I've always been of the opinion that we need to hang out (digitally if IRL is not possible due to distance) and talk without being "forced" by some other reason. For example, did I have classmates in high school that I got along with? Sure. Did we ever hang out outside of school? Nope. Texting outside of school? Nope. And what happened once we graduated? No contact.
If the only reason we interacted was because we were stuck in the same room for 6-7 hours 5 days a week, and not because we actively seeked each other out, then we weren't friends.
Personally haven't really read gaming journalism even before. If I want to see what score a game has, I'm much more likely to check How Long To Beat or Backloggd, where users rate games.
Or, as has been mentioned in this thread, Youtubers, if I want a singular subjective opinion as opposed to a "out of 5" or "out of 10" score which, admittedly can be tricky when different people have a different view on what each number should mean. For instance, a 5 (on a 10 scale), is average for me when I rate anime. But most of the anime community uses 7 as the average, so a 6.2 show on MyAnimeList, which you would think is above average, is actually below.
I've always been of the opinion that we need to hang out (digitally if IRL is not possible due to distance) and talk without being "forced" by some other reason. For example, did I have classmates in high school that I got along with? Sure. Did we ever hang out outside of school? Nope. Texting outside of school? Nope. And what happened once we graduated? No contact.
If the only reason we interacted was because we were stuck in the same room for 6-7 hours 5 days a week, and not because we actively seeked each other out, then we weren't friends.
Also quality over quantity!