Blog Experience

Certainly, making blogs for this class has been a learning experience. Topics like "A photograph I like", "My favourite piece of technology", "Expectations for a new semester" and "My autobiography" were very useful to express my feelings and know how to write about myself fluently.

Other topics like "An expert in your field" and "Carrer related website" demanded me some research, and when the search was done, doing an elaborate text in english.

Free topics were helpful to develop my creativity and translate all the things I had in my head to do an appealing story.

Making the "Photograph I like" was the most funny one, because I didn't have any special picture to do the article, so I did it about the photograph I have as a screensaver in my laptop and tell an epic story about it.

One of the most difficult was "An expert in your field", because gaming journalism does not have very prominent journos, so I had to chose one who doesn't have a good reputation in the media, like the mayority of the videogame press, to be honest.

After writing all this articles I leave English 3 with a lot more more knowledge, because I made hundreds and hundreds of articles, but never had the opportunity to elaborate one in a foreign language.

Free topic - Things are more relaxed in the south

When she was 18, my mother made the decision of leaving Santiago and live away from her family. She discovered Osorno, a small city with not much to offer but with a relaxed way of living. It's funny the fact that after five years living here in Santiago I realised how toned down it's the lifestyle in the province.

My mother doesn't want to leave Osorno for any reason and I don't blame her. You get up a 7:30 AM, eat your breakfast slowly and do a 15 minute trip to your Job/School/College. At 13:00 PM it's time for the lunch break. Most people go to home to eat and even have a 30 minute nap to recover themselves and arrive to their jobs at 14:30 PM.

That dynamic it's unthinkable here in the capital because of the long distances the people have to travel from home to work plus the shorter time of the break in Santiago. People have to move faster and they don't even have time to lunch because they have to do another tasks.

People is happier in the south. The slower pace of life and the ever present green in the enviroment fits perfectly in the older people, who have spent most of their lifes running from here and there working at exhaustive schedules.

Free topic - My weekend at Festigame

Last weekend I was able to cover the biggest event of the year in chilean gaming, the 2018 Festigame. Last time I went to the event was in the 2013 edition in Estación Mapocho, who was very confined space for the thousands who attended the event.

This year I assisted as a press member, covering it for SKGCL, and I had the opportunity to access some places the common assistants can't get in. For instance, Red Bull hosted a VIP zone in which some people, press included, had the chance to access and get free drinks, with glasses and other products gifted for us. All it took was the pink bracelet handed by the organization of the event and I was able to play some games without the tedious task of getting in the queue.

The event was great. All the brands put their best effort in creating very big and gorgeus stands, with multicolored lights and giant screens. Esports tournaments were realized and I interviewd a lot of important people of the gaming industry, so it was a wholesome experience.

An expert in your field

Sadly, videogame journalism doesn't have many worldwide famous or even respected journalists. There are only a few visible heads in the industry and most of them stand out for the wrong reasons. The gaming press, specially in America, is really toxic and many of the journalists talk bad things of their colleagues, crtiticizing their close relationships with the biggest commercial companies.

One of them is Geoff Keighley, a canadian gaming journo who was the creator of one of the most infamous episodes of the media.

In 2012, Keighley hosted an episode of GTTV, a weekly gaming show made by the extinct videogame website GameTrailers. In that episode, the journalist held an interview with a developer of Halo 4, a game Geoff was reviewing at the time. The worst part is the fact that Keighley was sorrounded by Doritos and Mountain Dew products and a gigantography of the game itself, advertizing it at the same time he was making a review of it. That lack of integrity made Keighley a bad reputation with the consumers and other journos, feeding the disdain traditional Journalism have for the gaming one.

But not everything is bad for mister Keighley, he was able to fulfill his lifelong dream of making and "Academy Award of videogames", creating The Game Awards in 2014, the most famous gaming awards show after the closing of The Video Game Awards in 2013.

Career-related website

Since I started studying journalism here in college, teachers use to vainglory the investigation journalism and how much it impact in the life of all people. I think the objective of the Universidad de Chile is to have a lot of journalists working of these investigation agencies, "unmasking the powerful”.

