I understand Jeff's point of view but I also think he's getting a little too hung up on written game reviews as purely utilitarian. Like you, I also have also largely enjoyed reading game reviews for their own sake - I don't think I've actually once used a review to guide my decision to purchase a game. If the reviewer is an excellent writer and I like their personality then I'll pretty much pore over anything they write. The actual opinion isn't even as important as the way it's developed. The review is the product, not the game it's trying to or trying not to recommend. If Greg Kasavin started writing game reviews again and focused solely on mobile match 3 games, I'd probably still read them just because of how deeply enthralled I've always been with his eloquence and the grace with which he's so easily able to express him opinions.
I also just kind of don't get why this is such a sticking point for Jeff when it's not like every other piece of the media on giant bomb has been the best tool to gauge whether I want to purchase a game either. Like I'm not watching the Mario Party Party videos to see if I want to go on ebay to pick up a used copy of Super Mario Party.
Honestly, the cynic inside of me just feels that Jeff just doesn't actually want to write game reviews anymore (either because he simply doesn't enjoy writing them or would rather be doing something else more personally fulfilling, or any other reason really) and is just really trying to justify to himself why it's okay not to write them anymore. Which is totally fine - obviously, I don't want him doing things he doesn't actually enjoy doing. But I really feel like he's overstating written game reviews as archaic when I have a feeling there are still plenty of people who would love to still have them around.
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