And like, I'm playing a game that's just killing people.”īrowne and Cristando both recognize the contradiction in their politics and the military action game they love. “I’m anti-war, anti-militarization, anti-imperialism. “I've actually thought about this stuff a lot, just the dichotomy of it. “It is weird,” says Cristando, who has been playing the game for 10 years. The tension between the game’s military cosplay and their firm political beliefs is something they talk about often, especially after the protests and marches formed worldwide following the killing of George Floyd on May 25 in Minneapolis. Since the Covid-19 quarantine measures went into effect in March, the two play Call of Duty together about three hours a day, usually seven days a week. The same goes for Cristando, 35, a gym co-owner who lives in Brooklyn. “I am, admittedly, extremely left,” says Browne, 32, a chef who lives in London.
“So Tom and I recently changed ours to ACAB. “Dudes have MAGA clan tags in there all the time,” says Cristando. The four-letter tag (“All Cops are Bastards”) next to their user names in the online battle royale game informs other players, in a tongue-in-cheek style, exactly how they feel about police culture. The clan tag for Joe Cristando and Tom Browne in Call of Duty: Warzone is ACAB.