They always mention Ciper Chile as the perfect example of an investigation agency, made to unveil scandals of corruption and crimes made by the higher people of politics, economy and religion.

In my personal opinion, I think the editorial line of Ciper Chile is focused in bring conspirational material for people to read, making sensationalistic headlines to bring more readers to the website, similar to InfoWars in United States.

I’m not arguing about the quality of the research, but the way Ciper write their articles could be more partial. But after all, we can’t ignore the impact in society and journalism Ciper Chile makes every time they publish an investigation, headlining in other medias all around the world.

Free topic - My little old lady

I'm going to talk about a little old lady who's living the last days of her life with us.

Aisha is a wonderful Cocker Spaniel who came home in late 2004. She was only nine months old when she arrived, full of energy and destruction (the 'not so bad' kind of destruction).

She liked to play and mess around with the other dog we had in that days, Abaris, a senior black Cocker who was very moody and really pissed off when Aisha bited her just for fun. It was really funny seeing how Abaris struggled a lot just to climb a single stair and Aisha jumped it in one second. Abaris passed away two years after Aisha came home.

Now Aisha have 13 years old and it’s showing her age, She gets sick easilly and she's losing her speed gradually. In 2016 christmas Copito arrived, a three months old Poodle who was a gift for my little cousins, now is him who mess out with the old Aisha and drives her crazy, making a really funny “passing of the torch”, teaching us how life and time works.

A photograph I like

How do I start.

Let’s start analizyng his eyes. Pure concentration and determination. He’s putting all his life to mantain that perfect balance between his head and the cup. Just seeing his face we can know he won’t forgive himself if the cup falls down and breaks in thousand pieces.

¿Do we talk about that cup? Fine chinese porcelain crafted by the most dedicated craftmans in the other side of the world. A meticulous work months in the making, added to the stainless steel spoon forged by the flames of a nordic bonfire, bring justice to the majestic pedigree of our imponent Welsh Corgi.

There are some pictures around the globe capable of telling you a story about epic prowess, but none of them like this epic staging by our almighty dog. This is a legend that's going to be told from generations to generations. ¡Keep balancing my good Corgi!

My favourite piece of technology

By far my favourite piece of technology is my gaming computer.

I remember as a child being fascinated about the different pieces that make a computer. There was times when I even opened my mother laptop with a screwdriver just to look what components were inside it. 

In another ocassion I spoiled my own computer because I took out an essential piece of hardware that I never was able to put it back in.

Now that I’m grown up and understand the functioning of a computer, I’m able to build and fix some PC’s. Last year I spent nearly $600.000 to update my gaming rig with modern hardware. Maybe it’s an expensive hobbie or even it's not a fun one, but I enjoy messing up with computer and laptops just to know how they works.

Expectations for a new semester

It’s a really complicated topic. I don’t really enjoy the dynamic of assisting in class, take notes and have exams, so I don’t expect anything to complex, just passing all my classes with decent grades.

Also I expect to have more classes with in terrain work. I don’t like theory, but I really like the practice. I don’t think too many theory is good for people who are studying for a job that implicate a lot of work in terrain.

I also want to pass my English III and IV classes with perfect grades, and learn a lot of this very useful language, who’s very important in this globalized and interconnected world.

That’s just everything I want for the current and the next semester.

My autobiography

My name is Rodolfo Campos. I’m twenty two years old. I was born in Osorno, Chile in 1995. I’m currently studying journalism at Universidad de Chile, with the intention to be a videogame journalist.

In my spare time I like to play all kind of videogames and learn about technology. I’m an editor of a gaming website, working with people of different countries across South and North America. Also I’m a director of an upcoming news show about gaming and electronic sports. 

Since I was nine, I also felt in love with professional wrestling, there’s something beautiful about seeing big guys throwing fake punches at each other, I don’t know why.

But most importantly, I love dogs. I have a Cocker Spaniel named Aisha, who’s an old lady with 13 years in her body. I don’t pass the opportunity of petting stray dogs on the streets. That makes me very happy.