Cheesegrater28

Thats probably the best definition for it, but even then it doesn't cover the Sliquifier. We know what thats made out of since we collect the parts and put it together. So its no different than the trample steam or jet gun. But the developers referred to it as a wonder weapon before the map came out. So it seems like a Wonder Weapon is whatever Treyarch wants to make it.

I'd recommend something like this: Make a simple Challenges Topic on the Forum page. Let the Challenge Ideas Options be a place where people can discuss and talk about different challenges to try on their own. Then in the CODZ Challenge option, place a Pinned post for Challenge Winners. It would be a scored list for people who have earned points from challenges that the forum regulates. Then have a second pinned post for Completed Challenge List. It would be a list of the past challenges with the high round that the winning team/player got to win the challenge. Then if a player clicked on each individual past challenge it would take them to that challenge's post. So say you do a challenge where teams of 3-4 players have to hold the top of the dig site on Origins from round 5 on. They can't open the steps to go inside but they can use the steps around the dig. Something along those lines, where its going to be hard to reach round 30. Then you set dates that the challenge is open, like if we started it today, teams would have to have their submission in no later than April 4th midnight ET. Teams could submit the team name, each player, and someone's user name who has the game saved on theater mode. Since the challenges are designed to be on the short side, like a first room challenge would be, checking the videos wouldn't be that hard or time consuming. Then someone judges and checks the top 4 teams and the winners are shown on April 5th. 1st place gets so many Challenge points, 2nd gets less, than third and fourth also each get some. Each player on each of those teams gets those points and they are added to their point total on the Challenge Winners Post. That challenge has its own post made before the start date which eventually shows all 4 winners, along with the rules and anything else related to that challenge. Then the winning score goes to the Completed Challenges Post along with a link to the challenge's post. Once the challenge is completed, you don't need to take any more submissions for it. This keeps people from fighting over top spots, since only the 2-4 weeks a challenge is open can the winner be picked. Just let the top teams score stand for people to try and beat for fun. Then maybe reopen one down the road if people want to try it again. Like Origins Challenge 2 or something. And you could even award emblems for the winners of the challenges. If you wanted, you could even make the awards challenge specific, but thats extra work. Once one challenge ends, start another one within that week to keep people interested and trying to beat each other. I think 2-4 week challenges like this, would keep people playing the game while we wait for the next one, and it keeps it as friendly competition. Nothing as competitive as the World Records Leaderboards where people need to cheat and fight to show their worth. Just something dumb and simple that promotes playing the game.

This^ It seems almost impossible to keep a clean leaderboard when the proof needed would be entire gameplay videos, which last for hours. Even if someone posted a video of the last two hours of their game, they could have easily sat in a glitch to speed past the first rounds so they can easily take shots at higher rounds in more games. And now that the game never gets looked at by Treyarch, mods and glitchers get more and more freedom with the game. I suggested this the other day and someone asked about it yesterday. You should make Challenge Leaderboards. Organize a nice simple challenge which consists of games that probably only last about three hours. Run it like a tournament for three weeks where people submit their scores. Then you only need to watch the top four in theater mode to check the score. Then you make a winners chart where those four top scorers get their names listed with the challange and are awarded a forum award emblem of some sort, and can even be given points for an overall challenge leaderboard. That way you can have a growing list of fun challenges, a list of people who won those challenges with their top rounds, so people have a goal to try and hit just for fun, and a nice friendly competitive leaderboard for the overall challenges, like the Hangman game. All in one spot. This would add new reasons and gameplay aspects to keep people playing while things are down and allow for a clean leaderboard since you really only need to check the top 4 scorers. And 4 gameplay videos for a challenge that last for maybe three hours, every three weeks, is a lot easier to check than 10+ hour games for high rounds on any map.

Yeah, Good stuff. I remember watching that MrWaffles video over and over trying to hear something new or find a link between the places. Something had to be hidden in there, I kept thinking. In the end, I guess it was just an entertaining way of fitting the bus driver into the game. Like it is a form of transportation for secretive government officials that move from base to base. The robot may seem like a futuristic piece of technology, but at closer look, the thick wires, movable parts, and giant switches on the head resemble a 60's style vacuum cleaner more than something from modern or futuristic machine. So maybe it was easier and quieter for these secret government projects working on 115 and other things, to create a robot to transport VIPs around rather than some low wage grunt. A transport that apparently helped the VIPs site see while traveling between these bases. At least thats what I settled on.

