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.
In my experience, it’s much better to watch and listen to your playtesters as they interact with the game rather than listen to what they have to say afterwards. Always try to get a recording of them playing the game.
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.”
Its actually literally the same as the customer is always right. The customer is always right means that a customer can tell you they want a device that functions as a vacuum cleaner. But can’t tell you what kind.
They arnt an expert they don’t actually understand what they are buying, just that they need a thing that does a function and they think a thing they are buying will do that function. Regardless if it will or will not. Your job ass a salesman is to see though the stupid shit the customer is saying and sell them something that will do the function they want and in a manner they find acceptable. With out driectly explaining to them why they are wrong about something.
The full proper saying is the customer is always right in matters of taste(opinion/preferences).
That hasn’t been true in the US in a very long time. Here, it’s “The shareholders are always right.”
I thought it was “[…] in matters of taste”. As in, if you want to buy this ugly thing, we will gladly take your money for it.
The original intent was to bend over backwards for the customer, because they’re the ones who pay you.
Okay, that makes sense. I understood the article, but I was missing context on how that adage is used. If it’s meant to say “don’t let the user design the solution for you” instead of “user feedback is useless unless they suggest solutions”, then that’s great!
Oh yeah, I’ve only ever seen this adage used with the former implication rather than the latter.
That’s great, because my first read of that adage was definitely the interpretation “don’t listen to user feedback”. But then again I don’t work in game dev. Or QA. Also I’m autistic.
The article is saying that’s what the users are doing, and the developers don’t want them to.
To rephrase, tell us what doesn’t work, but don’t tell us how we should fix it. We’ll figure out an appropriate fix.
I’m reminded of this story about the Thompson SMG in Wolfenstein Enemy Territory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDxiuHdR_T4
Highlights it perfectly!