About 15 years ago, I was a college student studying journalism and quickly losing my way.
I was taking courses on how to become a beat cop writer, calling precincts about petty crimes and writing for newspapers, a dying medium. I had another course writing for broadcast journalism, which is somehow almost an entirely different language from what I had studied in the past. I hated it. I felt totally lost.
So, I went to my student advisor and asked for help. She simply asked me what I enjoyed, and to write about what I knew. Well, at the time, all I really knew was Call of Duty because I was playing a whole hell of a lot of it. And so that’s where it all started for me.
I spent the next year or so working on a 10,000-word magazine piece-style senior project (think of it as a thesis) that propelled me into something way greater than me. I found my senior project on my hard drive, and it honestly holds up pretty well.
The theme of the project (titled Answering the Call: Inside a Pop Culture Phenomenon) was CoD’s wide reach as a popular game that went outside of the game experience, even all the way back then in 2010. Over the course of the year, I interviewed an esports competitor who became a friend, a journalist whom I looked up to, a couple who met on CoD and ended up getting married, and numerous others.
But one of the many things that drew me to the project was an ongoing lawsuit at the time between Activision and Infinity Ward co-founders Vince Zampella and Jason West. And in the process of writing about all of these things, interviewing people, and researching the franchise that I’d already sunk countless hours into, I found my passion and realized that my future was in writing about video games.
And now today, many years later and after countless challenges and hardships, on my final working day of the year, I’m celebrating the most rewarding year of my games journalism career at Destructoid. I’ve had more fun in the past nine months of writing for this website than I thought was possible.
But it also comes with great sadness as I and many others are mourning the sudden loss of the great Zampella, one of the CoD franchise’s creators and a visionary in the FPS genre.
Zampella passed away in a car accident on Dec. 21, leaving behind a legacy of greatness. Call of Duty, Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Titanfall, Apex Legends, Star Wars Jedi, Battlefield 6. Legendary gaming moments like “No Russian,” General Shepard’s betrayal, or the bond between Jack Cooper and his Titan, BT-7274. He was an architect behind it all.
But in today’s somber reflection, I’ve realized he was also the architect of my career. He was not only the architect of one of the most successful franchises in history, but of friendships and love stories that will last forever. In his iconic games, he created jobs, worlds, and universes that will survive longer than any of us. Everything I’ve done this year, including traveling to industry events, reviewing over a dozen games, and interviewing many passionate developers, there’s a good chance none of that would have happened without Zampella’s work.
And that’s without even really delving into how deep his impact on gaming itself has been. Call of Duty’s massive success over the past 20 years helped shape the industry into what it became. Titanfall 2 is one of my favorite single-player FPS campaigns of all time. Apex Legends was an excellent extension and memorable highlight of the battle royale craze. The Star Wars Jedi games are a critically acclaimed handling of one of the most loved and respected IP ever. And his last title, Battlefield 6, reinvigorated the franchise to become one of the top-selling games of 2025.
Zampella’s impact can’t truly be quantified today, just a few days after his untimely passing. For now, we can say that he helped craft modern-day FPS games as we know them. But strictly speaking for myself, although I never had the pleasure of meeting or speaking with him, I’m quickly realizing just how much he and his work have meant to me and millions of others, on so many levels. And so, I would just like to say thank you for all of this.