Not sure if this forum ever tried it, but why not do challenges every couple of weeks and have winners. Kind of like a tournament. I personally love doing these and its fun when others join in. Make a specific challenge up and have a chosen few judge it, and after three weeks or so, the team or person with the top spot can get credit for the win. You could even do a specific award for it like the User of the Month award. Would be a good way to organize some fun challenges and keep people playing the game while we wait for the next zombie game. We tried this almost a year ago on the Activision forum, but since everyone is equal there and nothing can be pinned, then everyone wanted to make up their own challenge and it got a little sloppy and people lost interest. The Mods here could organize it better than we could. The first one we did was fun and we had winners and made a video for it. And it was a good way to make use of the bank on the maps and use theater mode to make sure people didn't cheat. Just a suggestion. The Challenge set up http://community.callofduty.com/thread/200682438?start=0&tstart=0 The Winners http://community.callofduty.com/message/414495444#414495444

What hurt them with BO2 wasn't that they didn't live up to our standards. Its that they didn't live up to their own. They were really ambitious and wanted to try new things, which I'll give them credit for. But the final product we got on the disk felt very unfinished, like they ran out of time. They talked up Tranzit as this great accomplishment before the game came out. It was a campaign/story mode, it was a huge map "150 times" larger than any other map, you had to "earn some of the new areas" of the map, new custom options for games, and a few other things. What we got was a map that had limited perks, half the buildables were a waste, lots of bugs and glitches, very limited custom options, no ability to select a 2-3 player game in the menu and have it count, and the survival maps were simply sections of the main map unchanged, closed off, and some perk machines and wall weapons added. That would be like BO1 giving us Kino as a story map and than letting us select a survival map thats only the actual theater room. They should have changed something to make those survival maps feel like their own map. A new obstacle, new doors opened, a new perk not in Tranzit, a Wonder Weapon, a pre bombed setting. Something to give it its own character. And as far as story went, we actually got less than the previous games. In BO1, we had interesting EEs that gave us new info each map, hidden radios that gave us more info, maps with locations that were relevant to the story, the ability to save EEs like CotD's and Shangri La's, which were needed for Moon, and we even got hidden files on the game to find out some more info, like the Majestic 12 stuff. So what was in BO2 that made it a story/campaign mode that was different from BO1. Instead of doing 1 well thought out EE, we got to choose between two boring ones with basically the same ending, and we got 1 TV on two of the maps that gave us the audio story. MotD and Origins had more story in those maps than the other three combined. Because the locations of those maps mattered to their story and because the EEs actually unfolded a story. Not saying BO2 is a bad game at all, but it seemed like Treyarch was trying and testing too many things, and instead of letting some of the new things be a surprise, they talked them up. And each one of those things in BO2 didn't live up to the hype they gave it. If they would have made a big deal out of Dead Ops for BO1, it would have been a disappointment. Instead it was a nice surprise that added to two strong and different survival maps. One of the biggest signs that the developers were unfocused was a couple of months after the games release, Jimmy Z was trying to tell someone over twitter how to play a 2 player game and have it count on the leaderboards. There was no way without getting people to drop or dropping out controllers. An indication that maybe they do need the extra year to polish their product since they clearly were missing things in BO2. So I'm hoping that the extra year can at least allow them to take that same ambition they had with BO2, take what they learned from experimenting with the Multiplayer engine this year, and focus on the game more and figure out what will work best and make sure it works the way it should. If we are indeed not getting zombies this year.

