In 2007, EA was set to release their latest installment of the Medal of Honor franchise. To this end, EA brought aboard Community Manager Justin Korthof. Korthof, then known as “Blackhat,” (now goes by “SixOkay,” and currently is Community Manager at Robot Entertainment) did more than just manage the Medal of Honor gaming community – he laid the groundwork for what Activision would do for their epic Call of Duty convention.
Blackhat took community leaders on a wild ride with multiple non-gaming adventures. From firing real-life weapons from the WWII era at a firing range, to jumping off of the real Airborne jump tower at Fort Bragg, and giving gamers a chance to hang out with real soldiers, Blackhat set the bar for gaming-related events – he gave participants adventures that would be long remembered.
But someone at Activision MUST have taken note of Blackhat’s innovative approach to gaming events because it seems clear that the teams behind Call of Duty XP, the inaugural ultimate fan expo for the Call of Duty franchise, took his principles and ideas and ran with them: two paintball arenas, zipline tower, Jeep adventure ride, sumo-suit wrestling, hundreds of gaming stations, members of the US Armed Forces, live panel presentations, a weapons museum, and even hot musical acts kept attendees completely immersed in adventure.
It truly was an incredible venture with as many as 6000 attendees filling the late Howard Hughes’ private airplane hangers and airfield in Los Angeles. Each ticket cost $150, and all proceeds went to the Call of Duty Endowment, Activision’s non-profit organization established to assist veterans find employment (Activision actually hired numerous military personnel to work at the event in various capacities). Every attendee not only had access to all of the activities for two days, they were each given a swag bag, which included a coupon code to redeem a free copy of Modern Warfare 3: Hardened Edition (a $100 value). There were even a couple of photo booths in the airplane hangers that took photos of attendees and recreated cover artwork for Black Ops and Modern Warfare 3.
PAINTBALL
There might be no better way to put a gamer’s skills to the test than in a non-lethal paintball arena. At the expo, attendees were able to run through real-life recreations of The Pit (a target-shooting gauntlet) and Scrapyard (competitive paintball).
Before running the Pit, participants were given the chance to practice their skills first on Xbox 360s, after which they were suited up with knee pads, a padded vest, safety goggles, and a paintball marker built to replicate the M4 assault rifle. With a COD XP staff member following (and counting targets hit), participants did their best to hit each of the 30 stationary and pop-up targets as fast as they could. A scoreboard noted the fastest times of the day. Check out our video of a pro running The Pit here!
In the Scrapyard paintball arena, participants were split into two groups of 16, and equipped with fully body coveralls, padded vests, face shield/goggles and the same paintball markers to play in a seven-minute round of Domination. The objective was to capture and hold the most flags stationed in the arena. There were three flags, one on either side of the arena, and one in the center. During the first five minutes of the match, if a player was hit with a paintball, he could raise his marker above his head and walk safely (theoretically) back to his team’s respawn area to be wiped down and sent back in. Meanwhile, music and sounds of Modern Warfare 2 were blasting on loudspeakers into the arena to cap off the experience.
It was my first time ever playing paintball, and honestly, I absolutely loved it. The thrill of a kill, fear of getting hit, and rush of capturing and holding a flag station pumped so much adrenaline through my veins, I barely noticed getting hit, even when an opponent managed to hit the crown of my head (altogether now: BOOM, HEADSHOT!).
Neither The Pit nor Scrapyard were exact replicas of the in-game maps, but it mattered very little to participants who appreciated the fact that they did not have to run as far as they would have had to in a one-to-one recreation of the maps.
ZIPLINE
One of the first things that popped into my mind as I stood high up on the zipline tower platform was how much higher up it was than I imagined it would be. My second thought was whether the harness strapped around my waist and the straps connected to the zipline were properly secured. After a few moments of deliberation, I relaxed, and began my decent down the zipline that took me across the airfield.
To be sure, the trip down the zipline at COD XP was as smooth as can be, and not very steep at all (check out the video here). In fact, the Jump Tower at Fort Bragg not only had a steeper zipline, but your first step off the tower included a short free fall before the line caught you. This made for a fairly exciting and pleasant trip down the line, and less of a horrifying and traumatizing roller coaster ride.
JUGGERNAUT SUMO WRESTLING
Those daring enough to step into the Juggernaut Sumo Wrestling ring suited up into the familiar sumo fat suits, but this time, donned with a military utility vest and a helmet, instead of the traditional sumo attire. Most of the excitement came when participants decided that merely shoving their opponents wasn’t good enough – full judo throws, tea bagging, and even some flashy WWE moves were attempted, to the glee of all the spectators.
JEEP RIDE EXPERIENCE
COD XP was already turning out to be the most ambitious and extreme gaming event I had attended with the paintballing, ziplining, and everything else it had to offer. Then I took a trip on the Jeep Ride Experience. I was so curious as to what this experience entailed, and even moreso when I saw that everyone who just returned from their ride had smiles stretching from ear to ear.
Activision and Jeep created a driving course that took passengers out on a ride that would end up being the most unique experience at the expo. Two Jeep Wranglers would depart from the boarding station (there were six Jeeps in all, but only two went out at one time) with Hollywood stunt drivers at the wheel. Passengers wore utility vests, helmets, and we were each handed a pair of earplugs, all without really being told what to expect.
