Call Of Duty

2003video game franchiseactive

Call Of Duty is Activision's first-person shooter franchise that launched on PC in October 2003 and moved to an annual release cycle after 2007's Modern Warfare. Around the games themselves, the series generated a running set of memes about copy-paste sequels, confusing sequel names, and viral marketing blunders.

call of duty memesgamingconsole war memesfandom discourse memesmilitary memes

Overview

Call Of Duty is Activision's flagship first-person shooter series, developed on rotation between Infinity Ward and Treyarch3. Players usually take the role of an infantry soldier moving through campaigns set in World War II, the Cold War, and modern or near-future combat. The series spawned its own online joke culture, with mock Urban Dictionary entries branding it 'Same shit. Different year.' and cataloguing every quickscope, camper, and killcam teabag players love to complain about7.

Much of the meme material around Call Of Duty comes from the franchise's dominant presence in online shooter discourse. Because new titles arrive every fall, chatter around each release recycles the same complaints, the same reveal-trailer jokes, and the same commentary about lag, noob tubes, and montage clips7. Confusing sequel titles have added another layer, most visibly the 2019 reboot named 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare' even though a 2007 game already carried that title1.

How It Spread

The Black Ops sub-series widened the schedule. Call of Duty: World at War, a prologue to the Black Ops line, launched November 11, 2008 and moved players back into the Pacific and Eastern Front of WWII3. Call of Duty: Black Ops followed on November 9, 2010, casting the player as a special forces operator during the 1960s Cold War. On May 1, 2013, a teaser trailer for Call of Duty: Ghosts hit YouTube and pulled in more than 11.7 million views and around 42,000 comments within its first five months.

The naming chaos hit its peak on May 24, 2019, when Twitter user @LongSensationYT posted that the next Call Of Duty was called 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare' with the note 'I'm not joking'1. Kotaku's Jason Schreier quickly backed the leak, and Eurogamer added that Activision had already shown the game to a group of American football players in March, with a formal reveal scheduled for May 301. Users piled on Twitter with jokes about the next entry being called 'Modern Warfare: Call of Duty,' while @GameOverGreggy defended the reused name by comparing it to common practice in film3.

Franchise marketing produced its own meme moment on June 20, 2018, when NBA lottery prospect Deandre Ayton tweeted a Black Ops 4 promo that still contained the PR agency's instructions. The post read 'Awesome time yesterday with the #BlackOps4 crew. Thanks for having me #CallOfDutyPartner,' and a reply on Kotaku dubbed it 'the single greatest sponsored tweet of all time'2. USA Today placed Ayton's slip alongside DeSean Jackson's 2012 ESPYs tweet and Markelle Fultz's identical mistake during the previous year's NBA draft cycle5. SB Nation compared the moment to something out of a BoJack Horseman episode, adding that Ayton could technically have left the tweet up since the only requirement was to include both hashtags, which it did6.

How to Use This Meme

The 'Call Of Duty' meme label often gets applied to any annual franchise release accused of shipping the same product with fresh paint, and the shorthand 'Same shit. Different year' from Urban Dictionary jokes has been reused in gaming discussions well beyond CoD itself7. The stock cast of complaints attached to the series, campers, noob tubers, quickscopers, and killcam teabaggers, also gets recycled whenever a new shooter drops7.

Frequently Asked Questions

Call Of Duty

2003video game franchiseactive

Call Of Duty is Activision's first-person shooter franchise that launched on PC in October 2003 and moved to an annual release cycle after 2007's Modern Warfare. Around the games themselves, the series generated a running set of memes about copy-paste sequels, confusing sequel names, and viral marketing blunders.

call of duty memes gaming console war memes fandom discourse memes military memes

Overview

Call Of Duty is Activision's flagship first-person shooter series, developed on rotation between Infinity Ward and Treyarch3. Players usually take the role of an infantry soldier moving through campaigns set in World War II, the Cold War, and modern or near-future combat. The series spawned its own online joke culture, with mock Urban Dictionary entries branding it 'Same shit. Different year.' and cataloguing every quickscope, camper, and killcam teabag players love to complain about7.

Much of the meme material around Call Of Duty comes from the franchise's dominant presence in online shooter discourse. Because new titles arrive every fall, chatter around each release recycles the same complaints, the same reveal-trailer jokes, and the same commentary about lag, noob tubes, and montage clips7. Confusing sequel titles have added another layer, most visibly the 2019 reboot named 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare' even though a 2007 game already carried that title1.

How It Spread

The Black Ops sub-series widened the schedule. Call of Duty: World at War, a prologue to the Black Ops line, launched November 11, 2008 and moved players back into the Pacific and Eastern Front of WWII3. Call of Duty: Black Ops followed on November 9, 2010, casting the player as a special forces operator during the 1960s Cold War. On May 1, 2013, a teaser trailer for Call of Duty: Ghosts hit YouTube and pulled in more than 11.7 million views and around 42,000 comments within its first five months.

The naming chaos hit its peak on May 24, 2019, when Twitter user @LongSensationYT posted that the next Call Of Duty was called 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare' with the note 'I'm not joking'1. Kotaku's Jason Schreier quickly backed the leak, and Eurogamer added that Activision had already shown the game to a group of American football players in March, with a formal reveal scheduled for May 301. Users piled on Twitter with jokes about the next entry being called 'Modern Warfare: Call of Duty,' while @GameOverGreggy defended the reused name by comparing it to common practice in film3.

Franchise marketing produced its own meme moment on June 20, 2018, when NBA lottery prospect Deandre Ayton tweeted a Black Ops 4 promo that still contained the PR agency's instructions. The post read 'Awesome time yesterday with the #BlackOps4 crew. Thanks for having me #CallOfDutyPartner,' and a reply on Kotaku dubbed it 'the single greatest sponsored tweet of all time'2. USA Today placed Ayton's slip alongside DeSean Jackson's 2012 ESPYs tweet and Markelle Fultz's identical mistake during the previous year's NBA draft cycle5. SB Nation compared the moment to something out of a BoJack Horseman episode, adding that Ayton could technically have left the tweet up since the only requirement was to include both hashtags, which it did6.

How to Use This Meme

The 'Call Of Duty' meme label often gets applied to any annual franchise release accused of shipping the same product with fresh paint, and the shorthand 'Same shit. Different year' from Urban Dictionary jokes has been reused in gaming discussions well beyond CoD itself7. The stock cast of complaints attached to the series, campers, noob tubers, quickscopers, and killcam teabaggers, also gets recycled whenever a new shooter drops7.

Frequently Asked Questions