"Sorry if this was a long read. I tend to go full out when trying to get my ideas and theories across. You seemed interested so I couldn't stop myself!" I have the same problem. When I start going I can't stop sometimes. I didn't make it through your video yet, and I have no interest in signing up with PTG so I can't check your link, but did read the theory. Not bad. Its like a 12 Monkeys Assassin's Creed mix. I do have a few questions for you. First is, what in the story line points to them coming from the future? The Aether projectionist could just be a reference to either Sam or the other thing in the MPD with her (which you might be saying is the future being anyway). They are the ones materializing the drops and boxes and even the hell hounds. They are projecting things from the Aether realm on to ours. Not saying you are wrong, since your theory could be real as any other. Just curious what other things point to a future interference. And I was also curious as to why the realms are all colliding as the rockets hit? You are saying that Maxis knew this, so it sounds like he is the one behind sending them back from the future to fix the crack. But then doesn't that restart the loop all over again? Lost SPOILERS: And its funny you bring up Lost cause I think my theory is kind of like that. It wasn't ever two separate parallel realities at the end. The Island had nothing to do with them going to "purgatory" or the alternate reality. They went there after they died no matter what. Everyone in the world did. Half the people on the show didn't die on the island but were still there at the end. Jack's Dad died before they even went to the island and Kate and some others escaped and probably lived on for years before they ended up at the same spot with the others. It was just a mix up of afterlife themes and religions, which is something I think Treyarch is doing in the game. Taking different religious themes like 666, Cerberus, Aztec gods, greek gods, Japanese gods, Norse gods, Faust, and so on and so on, and then using these themes to hide some other power in the game. The Ancient evil or the Vrill Ya or whatever it is. Its obviously something technologically advanced since it built the MPD, and its something that collects souls for energy. Its like Kane from Poltergiest. Instead of sucking Carol Anne through the TV to use her life to guide them to the light, the Ancient Evil has sucked Samantha into the MPD and is using her and Richtofen for some unknown purpose. Unlike the show Lost though, where they all meet up at the same exact time when they die, I think its more like the What Dreams May Come effect. Robin Williams was living a dream life in heaven where Earth time moved a lot faster than he was, and his wife was reliving a slow loop over and over in hell. I think time moves on once the people pass in the game. The MotD crew died some time ago, and time has continued on as they are stuck in their place reliving a loop over and over. So they died in 1933, but time has continued past Ferguson retiring in 1942, and probably even to around the time of Moon since we have modern weapons and Nikolia's name being heard. And as time continues, Al has saved messages and notes to help him remember each time it resets. So when Al breaks the cycle, the year might really be 2025. The question is where the hell did he go after that, and why was the THING in control helping him escape in the end.

I feel like its a list that, other than my top map, constantly changes. But at this moment I would say: 1. Call of the Dead 2. Verruckt 3. Kino 4. Der Riese 5. Moon 6. Origins 7. Die Rise 8. Nacht 9. Shi No 10. Shangri La I loved the atmosphere, characters, story, and weapons of Mob of the Dead. And really enjoyed the map the first few days. But I've grown to dislike that map for all the same reasons I love Call of the Dead. Its layout matched with its PaP system make that map only fun to play once every so often. CotD is a smaller map, but both maps have similar locations. The prison area is like the ship on CotD. Both have the lighthouses with areas around them. And the starting area of CotD is just as big as the Golden Gate bridge area. But Call of the Dead allows easy access to all these areas once its open. The zip lines, different routes, and the launcher on the ship make it possible to get around the map quickly. I feel like I'm running up and down the basement/lighthouse section of MotD over and over. To grab buildable parts, build the plane, collect fuel for the plane, or grab someone who is down. The only shortcut is a slow gondola that costs money. If they would have added somewhat of another shortcut or two, and then made it easier (less tedious) to get back to the bridge after the plane is built, then I think the map would have had more lasting appeal to me.