As soon as the Jeeps took off, a voice squawked on a walkie talkie, informing us that we were heading into a hot zone, filled with enemy insurgents! This was not going to be a leisurely ride over a few bumps. What transpired ultimately became a ride through an obstacle course through battle scenes, staged with actors playing insurgents and military personnel alike, and highlighted with pyrotechnics. The drivers pushed the limits of the Jeeps, riding through several feet of water, speeding and sliding through dirt curves, and climbing a near-vertical hill. The theatrics were altogether very complete and enthralling, especially since it came as such a surprise.
And just when we thought the ride might be over, our driver pulled us into a reverse power-slide and drove up to a group of soldiers in front of a building. Special Ops soldiers pulled us out of our Jeeps and immediately briefed us on the next stage of our mission: we had to infiltrate and clear a building, and recover valuable intel. This is what the earplugs were for! We followed our escorts into the building on foot as our guides cleared the lower floor of the building of enemy forces, room-by-room. Simulated gunfire and bad guys jumping out from behind random corners, along with superb acting from each of the cast members brought this portion of the “ride” over the top. Once we secured the intel, it was back to boarding area in our Jeeps, completely exhilarated.
GAMING
Naturally, a big focus of COD XP was the gaming. Hundreds of Xbox 360s were separated into various sections to accommodate the different games and modes available to play. The new Spec Ops and Kill Confirmed modes in Modern Warfare 3 were available, as well as stations featuring other Call of Duty games, like Zombies and King of the Hill from Black Ops.
Additionally, the center of the gaming area featured the $1 Million tournament, where a team of four attendees walked away with a $400,000 check after beating top competitors from around the country. Yes, Call of Duty is serious business.
There were also stations available to demo Call of Duty Elite, Activision’s comprehensive stat-tracking and community-connecting app. The most impressive feature of Elite was the ability to connect with friends and fellow gamers via Facebook, through Elite. The implications of this seemed quite extraordinary since it is essentially a workaround for an issue that Xbox 360 gamers have been griping about for some time. Xbox Live has a cap of 100 spaces for each gamer’s Friends List, with no increase promised for the foreseeable future. With Elite, Call of Duty gamers can connect with as many friends as they want through their Facebook accounts. This workaround is not only innovative, but will likely be a model followed by other game developers in the future.
Notably absent however were any demos of the MW3 single-player campaign. Activision likely wanted to keep the campaign’s storyline under tight wraps until the game is released. COD XP was clearly a multiplayer-centric event, and allowing attendees to try their hand at the new game modes seemed more than enough to satisfy them.
NEXT YEAR?
An Activision staff member made a passing comment insinuating that there would be a Call of Duty XP event next year. Don’t put too much weight in that statement though, since it likely was only a fleeting thought, but considering the overwhelmingly positive impressions from attendees, Activision should consider this event to be a huge success. In the same way Blizzcon is an annual affair for Blizzard gamers, COD XP could be a mecca fans from around the world would pay pilgrimage to.
That being said, there were a few issues that Activision could improve upon for any potential future COD XP. First, the lines for the outdoor activities were outrageously long. Attendees waited anywhere from three to five hours to participate in each activity (lines for gaming averaged at only two hours). When the outdoor activities started at noon and closed at 8:00 PM, waiting in line for five hours to ride the Jeep Experience killed of an entire day. It is possible that using a ticketed time-based system would allow attendees to participate in other activities instead of wasting their day waiting in line. Anything that could shorten wait times to about two hours would be far more reasonable.
Second, the parking system was a nightmare. Larry Hyrb, Xbox Live’s Major Nelson tweeted Friday morning that there was a lot of traffic around the venue. A quick look at Google Maps verified this report, so I decided to ride my motorcycle out to the event. Doing so allowed me to bypass the hours-long traffic that was waiting simply to get into the parking structure. Multiple off-site parking lots could relieve a tremendous amount of vehicle congestion and get attendees into the venue without being subjected to the stresses of traffic.
Third, welcoming and adding more partners and sponsors would benefit not only Activision, but also the attendees. Mountain Dew had a huge presence at COD XP, with a sectioned-off area directly in the middle of the gaming hangar. Representatives from Mountain Dew offered camoflage face-painting and tons of sample drinks for attendees to enjoy. Additional sponsors from the event could help offset the costs to produce the event, and increase the overall enjoyment and experience for attendees with free swag and the like.
CONCLUSION
The live panel presentations, weapons museum, character actors walking about, real-life Burger Town restaurant, and the on-site shop to buy Call of Duty branded gear were also fantastic elements that added to what was undoubtedly a truly adventurous expo. And not to go unmentioned, one of my favorite bits of swag from COD XP were the patches/badges that were given to participants of various activities (excelling in any of them earned the participant a Prestige patch). Fans should hope that Activision will make Call of Duty XP an annual event to look forward to, and if Activision needs ideas on how to top this year’s expo, Justin Korthof is easy to get a hold of.
Be sure to check out all the photos from the event, as well as my report from the Battlefield 3 Community Event at PAX!