Douglas Rivelli
get to know me
Hello, my name is Douglas Rivelli. I’ve had a passion for writing since a young age, and I’ve used that skill to drive myself to choose a field in the arts that called to me. Journalism in particular deeply resonated, both written and video, and I started in a beat that I always loved, gaming, especially esports and trading card games. I began by producing my own works independently, writing articles for a blog or creating video content to share on my small YouTube channel. From there took I on internship positions, freelance jobs, and any other kind of work to help plunge deeper into the field. When I went to school for my degree in Journalism, I explored other opportunities outside the gaming world so I could better round myself. I interned at a local paper where I covered government and local events, I worked as the editor-in-chief of my school newspaper where I learned the responsibilities of an editor and how to run a press room, and I wrote articles as a featured writer for school publications. Having such a swathe of opportunities has truly helped mold me into a journalist that upholds quality and remains diverse, as to be able to better understand my own beat through the lens of others.
Team dignitas
At Team Dignitas, I enjoyed almost a year of writing articles based on the MOBA game League of Legends under the username ‘Harizin.’ Here, I wrote in-depth pieces ranging from 2,000 to 4,000 words about topics regarding gameplay, patch updates, and overall news in the LoL scene. My time here taught me to write long-form articles while still holding close to my topic, overall giving me more experiences and opportunities to grow as a journalist as well as to better understand the game mechanics and grow as a player. Team Dignitas prioritizes their writers having in-game experience and respectable ranking in order to ensure each article is imparting any given reader with accurate and up-to-date knowledge. Thus, being sure I was an informed and well-adapted player solidified my status as a reputable journalist.
Gamelevate
Gamelevate was a very different beast from Team Dignitas. Working here, instead of taking more time to work on one, large piece, I focused my time much more on short, snappy, SEO-friendly articles with a quick turn around. Another major difference is that I covered more games. Instead of only sticking to LoL, here I also covered Overwatch, Fortnite, and whatever else happened to be trending at the time. I would be writing multiple articles a day and would publish a handful by the end of every week. The ideology here was to keep articles “bite-sized and consumable,” meaning having it easy for consumers to read quickly and digest easily. It was a lot more tertiary topics, like new cosmetic releases, brief news articles on even minor updates, community opinions on new patches, favorite characters to play as, and a litany of other topics.
The Bulletin
My time at The Norwood Record, a subsidiary of The Bulletin Newspaper, had me focusing on much more traditional news opposed to the more entertainment-style news I’ve written at previous companies. At this publication, I worked closely with my editor and colleagues to create content that is accurate, informed, and pertinent to the weekly news occurring in the greater Boston area. I covered local events, restaurant openings, government news, as well as anything else that was required of me. Another major aspect of my position was to help my editor review, edit, and prepare article for publishing. I would ensure that both the Boston paper and the Norwood paper had proper grammar, no spelling errors, and has a smooth, fluid read for those who enjoyed their weekly paper.