The reason you received so much heat right away is because of your bump. You could have answered one of the points raised about your original post, like Der Riese being in 1945, and then naturally "bumped" your thread while adding new info. Instead you chose to ignore those replies all together and just write bump, like their points didn't matter. Then you were rude when this was pointed out to you. Not the best way to get positive feed back on your theory. All that being said, I am inclined to agree with the general idea of your thread. I've been thinking of alternate dimensions being a bigger part to the story for a while. Mostly because its the only way I can make sense of Origins, and still have the story matter. There are some things I question about your theory, but I still question things about my own to be honest. The ending did make a mess of things. Once time paradox's and infinite alternate realities come into play, then the story means absolutely nothing. The story behind each map would be as relevant as if it was a game being made up step by step by two kids, which is still a strong possibility. But if we are limited to a certain number of dimensions that occur on 1 timeline, then the story can have a lot of freedom, but it all can matter and be relevant. Everything from The Weasel escaping MotD, to the old WaW story line is still important. Thats why I like the idea of only three dimensions. Ours, the Aether, and Argatha. They are places already introduced to us, so they must fit into the story in some way. So if we set the alternate reality maps there, like Origins and MotD, we can still make sense of the story in a way. But I think the dimensions begin to merge after the rockets hit, while you seem to think they merge at the rockets hitting. As most of us probably think, there is a lot more to Der Riese than we yet to understand. This is the place where the Aether is mentioned all over the walls and where Maxis was doing tests with an endgame of reaching Argatha. A place where the sky is purposely weird and the clock is stuck at a single repeating moment. We also know that the along with the eclipse, the Black Sun was written about on the chalkboards and the Black Sun logo seems to be on the Argatha zombies on Origins, who even in the crazy place, are coming from another dimension. So trying to understand Der Riese and Origins does allow for a lot of creative theorizing. I think your theory is something similar to what I'm thinking. Some problems I had with yours, were firstly that you said "this theory proves otherwise". Its a good theory and one I agree with on some parts, but theories and ideas don't prove anything, no matter how hard we convince ourselves. I've been convincing myself lately that Maxis' radios on Origins are like Al's journal on MotD. Its his own record of how he explains the craziness of the place he is in, as Al draws pictures of seeing ghosts. Meaning this map was possibly his "hell" after he got shot on Moon, and he was stuck here reliving the nightmare over and over till he somehow "broke the cycle", freed himself like the Weasel did, and ended up in the machines on Moon. Then the original 4 end up there after they die, adding aspects of their own to the map. Thats a theory I've been pushing toward in my head, but one that has many holes and issues. I can make some points to justify it, but nothing is proven. Second issue I had was you state that after Der Riese, the original four begin to jump around on different timelines. But then you end with they all needed to occur on a linear time line at the same time. Thats why Tranzit and Nacht are together. So you are saying that all the events and timelines all meet up when the Moon rockets hit? So after Der Riese, the Orignal 4 were sent to a Nacht, Verruckt, Kino, Call of the Dead, Shangri La, and so on, timelines? Meaning all those maps occur at one universal time, even though its seems like different time periods, and then are all hit by the rockets, remerging together? Is that what you were thinking? Was having trouble following that part. And the last issue I have is the concept of Sam putting a safety bubble around us. The main point of the story, introduced back in WaW, is that Sam wants to kill us. Yes, she is toying with us, like its a game, but her goal is to kill us since Richtofen killed her dad. This is made clear by the events on Der Riese, and then reinforced on Moon. So why would she want to put a safety bubble around us while the rest of the world was falling apart. And why would the rest of the world be doing fine in Five, Call of the Dead, and later maps like Tranzit and Die Rise which clearly evolved since WWII?

Origins layout is great. Turning on the generators and defending them is fun rather than tedious, like MotDs plane parts, which got old real quick. And all the side missions are fun without the need to do them each game. And its got a good selection of perks and weapons. Really fun map.

As others stated, there is no way to know for sure yet. But if I had to guess, I would say its is supposed to be Richtofen. Main reason is because of one of the hidden messages on the map from Maxis. "From his very first day studying at Heidelberg, edward displayed an intellect and maturity well beyond his years. However, the impact of his parents' death has affected him deeply. Though I have tried to provide him with some sort of father figure, I fear his choices may be increasingly influenced by his new found friends within group nine three five. " The cutscene shows Sam and young Eddie either living together or having a sleep over, and they both do what Maxis says, with Eddie saying "your dad". So it seems to point to a situation where Maxis isn't his dad, but a father figure. But we also know Sam and Richtofen weren't the same age and neither one was American. The whole American part is still what messes me up and makes me think its just all been two kids playing, cause I haven't seen or come up with a good explanation for the sudden change in Sam's voice. I still view Origins as most likely Maxis' nightmare the others are trapped in, like how the MotD crew are stuck in their own. Origins has "Giant" robots with iron crosses, named after Germanic gods, crushing everything. Der Riese was a project called "The Giant", by scientists working for the Germans. And just how Maxis real world experiments got everyone killed including himself, the Origins dig outbreak kills all his men and leads to Richtofen killing him again. And once again his daughter is trapped somewhere and needs help. And Maxis is clearly old enough to have fought or at least helped the Germans in WW1. So the map really seems like it would be his version of hell, and the old 4 are unknowingly trapped there as was the MotD crew. At the same time, the cutscene seems like his version of heaven. He is home and taking care of Sam and Richtofen, the son he never had.

