IGN WiiWare review plagiarised

Now don't get all giddy, IGN-haters, in your haste to pull up your Word doc of all the 'clever' insults and puns you've saved. It wasn't IGN that did the plagiarising. It was GamePro that plagiarised an IGN review. Yes, the same GamePro that impressed us all quite recently with their scathing Conduit review.

Daemon Hatfield's IGN review of Water Warfare was plagiarised in Andrew Ramsey's GamePro review.

This was first noticed by KDR_11k on the NintendoLife forums and picked up by nincompoop on Neogaf. When GamePro editor Tae Kim (the guy who wrote the Conduit review) noticed the Neogaf thread, he confronted Ramsey, who admitted that he used the IGN review as a "reference point". Ramsey was fired. All over Water Warfare, of all titles to throw away your career on. :roll:

Time it took to notice his plagiarism off one of the largest gaming sites: 5 days.

Time it took him to get fired once caught: two hours.

Time it would have taken to write the whole review himself: 15 minutes.

Time to quit the journalism business: yes, right now.

On tap in this super soaker is a robust feature set including both single- and multiplayer modes. There is plenty to do here, even if you plan to wage war by yourself. The 40 single-player missions offer a variety of objectives and boss battles. If you just want to skirmish you can play against up to seven bots with three difficulty levels. As for multiplayer, two players can go at it in split screen or you can play with a total of eight via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Online, you can play against just your friends, play a friendly game against random strangers, or participate in a ranked match. While waiting in a lobby there is a handful of messages to send to your opponents/team mates. The four maps each come in a large and small variation.

...

You'll find all the usual FPS weapons here (pistols, machine guns, shotguns, rocket launchers… ), but loaded with agua instead of bullets. Scattered around each map are also fun items like a raincoat that makes you temporarily water resistant and a towel to dry yourself off.

Daemon Hatfield

Featuring over 40 single player missions for you to get soaked in, Water Warfare offers up a lot of content. In the single player missions you will have a variety of objective and boss battles. If you just want to skirmish you can play against up to seven bots with three difficulty levels.Two players can go at it in split screen or you can play with a total of eight via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.You can play with strangers or just play a good old fashioned rank match on one of the 4 maps made. Team games include Battle Royale where the last person standing wins, Death Match is the standard FPS free-for-all, but should be called Wet Match, first player to 10 knockouts wins. Treasure Chest you have to find the opposing team's chest and bring it back to your base. In assault you capture the flag, which I figured would be called capture the flag. Base you take control of bases and score 100 points to win. Finally in point rally you need to put your gun away and race through checkpoints.

...

Weapon wise you're given the standard array of weapons, pistols, shotguns, assault rifles and rocket launchers all filled with lovely H2O. The weapons control ok but feel like squirt guns that have no kick to them. Also perks are scattered throughout the map like a raincoat that makes you temporarily water resistant and a towel to dry yourself off.

Andrew Ramsey

WOW

I agree with the plagiarism except for the hilighted words in green.

Oh no! He named the same guns as the IGN reviewer! PLAGERISM!!

I agree with the plagiarism except for the hilighted words in green.

Oh no! He named the same guns as the IGN reviewer! PLAGERISM!!

infamous_27

This whole situation: Priceless.

wow..if you're gonna plagiarize, dont make it so obvious

plagiarism is stupid! :P

Ha, isn't that the same journalist that called the Wii stupid after E3?

wow..if you're gonna plagiarize, dont make it so obvious

shoryuken_

Or better yet, just don't do it.

Geezus, man. That was just sad. Shame on you, mister Gamepro ex-employee.

All over Water Warfare, of all titles to throw away your career on. :roll:

clicketyclick

Hey! A FPS with waterguns should be admired! :P In all seriousness, though, that was a pretty stupid move to make. The fact that he was able to get away with it for five days is pretty amazing, considering the popularity of both GamePro and IGN. All for a game that wasn't exactly a major release and could have been talked about in brief and few would have cared. I suppose that could be a reason why you would go with plagiarising such a game, perhaps, as you may have a slight chance of getting away with it. Tsk tsk tsk. That one's going to sting within a month or two, I'm sure, provided he has a hard time looking for a new job.

why would you do it? he has an awesome job. playing games all day and writing about them, whats not to like?Mckenna1845

I wonder if this guy has plagarized any other reviews

This whole situation: Priceless.

freek666

Yes. Yes indeed.

I wonder if this guy has plagarized any other reviews

wiifan342

I suppose it's possible that he might have done that, but I think he would have been found out sooner if he did. So I'm going to assume this is the first -- and hopefully last -- time he's done it.

He got pwned by WiiWare.

This is quite possibly the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen.

He couldn't take an hour out of his busy schedule to, um, actually write a review? You know, that thing that was his job? :P

My mind is blown after reading that Tatl Tael post, seriously.

The reviewer was unpaid, so whatever.

This is quite possibly the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen.

He couldn't take an hour out of his busy schedule to, um, actually write a review? You know, that thing that was his job? :P

GabuEx

and IGN uses the word "retarded" savebattery

Is that really any worse than you saying IGN has the mental capacity of a seventh grader?

[QUOTE="savebattery"]and IGN uses the word "retarded" psychobrew

Is that really any worse than you saying IGN has the mental capacity of a seventh grader?

[QUOTE="psychobrew"]

[QUOTE="savebattery"]and IGN uses the word "retarded" savebattery

Is that really any worse than you saying IGN has the mental capacity of a seventh grader?

