Call Of Duty: Warzone

About

Call Of Duty: Warzone is a free-to-play, first-person shooter video game, revolved around a Battle Royale, published by Activision for Windows, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Warzone is set in the fictional world of CoD’s Modern Warfare series. The game features a battle-royale-style game mode where 150 players enter the city of Verdansk (loosely based on real-world city Donetsk) and fight for supplies and gear in a continuously shrinking map until one person or squad remains. Warzone was released worldwide on March 10th, 2020.

History

On February 11th, 2020, roughly three months after Call of Duty: Modern Warfare released, a leak appeared on Reddit^[1] that claimed a new battle royale mode for the game was in the works. In an announcement from Activision^[2] on March 9th, 2020, the publisher confirmed that the new mode was indeed real and would be released the following day under the title “Call Of Duty: Warzone.” The blog post went on to explain that Warzone would be a new F2P game featuring up to 150 players battling in the city of Verdansk. Warzone allows for solo play or squads of three and also includes crossplay between the three supported platforms.

Warzone includes two unique game modes for players to choose from. The first mode is simply called, “Battle Royale,” which features up to 150 players escaping a deadly gas that closes in around them until one remains. The second mode, “Plunder,” is a race to collect the most “Cash” by looting key points around the map, completing “Contracts” or killing enemies and stealing their Cash. In both of these modes, Cash can also be used to buy in-match items from locations called “Buy Stations.”

Much like other battle royales, the game’s map includes several different areas with names such as “Gorengard Lumber Yard,” each with unique landmarks and layouts. At the start of each match, players airdrop into Verdansk and can choose where they prefer to land. There are five types of vehicles scattered throughout the world, including an ATV, Tactical Rover, SUV, Cargo Truck and Helicopter.

One unique feature of Warzone’s Battle Royale is that when players are first killed, they become “Prisoners of Warzone” and are locked up in the Gulag. Here, players can fight other prisoners to the death in a single 1v1 style match to earn a chance at being redeployed into the map. If you die in the Gulag, your only chance of being brought back to the city is if your squad collects enough money to redeploy you.

Players can earn the in-game currency, Cash, by completing objective-based quests within the game mode called Contracts, which are randomly placed throughout Verdansk. Each squad can only have one of these active at a time, but completing them rewards Cash and other items that can give you an edge. One such advantage is the ability to see where the map will collapse next, allowing your squad to get the jump on competitors. The types of Contracts included are Scavenger, Supply and Recon.

Online Presence

Much like other Call of Duty titles, Warzone has had a large online presence across multiple social media platforms and websites. Though the official accounts are still under the “Call of Duty” title and not under individual pages dedicated to Warzone, the game currently has over 3.9 million followers on Twitter^[3], 9.4 million followers on Instagram^[4] and 24 million on Facebook^[5]. For unofficial accounts, there are numerous pages from fans, including the Instagram^[6] account Warzone.Cod, which frequently posts memes. The Facebook^[7] group Call of Duty WARZONE is another source of memes, and currently has over 76,000 members.

On Reddit, there are two major subs dedicated specifically to Warzone. The r/CODWarzone^[8] subreddit is the largest with over 180,000 members and is also supported by the developers. The second subreddit is r/ModernWarzone^[9] (30,500 members), which is completely run by fans.

Warzone has a large meme culture within all of these various communities where fans frequently create content surrounding different aspects of the game. One such example comes from Redditor^[10] GrayCollarLogic, posted to the r/CODWarzone sub on March 16th, 2020. The meme (seen below), which features a revamped version of the I Am Once Again Asking For Your Financial Support meme, received over 8,000 upvotes, 183 comments and a few Reddit awards.

Another, uploaded on April 7th, 2020, comes from the Instagram^[11] account Warzone.Cod, depicting Patrick Star as a player running into the fray instead of reviving teammates. The post (shown below) was liked over 900 times.

Related Memes

Gulag Memes

Gulag is one of Warzone’s most commonly memed elements, which appears on numerous social media platforms. In the Gulag, players are pitted against each other in a 1v1 fight for a chance at being redeployed into the city. Upon winning their freedom, they are then dropped back into Verdansk from a helicopter, which is a frequent point of such memes. One such example comes from Twitter^[12] user murray_myles, who used the video of Boris Johnson getting stuck on a zipline on April 6th, 2020. The video (seen below) received 418 likes and 164 retweets.

Boris coming back from the gulag tomorrow pic.twitter.com/sBxmM7Rsq0

— myles (@murray_myles) April 6, 2020

On April 9th, 2020, Twitter^[13] user gymIad also tweeted a Gulag meme (shown below), receiving nearly 1,000 likes and 226 comments.

When you’re first in the lobby to go to the gulag pic.twitter.com/2veoQ7IMlR

— Haz (@gymIad) April 9, 2020

Redditor^[14] joesdirte shared a Gulag meme to the r/CODWarzone sub on March 21st, 2020, utilizing the Bane VS Pink Guy format, which was upvoted almost 8,000 times.

Search Interest

External References