Tac- "if Broken Arrow wasn't actually the CDC Headquarters." I was thinking something similar since they are on the same TV in DIe Rise and Russman, who worked at Broken Arrow, has the same symptoms being described. I even remember Google Earthing Druid Hills to see if it had tall buildings like in the cutscene and if they had yellow taxis. But my main problem with that was I couldn't get passed how the Saber 10 recording sounded like it was before the bombs, and George Barkely's message sounds like its after the bombing. His message is more about "the future of our species" and for "all survivors". Makes it seem like a wide spread thing. Also reminded me of The Walking Dead first season ending. My only explanation for my theory was Russman had to go somewhere else to get fired. Like one might have a hearing somewhere where they need to bring evidence, hence the boxes. Or maybe that was just where his main office was and he had to go clean his stuff out. But you are right. The city image in Buried's cutscene is clearly not next to Nuketown. swapping spit- Thanks so much for that image. I haven't had my Xbox for a month so I've been compensating by digging into the forums again. Kept reading about the drill image on Origins and couldn't check for myself and couldn't find a picture of it online. It does kind of kill my theory about Aliens burying something, but I am still one of those people who thinks Origins is all made up in some way. An afterlife type map like MotD or maybe someone's dream or vision. Anything that keeps it from being a complete alternate dimension in a universe of infinite realities, a time paradox, or that it is all just 2 American kids playing with toys. If it is an Aferlife MotD like map, then maybe the image of the drill is just what Maxis and others think it is. Thats what I've been telling myself. But seeing it now, that image makes it hard to suggest that it is nothing more than a drill.

Thanks Death. Its basically all the small theories you, Lukey and I kept messing with about Broken Arrow over the past year+ put together. I had to track down some of those conversations to recycle the images.

Thanks FatedTitan. I still think Maxis died on the Moon around 1945 just because it seems too hard to explain them not shooting him in the radio messages, and why Sam wants revenge so bad. We never really physically see him get shot, but the story puts a lot on that happening. But I do think he somehow continued to plot and scheme after being killed. On Moon, Richtofen is even caught off guard by Maxis still being alive in the machines. One possible explanation is that the SOUL is a real thing in the game. We know that souls from humans and rats were absorbed by the MPD as energy. And we know that Sam and Richtofen basically swap bodies. So the soul in the game is something that retains consciousness and can be used in some way. This raises more theories for MotD and Origins, and brings up the questions of why would the Aliens, or Vrill Ya, make machines that store our souls, but I don't want to get too deep into that. So something happened to Maxis after getting shot that put him in the machines on the Moon. And as you suggest, he could have done a lot of things since he apparently isn't restricted to just the Moon. We know he communicates with the N4 on Tranzit, and we know from the TV messages that he has reached out to others. One of his quotes on Tranzit was about how he had been searching for decades for someone to help him. Maxis is a proven liar, so quotes he makes to others aren't that reliable, (as apposed to his radios where he has no reason to lie) but I think he was searching for decades before the Moon rockets hit, not decades after. At some point after he was shot in the 40s, he must of gained the ability to communicate through electronics and reach out to people. He could have been behind Broken Arrow, the Moon rockets being built, and many other things, including whatever experiments were going on at Tranzit. Another quote he has was about making a plan B, which was the towers. So he could have planned blowing up the Earth and using the towers as gateways as far back as the 60s. But great point about Call of Duty Zombie Labs. They were doing tests for Moon's gravity, so it could mean the Labs were either at Hanger 18 or possibly Broken Arrow since its close by. And i would assume Zombie Labs had perk machines there, which Nuketown has falling from the sky.

