Meet the Call of Duty boyfriends who play until their 'hands fall off' - Polygon

Polygon explores what it’s similar to beryllium a Call of Duty boyfriend

On the evening of Oct. 26, the fashionable streamer Jack “CouRage” Dunlop issued a nationalist apology to his girlfriend. In a tweet, helium said, “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 launches tomorrow. You volition not spot me. You volition not perceive from me. I volition beryllium playing until my hands autumn off. I’m atrocious for what I’m astir to do.”

The tweet spoke to his excitement astir the adjacent installment of the fashionable first-person shooter crippled and served arsenic a cheeky mode to fto his woman cognize that helium would beryllium absent for the days pursuing its launch. It besides summoned different self-described Call of Duty boyfriends who commented connected the tweet successful enactment of Call of Duty fellow behavior. In the coming days, TikTok would travel to beryllium filled with girlfriends lamenting the nonaccomplishment of their boyfriends to the caller game, sharing messages like, “Saying bye to my bf… he’s not dead, the caller COD conscionable came retired yesterday.”

Call of Duty is 1 of the astir commercially successful video crippled franchises. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 surpassed $1 cardinal successful income wrong 10 days of its release, Activision announced, breaking the satellite grounds for income antecedently held by Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. Critics person covered the political ideology of the games and the messages astir war they communicate, but little attraction has been paid to the real-life radical who play these games, and the mode it shapes their lives — or, possibly much accurately, the mode it takes over their lives.

Being a COD fellow isn’t truly astir being a literal boyfriend. Anyone tin beryllium a COD fellow if they want, careless of sex individuality oregon narration status, according to the self-identified “Call of Duty boyfriends” I spoke to. Still, the thought of Call of Duty boyfriends has taken implicit societal media, arsenic couples play into — oregon playfully propulsion backmost against — “gamer boyfriend” sex stereotypes. But immoderate of these boyfriends find themselves bristling against the label.

Image: Infinity Ward/Activision

“I tin beryllium rather competitory successful games truthful I accidental thing is rather arsenic magical to maine arsenic queuing up with friends and conscionable collaborating unneurotic to get immoderate W’s haha,” said Maxine, who considers themself a COD boyfriend, via Twitter. They person been playing Call of Duty games since 2009, and they had planned to walk Modern Warfare 2’s motorboat time online with friends, adjacent canceling plans with a romanticist involvement successful bid to bash so. Call of Duty and video games person agelong served arsenic a mode that Maxine connects with friends.

“I don’t deliberation it’s a coincidence that the champion relationships I person aren’t with my contiguous household oregon existent beingness friends but with radical I play games with,” they said. “Specifically, my relationships are champion erstwhile we some genuinely attraction astir each other, play games together, and are some excessively engaged to privation much of the other.”

On TikTok, however, the “Call of Duty boyfriend” is often a conveyance for couples to marque airy of gendered stereotypes, by dunking connected men who play video games oregon women who can’t play games. One fashionable video spoofs connected a woman who is clueless portion playing, and who picks up the crippled aft her fellow hastily hands her a controller; she past follows directions from his teammates successful the dependable chat. Another fashionable format of video points retired however disruptive late-night gaming sessions tin be, parodying the moments erstwhile the dependable of gunshots from the crippled aftermath a woman up. Another inclination teaches cuddling positions that let for carnal interaction with a “gamer bf,” but lone successful a mode that doesn’t wholly interfere with his quality to proceed playing a game.

There are plentifulness of COD boyfriends who find ways to equilibrium their narration with playing tons of the game. “I haven’t truly played the crippled to the constituent of perfectly ignoring her oregon avoiding her,” said Rafay, astir his girlfriend. He archetypal played Call of Duty arsenic a teen connected his Xbox 360, and he’s kept up with the games since. “I’ve sacrificed immoderate slumber astatine times successful bid to play and walk clip with her too.”

He told maine that different than the unusual statement present oregon there, it hasn’t truly gotten successful the mode of their relationship. “She has recovered it convulsive and doesn’t truly recognize the entreaty but I get wherefore she thinks that mode astir it,” helium said. According to him, his woman views it arsenic a “typical guy” game, but she understands he’s besides into different games that autumn extracurricular what a emblematic gamer bro mightiness play, similar Pokémon.

The convulsive quality and authorities of the games person led immoderate COD boyfriends to question their emotion of the series. The ideologies portrayed successful Call of Duty, successful summation to sexual harassment and favoritism lawsuits filed against franchise steadfast Activision Blizzard, led Maxine to see dropping the bid altogether. In the end, they returned to playing chiefly due to the fact that of the friends they made there.

“What changed was that capable of my friends and household were going to get the crippled that I figured I should too, to assistance support relationships. As I’ve gotten older I’ve go a spot of a pessimist I suppose. If I was younger possibly I would person not bought the crippled connected rule but I enactment a spot much and it’s go harder to enactment connected to people.”

And past determination are the COD boyfriends who person yet enactment down their controllers. Collin, who has played Call of Duty since precocious school, recounted his acquisition of increasing isolated from his friends who played it. In precocious school, helium skipped retired mid-match portion playing Call of Duty: World astatine War – Zombies to spell spot his girlfriend.

“I told my friends that I had to go, but I inactive wanted the achievement!” helium said. “So, I conscionable AFK’d successful the crippled and stood successful a corner, hoping that my friends could transportation my dormant value and implicit the last steps without me. But the abstraction was tight, the trouble was scaled for 4 people, and they yet failed and each died.” The contented caused a falling retired successful the person group, who said helium was “putting her implicit them.”

Image: Infinity Ward/Activision

Collin’s precocious schoolhouse predicament gets astatine a larger dynamic that underpins the COD boyfriend. Beneath it all, there’s this thought that doing thing other takes clip distant from “Call of Duty and the boys.” But the COD boyfriends I talked to mostly identified with the statement successful immoderate ways they wanted — from utilizing it to walk much clip with friends, to uncovering ways to person a beingness extracurricular it, to stepping distant from it completely. Collin said that embracing beingness with his woman — whom helium has since joined — has opened joyousness successful his life, and present helium lives with her and shares the joyousness of games with her.

“My woman is astonishing and understands that games are important to maine and encourages maine to marque clip for them and play with my friends erstwhile I can,” Collin said. “She listens to maine gush astir immoderate crippled I’m presently playing oregon immoderate manufacture quality is breaking that time without knowing afloat what I americium talking about, but since I’m passionate astir it, she cares.”