How Call of Duty turned war into a profitable circus

Call of Duty XP 2011 was the first official Call of Duty convention. Activision prepared the release of Modern Warfare 3the final chapter in the trilogy that catapulted the already successful war shooter into the mainstream.

So you felt wasteful. They rented one of Howard Hughes’ old flight hangars in Playa Vista and turned it into a surreal weekend retreat. Kanye West and Dropkick Murphys performed sets on the main stage. The organizers filled the hangar with hundreds of consoles for a massive LAN party. Guests lined up for lunch at a replica of Burger Town, a fast food joint they were at Modern warfare 2

Players fought with Russian invaders.

First ever Call of Duty XP, Los Angeles - Day 2

Active troops and professional athletes mingled in special exhibition fights. Activision CEO at the time, Eric Hirschberg, presented the winners of the company’s first esports tournament with an oversized $400,000 check and a trophy made out of guns. They had zip lines, paintball, and sumo suits. Armored vehicles parked in the parking lot for photo ops. There was a wall with a bunch of guns taped to it. If something didn’t have an innate call-of-duty flair, it was draped in camo webbing.

It was a carnival of war.

First-ever Call of Duty XP, Los Angeles - Day 1

I was not there. My first encounter with the event was the Mountain Dew video.

It was uploaded to Mountain Dew’s official YouTube page on September 22, 2011. The video zooms over the Call of Duty XP grounds, showing the attractions and participants, while electronic music blares. The editing is a Tim and Eric-like fever dream of flour ishes and silly transitions. The next month, the video was re-uploaded unchanged by another YouTube user — perhaps fearing that Mountain Dew would delete the video to avoid the embarrassment. However, it didn’t. The video is still running.

I’ve watched this video many times over the past 10 years because it’s really funny. But I think what keeps bringing me back is the palpable discomfort I feel — the nagging feeling I have this whole scene is kind of sick. This extreme contrast between the frivolity of Mountain Dew and the game’s theme – World War III.

I wanted Yes, really I understand this uneasiness, so I took a closer look and learned a lot.

I learned about the entertainment industry’s close relationship with the Pentagon. I learned of a Marine who spent his youth collecting medals and his last years dismantling the war machine. And I stumbled upon what might be the shittiest ad Jeep has ever run.

This is the story of how Call of Duty turned war into a circus – how it got too weird to describe and too big to stop.