Wanted to elaborate more on a theory about Nuketown. Went into it briefly in another post but wanted to expand on it more then I had. One of the main topics BO2 added to the story line was Broken Arrow. It seems like the main story line on Die Rise, since it’s mentioned the most there, but it was also part of Buried. It’s the only real backstory we got to the N4. I can’t say for sure what Broken Arrow is, but I do have a theory of where it is and part of what it might have been researching. This theory is based on two assumptions. The first being that we never have a global outbreak till after the Moon rockets hit. And the other is that the TV messages on Tranzit and Die Rise are not live messages, but rather recordings from pre and post Moon transmissions. This is based on the obvious transmissions talking about Maxis and Richtofen controlling people and telling them what to do. But its also based on the Saber 10 message that talks about an outbreak and a facilities responsibility. Saber 10: "Recon 5, this is Saber 10. Our sweep failed to find evidence of any survivors on site. Broken Arrow is not viable for new FOB (Foward Operating Base)." ... "That's a negative sir, records appear to have been destroyed in a fire prior to the facility being overrun." ... "Sir, we believe staff may have been trying to destroy evidence implicating them in the outbreak." ... "Understood sir, confirmed drop in T minus 5. Retreating to safe distance." Saber 10’s message describes Broken Arrow as a facility of some sort that been overrun and cause an outbreak of zombies. This message can be used as a strong reference to where Broken Arrow is. Clearly there is already an outbreak and another base has been over run, hence the need to see if Broken Arrow can be a “new FOB”. But a ground team has already searched Broken Arrow and it too is over run and the workers there burning files that possibly showed the base was responsible for the outbreak. The Saber 10 confirms a drop. To me, this sounds like a pilot about to drop a bomb on something. Other than the Moon bombings, Nuketown is the only place that we are aware of that has been bombed. Or at least right next to Nuketown. Something else about this message that seems important, unlike a lot of the other messages, is that it seems to be recorded before the Moon bombing. If the Earth was blown to bits and falling apart, why would someone care about burning files? And why would any military group be concerned about bombing a facility that’s over run, when the whole world is over run? These seem like actions someone would take when dealing with a smaller incident. Meaning that the outbreak they are describing is only confined to that general area, much like the WaW and BO1 maps. So let’s say that Nuketown was right next to where Broken Arrow was. And let’s say that the other base over run from Saber 10’s message was referring to No Man’s Land from Moon. What else support these claims? For starter, we can look at the Nuketown Zombies description. "Nuketown Zombies is set during the events of Moon, and after the end of the multiplayer level from the original Black Ops game. A group of radiation scientists are investigating the Nuketown remains and discover soldiers that have been revived by Element 115 from a nearby Nevada base. The zombie soldiers attack the radiation scientists and turn them, and after receiving a distress signal, the base in Nevada sends in CIA and CDC agents to investigate. Upon arrival in Nuketown the agents lose communication with Hangar 18 and become stranded…setting the stage for Nuketown Zombies." Set after the event of the multiplayer level just means any time after the 60s MP map. Could be immediately after or could be in the year 2090. It doesn’t say exactly when. But it does say a group of radiation scientists goes in to investigate the remains for an unknown reason, and then are killed by zombies. Then a second team is sent in to investigate and the second team loses communication with Hanger 18. Hanger 18 being where No Man’s Land most likely takes place. Well what if this is the ground team that is investigating Broken Arrow in the Saber 10 message? There is an unexplained outbreak caused by Broken Arrow. People are sent to investigate. The first team is killed and the second team, some of whom aren’t wearing radiation suites, are sent in to find out what’s going on. They can’t find any survivors but do find evidence of records being destroyed. And then Saber 10, who is now aware of Hanger 18 being overrun as the outbreak is spreading to the nearby base, explains that Broken Arrow is also overrun, and then bombs the facility. Then we start Nuketown zombies as some of the survivors who weren’t directly in the base, are next to the explosion that is similar to a nuke but less powerful, has weird orange beams shooting out of it, and no radiation since they would instantly die being that close. On top of that, perk machines drop down from