I’ve seen a lot of folks online who think they can teach developers how to develop, but I didn’t imagine the problem was so bad in face-to-face interactions.
As spotted by Game*Spark, Tokyo Game Dungeon’s official X account made a statement on May 5 saying that despite the organizers’ efforts to raise awareness about the issue of “preachy dudes” over the past two years, they still haven’t been able to eliminate the problem at their events. According to their definition, “preachy dudes”(jp: sekkyo ojisan) are people of any age and gender who find it acceptable to badger developers with condescending, unsolicited “advice” on their abilities and work.
What’s the old adage? Users are very good at telling you what doesn’t work and very bad at telling you how it should be improved.
Well, yeah? That’s not really their job. All users did is buy a thing, they didn’t also sign up to be free QA.
Edit: this adage is used to say explicitly what I am meaning. I didn’t get that, whoops.
The point is that some users like acting like QA, having an active role in the development of a game. And an easily persuaded developer might assume they ought to cater to the feedback they receive, but the adage is meant to signal to developers that they should take their user’s feedback with a grain of salt. It stands in opposition to another adage: “the customer is always right.”
The article actually talks about how these preachy dudes haven’t even played the game they are criticizing. That’s actually pretty ridiculous.
I mean I see it all the time in steam forums and social media.
Gamers taking one look at a screenshot or trailer video, and immediately giving their take about how it “should be”.
And it always comes down to the gender or skin color of a character. It’s fucking pathetic.
Or, if it’s a game where you create a character, it’s because they used “body type 1” and “body type 2” instead of “male” and “female.”
Gaem looks fun! But only one isue. It loks to woke. Also can you add some LGBLT rerpesention? To these bloxk puzzles?
It works be better if people went there just to shit on them for ruining everything with their mechanics and monetization policies. They can obviously make the games, that doesn’t make them not assholes.
I’ve presented games at a few expos and have got some wild, and frustrating, takes from people trying to tell you how it is. It is definitely deflating.
Weird. When I went to PAX back in the day and a dev asked what I thought about the game, I felt like it was really difficult to say that I didn’t like it, even if it’s what they wanted and needed to hear.
Game events are magnets for the kind of people who cannot read social cues and have strong opinions they are compelled to share.
Am I an unsolicited advice dude? I was at a convention playing an indie demo. The game had an island on a 2D field, with an invisible wall on the left, and a very clear cliffside and water on the right.
I spent a good 5 minutes looking like an idiot trying to figure out where to go, testing the borders, picking up the only item, putting down the only item, before giving up. The dev said to just go into the water. I asked “Why not make that cliff a gradual beach into the water to indicate it’s not a hazard?” and I got a brutal “the game already shipped and I’m not here for feedback” which immediately soured the whole experience. It’s like… why are you here then? Just set up the demo on steam and skip the fan interaction completely.
Devs are, by and large, computer people, and computer people are, by and large, not people people.
Nah you’re good, I have a feeling there is significant overlap between “unsolicited advice dudes” and chuds who screech about Sweet Baby.
What is Sweet Baby?
