A Theory on Patch Times, Balance Speed and Games in General

##Before I begin, I want to say that most of this is observation and anecdotal. I've done no hardcore study on this and I frankly don't think something like this "could" be studied. That said, I've noticed something of a trend and something that explains expectations of companies and not just Riot.

When it comes to patch cycles, games often vary. Of course, everyone wants a balanced and/or fun game so people clamor for change when they see something they view as problematic or incorrect. It's not totally uncommon but let's shelf that for the moment. Instead, I want to talk about a personal theory on how fast people want changes to occur.

In my experience playing a lot of games with patch-by-patch changes, I've seen something of a trend when it comes to balance changes and/or fixes to characters, items, etc. Be they buffs or nerfs, there's a prevailing theme when it comes to how quickly people want these things to be fixed and how people get upset if they're not:

##From my experience, it seems people want fixes slightly faster than the patch cycle of the game.

"So how can you prove this" or "What evidence do you have" is what you're probably asking. In my time, I've played a few games with vastly varied patch cycles: There was DOTA, which has very slow "major" patch cycles. There are games like WoW or Overwatch which have patch cycles that are usually a few months in between (Around 1-2 in my experience). There are also games I've played like fighting games (MvC, Street Fighter, etc.) which are more core to what I want to talk about. Finally, we have league with it's admittedly insane patch speed.

DOTA: When it comes to DOTA, it's a mixture of trust and patience. If there's a character or a meta that people are frustrated with, people will tend to just sort of bring up their complaints but never to the degree that you'll see in other games. Using the idea I presented, DOTA players want the problem solved faster...but faster generally means a month or two quicker than normal. In the grand scheme, that's honestly not too far apart. People are comfortable dealing with a character in the moment knowing change is coming.

WoW/OW: These games are where the complaints really begin to tune up a notch. Balance complaints that crop up here are expected to be solved faster than the patch cycle. Because of this, balance changes are expected in half the patch time or even sooner. This leads to a higher resentment and grudge that form. I've seen more people get heated about WoW/OW balance than I ever did with DOTA. Perhaps it's the community but I digress.

League: With a patch rate of every two weeks, the turnover balance demand is expected to be even shorter than that. I don't know any community that really expects changes faster than League because I earnestly can't think of a game that has a faster patch cycle. People want fixes faster than two weeks and because of this, there's a lot of hostility when people see something they view as a mistake or a needless buff/nerf.

Now, for fighting games, I have a varied take because I've seen both. The old fighting game community (FGC) rarely ever got patches...and they were cool with that. Super Turbo Akuma was busted but you dealt with it and made it work. Sure, he was a balance problem and sure, you'd complain about him, but realistically you didn't expect balance changes because Capcom had a schedule of "update" editions. Some games, like Smash Melee or MvC2, never got balance updates. Sure, people point to balance, but nobody really complains about it. They know balance patches are never coming and accept the game for all its faults.

Now let's look at SFV, Killer Instinct, etc. Games that have taken to the patch cycles of these games above. Because of this, complaints are faaaaaaaar higher and people complain far more about them. Because the ETA on a balance update has moved up so much, it's now more realistic to expect balance updates faster. Which turns the meter up when it comes to complaints and causes people to be far more vocal with balance issues they have with the game in hopes of it changing.

#TL;DR People expect balance/tweaks to be done slightly faster than the patch cycle. Because of this, we have the most balance complaints about games that patch the fastest.

Also game balance is a lot like guns:

Old FGC was a rocket launcher: It took forever to fire but it blew away everything, nailing everything in a huge display. DOTA is a sniper rifle: It's slow to fire but it generally hits the mark. But if it misses? Oh boy. WoW/OW Is a shotgun: It's got a huge spray and hits a lot of targets but it's bound to miss. It does fire faster than other guns however League is an uzi: Massive spray, fast reload but you're probably going to have to shoot/reload a few times before you hit every target.