The title says it all, that's the question I'm asking here. And before anyone says "well what about X GOOD game journalist" let me just say now that yes, I'm even including the "good" ones in this. I know there are guys who have been doing good work for over a decade (Yahtzee) and continue to do so to this day (shame about those he surrounds himself with though). And others are creating new alternative sites trying to bring back the glory days of game journalism when it was by fans for fans. My argument though is that they're completely unnecessary until the AAA game industry goes back to making something worth getting hyped for, and even then they may be useless given technological advancements.

I realized recently that I don't pay attention to ANY of them anymore unless some of their articles get linked to me, even the "good" ones. I used to follow a few up until gamergate happened, but since gamergate I've stopped paying attention to them entirely. And the reason is simple... doesn't matter if they are "good", when the industry they're covering is horrible. I couldn't care less about most of what comes out of AAA these days, and the few good games I already know about and don't care what some journalist's opinion on them is. Only so many "based" takes on an industry that's dead to me can hold my interest.

So I stopped paying attention to AAA mainstream game journalists, surely there is value to them in AA, indie, or hentai spaces right? Not really... AA and indie games get brought to my attention via word of mouth or I see streamers I watch play them (the replacement to game journalists, as I'll get into more below). Once I'm interested and I follow the developers directly, I get my news directly from them, I don't need the opinion of some game journalist on top of the news I already know about. When it comes to hentai games those developers are pretty good about shilling each other. I follow my favorite developers, who occasionally recommend some other game, and I try it and if I like it I follow that developer too. Once again no need for game journalists. Plus with all types of games I still play, I do my own searching for new content from time to time: "I really liked this game, let's see if I can find any similar to this."

But I'm an old existing fan, SURELY game journalists have value when it comes to introducing new fans to games they may not be aware of right? Maybe before the days of streaming and company press releases being on their public social media pages for the whole world to see, but not anymore. Almost everyone I know both young and old learns of new games primarily from live streamers or by word of mouth from people who watched one of those livestreams. All they know game journalists for are clickbait drama mongering and game guides... Well, I think we have an answer!

I guess they have some value! There will always be a place for archived written game guides! I like video guides sure, but written guides are great to search for exactly what you want and have it pulled up on screen, without having to scan a video and then keep rewinding over and over. Looks like the corporate owners of sites like Kotaku are on to something, trying to get them to do nothing but create "evergreen" content like game guides!

So there we have it... traditional game journalism is useless in an era where social media makes following developers and their press releases something everyone can do, and where we can see raw gameplay on a livestream with no spin (livestreamers can try to be nice, but if the game is shit the audience can clearly see it). All they're good for now is making archives of written game guides, though at that point are they even journalists?

Think about that next time one of these clowns tries to demand your attention and trust.