I was just wondering, I just got a new video game blog and was wondering instead of wasting my time/money on buying links, directory submissions, etc would it be possible to get traffic from doing nothing but write good unique content?
just unique content doesnt do it anymore. you may have unique content, but there will be lot of your competitors who will have unique content AND are doing link building. you will not be able to compete with them in getting ranked well in search engines which will in turn bring you the traffic. you however don't have to waste (dont think its a waste, "spend" maybe a better word here) any money on link building. lots of link building methods are available free of cost. directory submission, article submission, social bookmarking, blog commenting, press release, squidoo lens, hubpages, and other social media pages, you can do them all by yourself free of cost.
How people would know that you've written some unique content unless you promote it or spread the word around? Simply means - You need to market what you're doing. There is no need of BUYING links but you can create links for sure. Article marketing and social bookmarking is fine if you don't wanna spend much. Agreed with you but they're free only if he is a writer himself and has enough time to do those submissions.