Over the weekend, accusations of plagiarism again put Fortnite in the spotlight. This time, the accusations focused on the skin of a particular hero. However, it would turn out that this was all a hoax.
The issue stems from a Facebook post of a certain artist named Ruby Ramirez. In the post, Ramirez posted a character design of Taro from Fortnite and placed beside it an alleged DevianArt image that was uploaded two months earlier. While the issue could have been left to Epic Games, the internet sometimes takes initiative. In this case, DevianArt users Pyro-Zombie and DingDonVG.
In a post on DevianArt, Pyro-Zombie said that as an artist he was outraged at the allegation, then added that the "more I looked into it, the more suspicious it seemed to me so this is what I have and why I'm 100% sure this deviantart user made it up." Pyro-Zombie argued that the original poster simply edited the original picture in the gallery.
The same "findings" was made by DingDongVG who posted in on Twitter. DingDongVG was more direct compared to Pyro-Zombie.
Before making the call, DingDongVG initially said that the developers could have copied the design, or that the artist faked the accusation.
DingDongVG warns everyone not to "take random posts on Twitter at face value - do research before forming a stance" and that "[j]ust because a post is really angry and accusatory in tone don't necessarily mean it's researched."
As of this writing, many of the original posts related to the accusation have since been deleted.
The matter was initially reported by Forbes, which has since issued an update to the story. Prior to the revelation, Epic Games had stated that it was taking the claims seriously and was investigating the matter.
There continues to be a debate, especially in the DevianArt community, as to why someone would go so far as to fake a plagiarism accusation. In answer to that question, DingDongVG said that it could be because it got a response. Most have praised DingDongVG for the work done, with some Twitter users saying that while they are not mad, they are surely disappointed as it reflects negatively on the whole DevianArt community.
