Jeremy Stangroom - Trailblazers in Philosophy

Published in 2015 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. 29 East 21st Street, New York, NY 10010

Copyright 2015 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Culp, Jennifer (Writer on video games)

Call of duty : Vince Zampella, Grant Collier, and Jason West/ Jennifer Culp.First Edition.

pages cm.(Internet biographies)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4777-7923-1 (library bound)

1. Computer war gamesJuvenile literature. 2. Video gamesDesignJuvenile literature. 3. Video games industryUnited StatesJuvenile literature. 4. Computer programmersUnited StatesBiographyJuvenile literature. I. Title.

GV1469.15.C84 2015

794.81536dc23

2014022771

Manufactured in the United States of America

On the cover: The game developers who created the Call of Duty franchise were Vince Zampella, Grant Collier, and Jason West, seen here from left to right.

Contents

T he tenth primary entry in the wildly successful Call of Duty video game franchise, Call of Duty: Ghosts, was released on November 5, 2013. Within its first day of release, $1 billion worth of the game had sold. For comparison, the highest-earning opening of any movie since the year 2002, Harry Potter and the Deathly HallowsPart 2, cashed in at $483 million internationally in its opening weekendless than half of what Call of Duty: Ghosts earned in just one day. Even the impressive first-day sales figures of Grand Theft Auto V, another high-profile game launched in the months prior to CoD: Ghosts, was overshadowed by the unprecedented success of Ghosts, earning $800 million to CoD: Ghosts $1 billion.

The nonstop action and lifelike combat of the Call of Duty games forever changed the face of the video game industry.

The very first Call of Duty game was developed by Infinity Ward, published by Activision, and released to critical acclaim and financial success in 2003. Its sequel, Call of Duty 2, was also very successful. The third Infinity Warddeveloped Call of Duty title, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, changed the setting, offered enhanced graphics and more intelligent enemy artificial intelligence, earned a mature rating for its brutal, realistic depictions of violence and death, and changed the video game industry. Features introduced in Modern Warfare upped the ante for big-budget video games of all types and heavily influenced not just subsequent Call of Duty sequels, but every first-person shooter released since. Modern Warfare and its sequel, Modern Warfare 2, changed the way video game publishers and developers do business. Modern Warfare and its sequels also changed the way people play games. Call of Dutys legacy stretches across several generations of home video game consoles, and its supremacy appears to reign unquestioned.

Perhaps even more intriguing than the plots of the Call of Duty games, however, are the real-life events surrounding their creation. Between 2003 and 2010, developers Vince Zampella, Jason West, and Grant Collier found themselves embroiled in a bitter conflict with Activision, the publisher of Call of Duty. The story involved allegations of conspiracy, corporate espionage, sabotage, deception, and broken friendships. Although fighting in the Call of Duty games is imaginary, the vicious corporate battle between the games developers and publisher was very real.

Allied Assault, 2015, and the Birth of a Team

T he three men responsible for bringing the Call of Duty franchise to the worldGrant Collier, Jason West, and Vince Zampellaare private citizens. Though pictures of their faces, taken mostly at video game award ceremonies or presented alongside press announcements and interviews about Call of Duty, are abundant, details on their early years and personal lives are largely unavailable.

West was 40 years old in 2013, when Vanity Fair published an article on the history of the Call of Duty series and West and Zampellas battles with publisher Activision. Growing up in Texas, West learned to write computer programs at age nine and enjoyed playing text-based role-playing games on his PC. But he didnt do well in college at the University of Texas. After two years, he dropped out, moved home to Dallas, and finished college at the University of North Texas.

Jason West (left) and Vince Zampella (right) attend Spike TVs 7th Annual Video Game Awards in 2009, where their game Modern Warfare 2 won Best Shooter and Best Multiplayer Game.

Zampella, 43 at the time of the Vanity Fair articles publication, didnt finish college at all. After briefly attending Broward Community College in Florida, Zampella worked as a handyman before talking his way into an entry-level job at a local game company. Though he started out doing basic administrative work and testing new releases, by 1997, he had become a producer at SegaSoft. He hired the Texas-based company West worked for to create a role-playing game. The two developed a friendship. Two years later, when West became the lead developer at a game start-up named 2015, Inc., Zampella joined him as lead producer. Collier also worked as a producer for 2015.

More so than West and Zampella (perhaps because he was not involved in their later legal battle with Activision), information on Grant Colliers background is difficult to find. According to information provided by MobyGames, an Internet video game database, Collier is credited as working in Quality Assurance as a play tester on a number of games released between the years of 1993 and 1998. In 1997, he was credited as a producer on the computer game Postal and also worked as a producer for the games Enemy Infestation, Postal Plus, and CIA Operative: Solo Missions. In 2002, he founded Infinity Ward along with Zampella and West.

Grant Collier poses on the red carpet at the 2005 Spike TV Video Game Awards, where Call of Duty 2 won Best Military Game.

The Medal of Honor, the highest military honor bestowed by the U.S. military, is awarded for personal acts of valor above and beyond the call of duty.