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.
That doesn’t sound like the kind of person the article is referring to.
The condescending preachy people will barely even look at the game and tell the developer what they need to add/change, which are usually things from whatever their favorite genre or AAA game is. Its not real feedback because they aren’t trying to push the game in a better direction (they usually won’t even play what the dev has), they just want someone to hear their grand ideas. The dev has to maintain the demo booth and (usually) has to try and be formal and so the preachy person has them trapped.
Your experience seems like legitimate feedback that the dev wouldn’t hear out, which sucks. Unfortunately I’ve seen a lot of devs that aren’t great at social events and its hard to keep it up for the whole duration of an expo.