BOSS FIGHT
Hello everyone, this entry of The Writer Within will be a little different. It should have been released earlier than usual too. I like to shoot for Fridays. My goal of the series has always been to comment or address something going on in the industry, release it on Friday, and have the weekend to discuss it. That last part hasn’t come yet, and that’s alright because the series is still growing. It’s my hope that one day I can have interactions with others, start a conversation, and, who knows, maybe we’ll agree on something or have our minds changed. We’re on Season 2, could have been on the 3rd or 4th, but I was in a bad place in-between. Last week there was no Writer Within and I apologize for that, but I would like to explain why, because I feel my credibility has been shot, my reputation as a reviewer has been dragged in the mud and my prowess as an author in question.
The entire last week I was targeted by either two individuals, or one claiming to be two, going by the names of Tim Tomlin and Adriana Santos. They claimed to write for a site named Special Gaming, later changed to Specialty Gaming, and when the site died, they lost all their reviews because they wrote directly on the site. The site doesn’t seem to have ever existed. I’m not sure how they found our site or my review, but they claimed that my Zelda review was identical to the one written by them. I say ‘them’ because each one of them on different platforms have claimed ownership of this review. They have also claimed ownership of my Ghost Recon review. Now, I stayed silent while they did all of this, while they made Reddit posts, N4G posts, Gamefaqs posts, created a Twitter to harass several people I followed, and they also emailed gaming sites I followed because I enjoyed their content and not necessarily because I had an interest in joining them.
One of the owners of this site, Mike, defended me via twitter thread. I would like to take this moment to thank you, Senpai, for doing what I know you did to defend me and for what I don’t know you’ve done behind the scenes. This week-long effort to ruin me, and in a larger sense the site, ended with an email telling me that I had won. Win? I don’t feel like a winner. I feel like I don’t want to write a review ever again. What is the point when anyone can claim ownership of it and spread these lies across any platform, have people believe them, and then simply delete everything like its some sort of game? It’s not a game. I will post screenshots of proof of my work, I can provide for everything I’ve ever written.
This leads to our topic and that topic is plagiarism and for us to not be so quick to believe people without evidence. Filip Miucin had his reputation ruined because he actually plagiarized and there was a substantial amount of evidence indicating that he had done so, even if he refuses to apologize. I finally understand what the people he stole from went through and it sucks, and I don’t know how to rid myself of this feeling. It’s weird. I’ve done nothing wrong and, yet, I can shake this feeling of not wanting to share my words with the world. I don’t get the thinking behind stealing something someone worked so hard for and using it for your own gain. It’s horrible. I also feel like I have no right to feel this way because of my innocence but I find myself obsessed with where my reputation stands now. I’ve contacted some friends and the responses range from uncertainty to belittling the site due to its size and to positive reinforcement, but I feel like I can’t trust that last part because it’s mostly from friends and fellow writers on the site.
All my life I’ve wanted to be an author, a writer, it’s my dream. I also love playing video games. It only made sense for me to pursue game journalism while working on my debut novel. That Ghost Recon review holds a special place in my heart because it was my first review ever, it was the first time I put my money where my mouth was an actually wrote a review rather than criticize someone else’s and explain how I would have reviewed. I submitted that review to The Loot Gaming and, for whatever reason, they liked it enough to give me a shot. That was back in 2017. That Zelda review was also very important to me and that’s because I was shocked we didn’t have a review for arguably one of the biggest, and greatest, games of all time. My life, largely, has been a tough one and right before the Switch released, I was done with gaming. I wanted nothing to do with it and I looked for other ways to escape the world but the concept of the console and the Zelda series always had a special place in my heart for different reasons across the many different titles, I had to play it. Breath Of The Wild rekindled my love for gaming and captivated me in ways very few games have.
I worked hard on those reviews and for someone to come around and claim them for themselves is heartbreaking. People who plagiarize, I would just like to ask you not to do it. It’s a horrible feeling for those who have their work stolen and I believe you can also find the words to craft your own reviews, you don’t have to steal from others.
This is video game related, in a way, so it does fit within the terms I’ve mentally set for the Writer Within. Albeit loosely and I might be pushing it but I would like to get everyone’s opinion on this. Thank you for taking the time to read this and until next time friends.
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