the mushroom cloud. Possibly perk machines that were being worked on in the Broken Arrow base. If any of this is the case, we can then look at the Nuketown Loading screen and what it possibly means. '> One of the first things that I notice about it are the human like creatures around the crater. Some people have said that these are the structures in Nuketown, but if you compare the bottom left image with the big image, you can see that the objects around the crater are these “people”. The size of them matches if you do a (really) rough estimate of the hole. It looks like there is 3 of them. '> And if you take a closer look at the person in the bottom left corner you can notice a couple of things. First being the weird glow around it. And second being the weird suit it’s wearing. Looks like the alien’s space suit in Prometheus. It also looks almost identical to the Mictlantecuhtli statue. The “Pilot” image also has an odd mask and either a weird neck, unlike a typical human pilot. '> And even the image on the side of the ship in the bottom right picture looks a little like Mictlantecuhtli, The big eyes, triangle nose, and squarish head resemble the Aztec Calendar and the sculptures of him. '> Now a possible explanation for what this all means. Obviously the loading screen has to do with Nuketown. So what if this is the area of Nuketown before the town was built. The Aztecs were descendants of tribes that came from the southern portions of Northern America. So what if this loading screen takes place a long time ago when these tribes were around. The tribes saw these Aliens as gods and worshipped them. What if the piece of the ship that is hanging was actually buried there. If you look at the description of Mictlantecuhtli, he was a god of the underworld, placed there by other gods. And the ship does have what could be seen as his likeness on the side. Now maybe that misses the mark, but I still think it depicts an event from a long time ago happening at that site. Whether or not they are burying or taking something from the Earth, who can say. But there appears to be something important there. Now back to Broken Arrow. We know the US were experimenting with 115 and that there was a large quantity of it in Nevada prior to 1945. So it makes sense for military bases to be in this area. A good way to keep people away would be a nuclear test site. SO what if that’s what Nuketown’s true purpose was. Obviouslt to test Nukes, but to also keep people away. I wouldn’t want to go any where near a radiation site. And let’s say that the Nuke tested at the end of the Multiplayer map was just a test. Why is that so important to be mentioned in the zombies story? What if the Nuke’s blast revealed what was hidden under the ground. Either what the Aliens buried or what they were trying to get to. Then Majestic 12, or whoever, started an operation to study whatever it was they found. Broken Arrow, a term sometimes referring to a nuclear blast, seems like a logical name for that operation. Then through quotes mostly on Die Rise, we can gather that Russman worked there, and most likely also Marlton. And from the Buried cutscene, we know that Russman is fire from the project before the Moon rockets hit. We see him standing outside a large building with boxes and his head down as a taxi drives by. And from the quotes, we can gather that he knowingly did something wrong “Drink once from the wrong well and everyone call you a monster”, and that Marlton seemed to get him in trouble for it “Damn Marlton and his dumbass mouth ruined everything”. Marlton’s quote on Nuketown was about how he was the one who reported the disgusting behaviors. So it does seem like Marlton got Russman fired. And during the Buried cutscene, he seems to be hiding something when talking about Russman’s path. His voice slows and lowers as he mentions Russman “wondering the Earth since the incident.” Does he mean he wondered the Earth since he got fired, or since the world fell apart. Either way, he appears to be hiding something. We also know that Marlton was banished for something before he ended up in the bunker on Nuketown. And we know that Russman and Stu meet up with the others later by getting off the bus. We also hear the bus leaving Nuketown before the bomb hits it at the end of the map. So what if Russman went back to Broken Arrow to get his revenge on Marlton, he mentions getting revenge on him in some in game quotes, and somehow he caused the initial outbreak. Possibly framing Marlton for it. Marlton is thrown out of the base, then the outbreak grows out of control, Marlton takes refuge in the bunker, the site is bombed, and then Russman can be heard make his escape. Possibly rescuing Stu, who might have been getting experimented on, which is what took him so long to leave. Then the remaining CDC and CIA members left have to survive the outbreak as perk Machines being worked on in the now destroyed Broken Arrow base drop from the sky.

