ABSTRACT
This chapter traces three approaches to the rhetorical framing and delivery of patch documentation by three different game development companies through their public communications to players: Riot Games, Blizzard Entertainment, and Grinding Gear Games. Blizzard is the most high-profile development company and manages one of the most popular online game franchises in World of Warcraft. Path of Exile represents a higher-stakes environment for patching as a rhetorical activity. The tension between documenting patch information in a comprehensive, neutral sensevia technical language, datasets, and precise descriptionand using patch documentation as a platform. The chapter also traces some ways in which game development companies have begun to take advantage of multimodal communication platforms and social media in the service of framing patch documentation and public rationales for iterative design work. It focuses on game development discourse, domains and systems such as software development, user support, and digital archival have stakes in their approaches to the public work.
