This week: Building a large collection of high-end guns in Marathon, which I’m sure to lose when my luck turns.
Besides the moment-to-moment shooting, what’s the one thing that’s made Call of Duty the success that it is today? If you ask me, it’s the progression. You level up your account, unlocking new guns as you go, which pulls you into the camo grind, all for you to prestige and do it all over again. It’s a dopamine rush that worms its way deep into your brain. I still remember the incredibly obnoxious (but admittedly cool) level-up sounds from the original Modern Warfare trilogy era.
Advanced Warfare introduced the short-lived weapon variants feature. Basically, you’d unlock weapons like you normally would by leveling up, but each gun also had a handful of tiered variants that significantly tweaked their performance. They were similar to today’s cosmetic-only weapon blueprints but with a very real impact on their stats and performance.
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Image credit: Activision
Image credit: Activision
Image credit: Activision
For example, the MP11 Goliath variant gave this SMG bonus damage at the cost of handling, which resulted in a bafflingly quick time-to-kill in close range. Likewise, the Bal-27 Obsidian Steed gained bonus damage and mobility but reduced accuracy, handling, and rate of fire compared to its base counterpart. And no variant was more iconic (or infamous) than the ASM1 Speakeasy, which turned this SMG into a Tommy Gun that absolutely ripped.
Try your luck in the free Supply Drops, or pay a few bucks to still try your luck at getting some of the strongest guns.
It was an interesting idea, in all honesty. If you didn’t like a base weapon, perhaps you would like one of its variants instead. And it also led to some pretty cool designs, like the aforementioned Speakeasy. The only issue was that weapon variants were inextricably linked to gacha mechanics.
One of Advanced Warfare’s biggest contributions to Call of Duty history was Supply Drops. A brand-new way to monetise the series known for being the best-selling shooter every year, because releasing paid map packs, and the ill-fated Elite subscription just weren’t cutting it anymore.
Supply Drops would hand out purely cosmetic clothing items (this is still my favourite customisation system the series has seen), and most importantly, weapon variants.
Everyone wanted the ASM1 Speakeasy variant, but it wasn’t down to you, it was all on RNG’s shoulders. Maybe you’d get lucky and snag the Speakeasy on your first Supply Drop and be set for life, or maybe you’d get it 100 Supply Drops down the line. Or if you were me, you’d never get it while your friends were having a blast shoving it in your face.
You’d earn Supply Drops every 45 minutes of in-game time, but surprise, surprise, you could purchase Advanced Supply Drops from the store which had better odds. All the best weapon variants were the rarest, of course. Try your luck in the free Supply Drops, or pay a few bucks to still try your luck at getting some of the strongest guns. Hell, you could even get duplicates, which were worthless.
That’s gacha mechanics right there, complete with power creep as legendary elite weapon variants were basically always better (and cooler-looking) than lower quality ones. You could buy one crate for just $1.99, or upwards of $39.99 for 28 boxes, which is tame by today’s standards but was still quite outlandish for 2014.
Supply Drops were tweaked in subsequent titles—Black Ops 3’s handed out exclusive weapons, Infinite Warfare’s returned to variants but this time they had unique perks instead of stat changes, and WWII even gave you a hub area to open loot boxes in front of other players. Revolutionary, really. The system was eventually removed in favour of a battle pass in Modern Warfare 2019, reflecting a shift in monetisation strategies across the gaming landscape.
Looking back on this system over a decade later, it’s still infuriating that Activision made such a drastic, obviously-in-game-gambling decision with Advanced Warfare—dragging down one of the best Call of Duty games in the name of monetisation. If only Advanced Warfare was a blip or cautionary tale. But let’s be honest, little’s changed when it comes to excessive monetisation in Call of Duty games.