Just not long ago, Activision and the Call of Duty team set up a very nice community interaction and gamers got the first loot and gold for free. The official Call of Duty Twitter account invited the players in a post to ‘Find your perfect setup’ on the site introducing the new Black Ops 7 builds by weapon types and playstyles for them. The main attraction? A free Weapon Blueprint and 2WXP (for those who don’t know; that’s double weapon XP) merely for participating in the activity. All you need to do is mention the post with your Activision ID and tag the right accounts. Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? The community of players reacted very quickly and among the users who revealed their identities in the replies to get the rewards were Manyosef01, D.🥷💷, and platt. Marketing campaigns of this type have always been the mainstay between Call of Duty releases to sustain community excitement.

But did you hear about ‘COD Combat Builds’ at all? To cut a long story short, maybe the developers are trying to see what the players’ favorite loadouts are or perhaps they are just having fun and sharing the data with the players. No matter which way you look at it, free is always free and in CoD world, a Weapon Blueprint can be a great bragging right. The connection of the promo with Black Ops 7 in particular is rather fascinating—though the title isn’t officially unveiled yet, it is a secret that everybody knows. Little teasers like these are how they not only keep the hype up but also manage not to disclose any release dates. It is a classic Activision strategy, indeed!

Going through the user’s replies, it becomes clear that they meticulously followed the directions. The reply from the user Manyosef01 says ‘@CallofDuty @CallofDuty \nManyosef#8128491\nCOD Combat Builds’. Short and to the point. Next is D.🥷💷 with ‘d1ghxstz_s#7226129’ and platt with ‘iplattyyy#5495745’. It is a flood of gamertags and hashtags, which is highly likely what the social media team was after. Engagement metrics went through the roof, and players received a tiny digital gift. Is everyone winning? Sort of. It raises the issue of how they are going to verify all these replies and distribute the blueprint. They will probably do it through the game, linking it to your Activision account. Besides, I always have a slight distrust of these Twitter contests—like, what if you get lost in the crowd? However, it is still worth trying just for the double XP.

Call of Duty tried something like this before. They also include just the interactive and reply-to-win promotions in their favorites. They make use of the audience, create an appearance of a busy timeline, and direct the feeding of the game’s ecosystem. A community connection for Black Ops 7, which is certainly far from done, has been established in a subtle yet effective manner.

They are not showing gameplay or talking about features; they are simply saying ‘hey, think about your loadouts for this game that exists… in theory.’ and the players are falling for it. The promise of an ideal build for your playstyle is a huge bait. Do you play like a run-and-gun SMG rusher? A sniper who is very patient? They suggest that they have a special setup just for you, which cleverly attracts both the min-maxers and the casuals at the same time.

What will this mean for future marketing of Black Ops 7? The same but more of this. There might be a very gradual and low-profile trickling of these engagement posts, maybe with different rewards, leading up to a major unveiling later this year. The term ‘curated builds’ indicates that perhaps the gunsmith or attachment system will once again be a big selling point, which is not surprising.

Weapon customization in the latest CoD titles has gained a reputation for being very extensive, occasionally even excessive. Therefore, pre-made ‘meta’ builds might be viewed as one of the ways to assist players who feel overwhelmed by the multitude of options. Or it could be nothing more than a cheeky social media joke. Who knows! What really matters is that the Call of Duty machine keeps running, even when a new title is not available on the shelf.

It should also be pointed out that those who respond to the posts are not just after the weapon blueprint. They seek the joy of being part of something big. You tag the account, you use the hashtag, you become one of us. For a moment, you are in direct contact with the huge Call of Duty brand. It feels great! Even if the ‘curated build’ turns out to be a weapon that you would never want to use, you still got a new skin to showcase and a weapon-level increase.