Good post. While I enjoyed the read and it made me think of things in a different way, I wanted to offer my theory since I also think understanding MotD leads you to understand what’s going on in Origins. One thing you were wrong about is that MotD isn’t the first cycle we’ve encountered. Shangri La was. Brock and Gary were stuck there reliving the same moments over and over. Even after we’ve helped them all the way to the pyramid, they still restart their loop, as if they didn’t complete the steps to break the cycle like the Weasel does. After MotD came out, it made me rethink Shangri La. What if we never went back in time, but rather when we triggered the eclipse, we entered Argatha. Shangri La is supposed to be the gateway to Argatha and once we activate the columns, we clearly are somewhere different since the surroundings change and there is a giant meteor stuck in place. So what if this is the dimension of Argatha and that is what the eclipse represents. We had one at Der Riese as well, which could be symbolism since Maxis was trying to enter Argatha through his experiments there. The next time we see the eclipse is at the end of Origins. Samantha keeps telling us during Origins, to open the gateways to Argatha and then help free her. When we finally “open the gateway”, we are greeted with an odd cutscene and the eclipse in the background. So what if this is Argatha and it’s a place Maxis has made for himself? Its back at their home with his daughter and a child version of Richtofen. In some of the messages, he talks about Richtofen like he was the son he never had. But then whats actually going on in Origns? In MotD, we know the inmates died and were then stuck in this cycle. We also know from the recordings, that time has continued on with them stuck there, since Ferguson recorded it after he retired. So while they redo the same events over and over, time is still continuing on. That’s why Weasel keeps adding to his notes and lists. Well what if the MotD we play actually takes place after Moon? Same thing with Origins. What if the old crew with Sam died after Moon and got stuck in a nightmarish place. Both maps make references to Gods and the afterlife. MotD has an Afterlife mode and Origins has a Zombie Blood mode. And Origins references Afterlife and Inferno in some of its messages. Sam also says something about not knowing how long they were trapped there. So Dempsey, Takeo, Nikolai, and maybe even Sam could have been stuck there after they died or teleported there from Moon. Then when Maxis’ ending for Buried happens, he enters Argatha, recreates his home and then rescues Sam and brings her there along with a younger version of Eddie. And he lets Sam and little Eddie play with their “toys” like they enjoyed doing in life. At the same time, the real Richtofen dies on Earth with the N4 and then gets stuck in the Afterlife with his old “friends”. During the opening cutscene, Richtofen is the only one who seems confused, like he just got there and doesn’t know what’s going on. Then at the end of the map, Sam helped show them how to open the gateway to Argatha. She might think she’s playing a game, but maybe subconsciously she feels trapped in the place her dad has created, or maybe she knows a way to fix the Earth. Either way, the sirens could be sounding because the O4 have entered Argatha and Maxis’ dream, and are seen as invaders. There’s a whole lot of assuming and guessing in there, so a lot of it could be wrong. But I still think Argatha and the Aether (where I think MotD and Orgins might actually take place), are playing a bigger role in the game. Even Five might have been in the Afterlife or Aether. The dates listed in that map show that it occurs right around the time of JFK’s assassination. So what if it occurs right after he died. The other 3 might not actually be dead, but that’s the “hell” that he created for himself. Who would want to hang out with Nixon and Castro? Even the opening cutscene resembles MotD’s. Black and white at first and a storm can be heard outside. A similar storm shown in Origins’ cutscene. And Ascension was a map that dealt with other dimensions and the Gersch Devise, which could explain why the phones their link up to Five. And lastly, if any of this holds ground, it could be why the N4 maps are kind of a mess. Nacht at Tranzit, Shanghai in Province 22, an old western town under an African mine. And all the weird creatures and ghosts. Even how the N4 are themselves, stuck in loops as shown by the Die Rise cutscene and the maps déjà vu quotes. And even how Maxis all of a sudden has some control on Earth. These phenomenon could be explained by the Rift. Once the rockets hit the Earth, a Rift opened up and Earth began to merge with the Aether dimension. This is why in MotD, we have all the new perk machines phasing in and out and new weapons in the box. Both places are feeling the effects. Again, a lot of this is a long shot. I just think it cleans up the story line to explain it like this, and allows for the storyline to go in some interesting directions while offering a lot of freedom to the developers. Think of all the things in MotD and Origins. If the next game is us fighting through the dimensions to fix Earth, the maps could be anything while still being part of the story. And this theory keeps everything in place without paradox’s or alternate timelines. If the real story line Treyarch has in their heads is close to this theory, then a timeline could look like this. '> And if you really wanted to get creative, you could say that we got the WaW maps with the Moon DLC (unless preordered). So if the group died after Moon, they could have ended up at these old maps, like they were their Alcatraz. Thats why we can play Verruckt and Nact, even though most of the characters weren't really there and why the maps now have mule kick. And Sam thinks she is Richtofen in those maps. But thats just if you were really trying to explain them rebooting those maps. I don't really think they need the explanation.