Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare wasn’t really a popular Call of Duty entry. While Call of Duty was too busy going further into the future, its main competitor, Battlefield, was busy crafting the masterpiece that is Battlefield 1, which took players back to World War I. However, the only reason why anyone talks about Advanced Warfare isn’t because of the story, multiplayer, or because Kevin Spacey is in it.
It’s because of one little scene that changed the trajectory of the world.
Shortly after completing the first mission of Advanced Warfare, where Mitchell (who was voiced by the all powerful Troy Baker) loses his bestest friend in the army, we move to a scene where we are attending Will’s funeral. Here, we get to meet our main antagonist, Jonathan Irons (played by Kevin Spacey), offer Mitchell a second chance, as he lost his arm in the process of trying to save Will.
This sets up the story of Advanced Warfare, but it is not the reason why Advanced Warfare is talked about. During the funeral, after Irons leaves, you get the prompt “Press F to Pay Respects”. Now this is very obviously just the PC version because of the F key but this one little scene became so popular, it eventually became a meme that is used from time to time.
But why did it become a meme? It is, after all, just a simple prompt that lets you pay respects to your fallen friend. Even prior to this, Batman: Arkham City had the same prompt for Batman to pay respects to his fallen parents. So why did this one become so popular?
That’s because Advanced Warfare’s prompt is needed to continue the game, while Arkham City’s is entirely optional. You can go the whole game without even needing to visit the scene where Batman’s family died. You can completely miss out on it and never know. Advanced Warfare, however, is a part of the main story.
Long after that, people have used it as a way to express sympathy, whether it’s genuine or sarcastic. The phrase can be seen in chats in other games as well. For example, a player failing to clutch a game after their entire team has been decimated, leaving them alone to fight against the enemy team. Or for when you lose a game after trying your hardest to win.
Eventually, the phrase evolved to other version, its most popular alternate being “F’s in the chat” which is mostly used for streaming. Who knew such a simple phrase would have such a big effect on the modern gaming world.
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