Didn't IGN plagiarize their own RE1 review?psychobrew

IGN is a professional game reviewing source that has an obligation to its readers. They promise a certain level of quality.savebattery

[QUOTE="psychobrew"]Didn't IGN plagiarize their own RE1 review?clicketyclick

It wasn't a serious question.....;)

wow

wow...

I hate writing things about "things" I don't care for, but that's pretty sad. I wonder what Miyamoto would have to say about that?

[QUOTE="clicketyclick"][QUOTE="psychobrew"]Didn't IGN plagiarize their own RE1 review?psychobrew

It wasn't a serious question.....;)

And journalism is not a profession anyway; it's got tremendous problems even outside of the gaming industry.clicketyclick

And the first step to rectifying those problems is not accepting them as inevitable reality. :P

[QUOTE="clicketyclick"]And journalism is not a profession anyway; it's got tremendous problems even outside of the gaming industry.GabuEx

And the first step to rectifying those problems is not accepting them as inevitable reality. :P

I'm not saying things couldn't be better. Just that people shouldn't expect professionalism and shouldn't take game coverage and reviews so seriously when it doesn't merit it.clicketyclick

Why shouldn't we?

It's precisely that utter lack of professionalism that has soured IGN for me and made me unable to take their reviews seriously. I don't think that that's particularly unreasonable. If they want to use their outlet viewed by thousands to sound like an angry blogger, that's their business, but it's not exactly going to make me go to them for video game reviews.

Though I suppose at least we're not like that guy over at NeoGAF arguing that we shouldn't care about plagiarism because it's just a review. :P

See what happens when you plagiarize, kids? LEARN :P

Why shouldn't we?

It's precisely that utter lack of professionalism that has soured IGN for me and made me unable to take their reviews seriously. I don't think that that's particularly unreasonable. If they want to use their outlet viewed by thousands to sound like an angry blogger, that's their business, but it's not exactly going to make me go to them for video game reviews.

Though I suppose at least we're not like that guy over at NeoGAF arguing that we shouldn't care about plagiarism because it's just a review. :P

GabuEx

You shouldn't expect professionalism because it's not a profession and they're not even journalists anyways. Most have gotten their degrees in creative writing, for godsakes. They are there to provide entertainment and information. If their material accurately describes the facts and keeps you amused enough to hold your attention, they've done their job. If they write well to boot, that's a bonus that makes people more inclined to read them.

People fight over scores like this is the bloody Olympics. So serious! This is just entertainment and criticism. People are so shocked and disappointed when they discover that some reviewer repeats words or writes colloquially. "Where's the professionalism!?" It's in a profession. And this ain't one. And that's a good thing.

[QUOTE="psychobrew"]Didn't IGN plagiarize their own RE1 review?clicketyclick

IGN is a professional game reviewing source that has an obligation to its readers. They promise a certain level of quality.savebattery

And since when is journalism not a profession? Why are they called journalists? Why aren't they just called critics? Where did you get these ideas from?

What reviewers promise are reliable reviews, not entertainment.

And since when is journalism not a profession? Why are they called journalists? Why aren't they just called critics? Where did you get these ideas from?

sirkibble2

But game reviews aren't reliable -- they are opinions. Last I checked, opinion pieces were entertainment.

WAnd since when is journalism not a profession? Why are they called journalists? Why aren't they just called critics? Where did you get these ideas from?sirkibble2

I've seen great reviews written by people who write reviews on their own time. For God's sake, you think the *****bag would write one when he's being paid to do it.:P

On, a more serious note, gaming journalism disturbs me.:?

[QUOTE="sirkibble2"]

But game reviews aren't reliable -- they are opinions. Last I checked, opinion pieces were entertainment.

psychobrew

[QUOTE="sirkibble2"] WAnd since when is journalism not a profession? Why are they called journalists? Why aren't they just called critics? Where did you get these ideas from?clicketyclick

Last time I checked, a profession is just another word for a job. Since when does it require a governing body? Why are we even arguing about this..?

I see your thought process on that but there's a reason why thousands of people go to certain "opinions" to get reviews and not others? Why would that be...? Hm...sirkibble2

Because they find they share the same opinions. :) That's not objective reliability. That's personal reliance on a person to continue to share the same interests as you.

So artists aren't professionals or are you saying because there's no "School of Journalism" that they it can't be a profession? Last I checked, my school has a degree in Journalism. USC has a Master's program for Journalism my friend went to. So where am I missing that Journalism can't be a profession? Because there's "PH.D" attached to it? You've lost me.sirkibble2

You are not REQUIRED to get a journalism degree to become a journalist. You could get a creative writing or English lit degree, like many game critics. You could get a degree in Science. You could get a degree in anthropology. It doesn't matter. There are no standards. The key word is "requires".

Last time I checked, a profession is just another word for a job. Since when does it require a governing body? Why are we even arguing about this..?

shoryuken_

Well, if you want to speak colloquially. But it really isn't. Especially if you're talking about professional standards. They only come into play when: 1) the employees concerned have received uniform education specifically pertaining to their career; 2) the employees concerned must be members of a self-regulating body that can enforce ethical codes, rather than being regulated by the government. That's why 'business' is not a profession.

I have no idea why we're talking about it though lol. It was just an off-hand comment I made. :P

[QUOTE="psychobrew"]

But game reviews aren't reliable -- they are opinions. Last I checked, opinion pieces were entertainment.

sirkibble2

As Clicketyclick said, they share the same opinions. If reviews were reliable, they'd all get pretty much the same score from every source. The way it is now, there's a choir looking for someone to preach, and reviewpublications like to preach.