Activision has a long and storied history of making some of the best video game patches in the business. Or at least they did during the Atari 2600 era. At Call of Duty XP, Activision returned to its patch-making ways, rewarding XP attendees for braving real-life and virtual challenges.
For example, should you wait in the long, long line to play a game of Spec Ops in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, you'll get a badge. Ride the zipline, run The Pit, play paintball in The Scrapyard? Badge. Badge. Badge. Some are easy, like visiting The Armory or sitting in on a live panel. Some are hard. Juggernaut Sumo, for example, looks physically demanding.
If you do manage to secure any of these badges, you can have them applied on site. There's a station where you can have your shirts, bags and pillows customized with said patches.
Naturally, Call of Duty XP attendees who would prefer to own all 12 badges without engaging in physical activity can buy the whole lot. Of course they're for sale!
You can contact Michael McWhertor, the author of this post, at mike@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.