Just hit Rank 50...

I feel like you've been in a coma for the last four years.

Wha. How?

you get a purty symbol and get to restart the levelling process all over again. Basically you get more custom class slots and new customization options.

You prestige for, well, what the title sort of entails. You earn "prestige," that is, you show your dedication to the game (and borderline sad addiction) by starting over and doing it all over again. You have a better looking emblem, which makes people notice you. 
 
Additionally, some people don't like playing call of duty unless they are working towards unlocking something, which stops happening if you don't prestige.

You lose almost everything, including CoD points. Things like weapons, attachments, camouflage, pretty reticles, lethal, tactical and equipment items, facepaints, killstreaks, all perks, all pro versions of perks, challenges (not lifetime challenges), kill streaks all disappear
 
You retain:  
Playercard pictures/layers/backgrounds.  
Your emblem (the one that goes on your playercard) 
Clan Tag 
Lifetime challenges 
Lifetime stats
 
So, spend your money on buying layers, or playercard related things before you prestige.

Who the heck cares about the icon. The reason you go prestige is to get that carrot back. You won't play a lot at 50 without a carrot.

You get these SWEET icons: 
 
  

" Who the heck cares about the icon. The reason you go prestige is to get that carrot back. You won't play a lot at 50 without a carrot. "

Thanks everybody for your answers. Now I know what I definitely won't do. Prestige.

" I feel like you've been in a coma for the last four years. "

Oh shit, you lose all of your CoD points?  Ah, well that makes sense, but it still sucks.

" @ajamafalous said:

" I feel like you've been in a coma for the last four years. "

Dude, I know who I am and what I like. I knew I wouldn't like Call of Duty Modern Warfare more than Crysis (which came out around the same time), so that's what I got. I knew I wouldn't like any CoD game or CoD-like game more than Battlefield games, so I never got one.  Well, after many years of hearing about Call of Duty, my curiosity finally got the better of me. Okay?  The lesson I learned is... Crack sells better than other goods and Crack ain't all that after all. I knew I was better off not playing this stuff! Activision certainly peddles the best crack of the industry - between World of Warcraft and Call of Duty they've got the 'Addiction Market' cornered. "

It's the size of your e-peen.

" It's the size of your e-peen. "

I prestiged last night, mainly to keep that "carrot" in front of me, as some might say. Didn't take very long to hit level 50 at all; just complete a bunch of challenges. Real simple.

Also what everyone seems to have left out is that if you reach prestige #14 you can use golden camouflages on your guns. Supposedly this time around it is available for every single weapon, including grenades, crossbow, and tomahawk.

" Also what everyone seems to have left out is that if you reach prestige #14 you can use golden camouflages on your guns. Supposedly this time around it is available for every single weapon, including grenades, crossbow, and tomahawk. "

" @Verit said:

" Also what everyone seems to have left out is that if you reach prestige #14 you can use golden camouflages on your guns. Supposedly this time around it is available for every single weapon, including grenades, crossbow, and tomahawk. "

It's only available for weapons you can put camouflage on already, I.E. primary weapons. "

Generally people with prestige get to hear me say "Those sure are some fancy medals down there. Wow where'd you get those fancy medals down there?" Like over and over again until the game starts.

it makes you have to relevel up again and unlock stuff. people do it to unlock new things like custom slot. 
 
just have to say don't smack talk people about prestiging. kind of funny and stupid somebody did that to my friend who just prestiged. they were level 50 (max level) saying how he has no life. who knows how long they are, were level 50 also. just saying that it was stupid for them to say that.

Nice trolling Seppli.  the entire thread fell for it

" You lose almost everything, including CoD points. "

I don't really like what they've done to levelling up. It's easier, now. It has more (or maybe the same amount) of challenges as MW2 and you're getting them all the time for doing anything, which is cool, but MW2 had 70 levels, and the last 20 or so were quite a grind. Something I really liked about MW2 was that to level up quickly, you sort of had to check your challenges to see what you should use to get a nice fat, round 10,000 points for a challenge. Say, for instance, I needed to get 50 kills with a SPAS-12 to max out its challenge and get 10,000 XP, I'd use that gun until I got the challenge. It'd make me actively use other guns.
 
When I entered prestige on MW2, I nearly always had most of the pro perks and would have had to use a lot of different weaponry to get to that point, but on BLOPS, by the time I entered first prestige, I barely had anything. I'd only unlocked 2 pro perks and barely used any of the guns. That's not to say I don't like how to unlock the pro perks, I think it's a much better way and makes you use the perks for how they were intended (except for Steady Aim; a pro perk challenge on that has you melee two enemies in quick succession - what the frak has that got to do with Steady Aim?), it's just that by the time I'd settled into where I was with my classes and was actively seeking to upgrade, I'd already nearly entered prestige mode.
 
With all that said, getting to first prestige might be the easiest and the subsequent prestiges get tougher, but I've not really seen evidence of that so far. To be honest, I'm not really that bothered by it; after all, prestige mode is totally optional. It might now be nothing more than a gay little icon next to your name, but to me, it was never really about the 'prestige', it was just about having fun.