The Meeting at Activision

I don't remember why the call came in but I found myself sitting in the Santa Monica offices of Activision. It was a pinch yourself moment for me as a gamer. I was there to discuss how the Coast Guard could support games like Call of Duty after another branch had pulled out of supporting games.

In 2010 the Army pulled its support for games after the release of Medal of Honor, where in the multiplayer game, gamers could play members of the Taliban going up against U.S. Forces. The game was banned from being sold in military exchanges, leading to the faction being relabeled as the "opposing forces."

I have been an avid gamer since the days of green screen/Commodore 64 Oregon Trail so gaining access to a place like Activision was like visiting Willy Wonka's factory.

We discussed what the Coast Guard brings to the table and how we could be added to titles. From ideas on where to include us in storytelling, cinematics, backgrounds, and even as playable characters, it was an eye opening brief for the team I was meeting with. To be fair, many people have no clue how active the service is across the gamut of operations and around the world.

Our endgame was to get a AAA game title to feature the US Coast Guard, something that hadn't happened since the 2005 Ubisoft game Cold Fear. It was the meeting that got me into E3, representing the Coast Guard at the annual Gaming conference until it ceased operations in 2019.

That same annual presence at E3 turned into ongoing technical consulting, uniforms, cutters, operational accuracy, the details a real service member notices instantly if a studio gets them wrong, and built relationships with Ubisoft (The Division 2, Ghost Recon Breakpoint), Wargaming (World of Warships), and Microsoft (Flight Simulator).

There's no playbook for a Coast Guard public affairs office building relationships with video game publishers. The opportunity existed because a different branch had walked away from the industry after a controversy, and a major publisher needed a credible partner without the political baggage. We were in the room, and we said yes to doing it right.

Sometimes the best opportunities aren't the ones you chase. They're the ones still standing after everyone else walked away.