How Call of Duty turned war into a profitable circus

Call of Duty XP 2011, the first Call of Duty convention, was held in 2011. Activision was getting ready for the launch of Modern Warfare 3.This is the last chapter of the trilogy, which propelled already popular war shooters into mainstream ubiquity.

The couple felt bloated. They rented out one of Howard Hughes’ old flight hangars in Playa Vista and converted it into a surreal weekend retreat. The main stage was host to sets by Kanye West, Dropkick Murphys and other artists. The hangar was packed with hundreds of consoles to host a large LAN party. For lunch, guests lined up at Burger Town’s recreation. Modern Warfare IIRussian invaders were fought off by players.

Photo by John Shearer/Getty Images For Activision

Pro athletes and active duty troops mixed in on special exhibition matches. Activision’s then-CEO, Eric Hirschberg, handed an oversized $400,000 check and a trophy made out of rifles to the winners of the company’s inaugural esports tournament. The winners had sumo suits, paintball and zip-lines. The lot was used for photos by armored vehicles. A wall was constructed with several guns. If something didn’t have innate Call of Duty flavor, it was draped in camo webbing.

It was the carnival of war.

Photograph by Michael Buckner/Getty Images For Activision

I wasn’t there. It was my first time seeing the event. Mountain Dew video.

It was uploaded to Mountain Dew’s official YouTube page on September 22, 2011. It zooms all around Call of Duty XP and shows off its attractions while the electronic music thumps. It is an Eric and Tim-esque fever dream with lots of silly transitions and flourishes. The next month, the video was re-uploaded, unaltered, by another YouTube user — perhaps out of fear that Mountain Dew would delete the video to spare itself the embarrassment. It didn’t, though. It is up.

I’ve watched this video a lot over the last 10 years because it’s really funny. But I think the thing that keeps bringing me back is the palpable unease it makes me feel — the nagging feeling that The whole sceneit is almost like being sick. This extreme contrast between the frivolity of Mountain Dew and the subject matter of the game — which is World War III.

Photo by John Shearer/Getty Images For Activision

Ich wollte. It is reallyUnderstanding that feeling of unease was difficult for me so I did my research and learned lots.

I learned about the entertainment industry’s cozy relationship with the Pentagon. A Marine spent his youth collecting medals while trying to demolish the war machine. This is the worst Jeep advertisement I have ever seen.

This is the story of how Call of Duty turned war into a circus — how it got too weird to be described, and too big to be stopped.