted? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
If you liked this article, and like other controversies within gaming, be sure to read our piece on the EVO 2020 scandal here.
