t is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it," Gen. Douglas MacArthur once said. It was a warning Wargaming.net LLP, a developer of massively multiplayer online military-strategy games, heeded for the 2013 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). And in that computerized combat zone, Wargaming.net's design proved to be its ultimate weapon.

Allied with Catalyst Exhibits Inc., Wargaming.net erected a two-story theater of operations. Visitors entering the 10,000-square-foot booth encountered a fusillade of visuals from the company's games, including "World of Tanks" and "World of Warplanes," which were projected on two lengths of tensioned fabric running 234 feet along the booth's interior wall. Overhead, a two-thirds-scale model of a P51 Mustang WWII fighter was suspended 28 feet above the floor. Projection mapped with visuals from the games, the 1,500-pound wood and Fiberglas model seemed about to strafe the armies of gamers below. Exhibit Design Awards judges praised the winged prop as "an absolute crowd stopper."

Attendees joined the fray on 27 gaming stations spread over three zones. Afterward, they rested in the 85-by-40-foot central theater, where eight 60-inch screens showed live game play from the various stations. A 23.5-by-13-foot LED screen in the theater looped trailers from the games as well.

VIPs received presentations on the upcoming "World of Warships" in a 32.5-by-30-foot domed theater. Here, 13 projectors splashed the rounded interior with game excerpts that made visitors feel as if they were besieged by naval battles. "Our goal was to put gamers in a state of awe," said Mark Lynch, Catalyst Exhibits' creative director. With thousands of visitors spending hours there playing games, Wargaming.net achieved that goal – and an unconditional victory on the battleground of E3.