Omnipresence

[Skuld]

  There is a growing certainty within me that our Maxis is more than a mere man, and maybe not even by spirit standards either. A common Literary ploy that re-occurs in many a book I read: Omnipresent 3rd Person Voices are normally Authors.

 

  And the fact that The Zombies team strives so much to keep Maxis from becoming physical in ANY way at all in our story points towards that.

 

  You see to be an author you cannot be a character. No exceptions. Even if an author made a character named after himself, who looks, speaks, and thinks like himself, he is not the Author. It's not only due to the fact that by writing any type of fictional story, the characters therein are fictional as well, but because no man can write his entire being onto paper, no matter how vast or even minuscule his thoughts be. I could strive my entire lifetime to sum up my personality, my features, with the strokes of graphite amongst a lined paper canvas, and fail. Because every person who attempts so always skews the truth: Ignores whether they have blatant flaws, like selfishness or jealousy, not willing to admit such to the reader. Instead what they make is only a storybook counterpart, an amalgamation of ideals the author believes applies to himself. But the fact that we never see, nor directly interact with Maxis, he stays Omnipresent.

 

  Now we come to the Godly part. The only other explanation beyond Maxis being an Author of sorts, is omnipresence. Immortality separates you from this plane. If one is a God you are Immortal, and immortality means time does not effect you. But without time, you may never touch the Earth, nor travel, smell, see; no, in order to view our dimension space and time must be in tandem, you cannot have one without the other. Schrodinger's Cat: Once the cat leaves space or view it becomes neither alive nor dead, we cannot be certain of it's form without seeing the space the cat occupies. Same goes with time: if one becomes immortal he must adjust to a new plane of existence, one wherein time is no longer a factor. Unfortunately this theory upon Maxis' condition would be skewed, if he was immune to time (different then eternal life), he shouldn't be able to contact us at all, unless some dimensional rift was between his place of habitation and ours. This again points back to his possible position as an author or such.

 

  So far throughout the entire story-line the actions of Maxis have dictated our players, and even Samantha's and Richtofen's actions. Indeed if Maxis tells us to do, we do so. The same would be if on paper Maxis wrote them; as much as we believe his orders are suggestions, they are fated. Just look at how we view the story: To advance the plot we must either follow or contradict Maxis. In fact the only freedom one can experience as one of the Author's characters is via Richtofen's orders, but like the others his orders are made in response to Maxis, if it were not for Maxis interruption into Edward's scheme, he would have no need to order us, thus his orders are because of Maxis'.

 

  Until Maxis becomes more than a voice, he will always be the puppeteer. An Author, a Narrator, we just don't know, but as of yet he is most definitely a director for every step, every action we take.

 

  (I'd welcome any debate on the above within the comments below, so as to refine it, and further explain it to those who question an exemption or mistake I've made in it's creation, for I would like to further elaborate upon it should you find err.)

 

  Yours truly,

   Skuld

 

[Electric Jesus]

I'd love to see how this ties in with the origins ending. Sam and Edward are the focal points of the cutscene, but maxis makes a vocal appearance of sorts. Even in the supposed "reality" of the cutscene Maxis doesn't make an appearance.

I heard somewhere that the reason why Maxis is never seen and only heard through electronics is because that is how Samantha in origins viewed her father. She only ever heard his voice on the intercom, so she just made his character a voice.

[Skuld]

Actually Electric, it's entirely possible that Maxis, in the "true reality" is still nothing other than an electronic recording, a Hal 9000 for his "Family". It would explain why, in an effort to perhaps bond with her "Father", Samantha gives herself a German accent in the original maps. And if you backtrack to the plan of creating unquestioning soldiers, who would be more easily impressionable than children? Imagine a community wherein Maxis' plan is realized by collecting the orphaned children of an apocalypse into a society of his own making, free to indoctrinate them with all matter of lies, for there certainly aren't heroes to stop him yet. In fact there are several oddities in the Origins End Cutscene:

 

1: As they exit through the door, what appear to either be bullet or claw marks on the door itself.

 

2:Samantha's teddy bear is covered in the trademark blood, despite their seemingly safe home.

 

3: On the Dresser's leg, you see tally marks; Eddy's has less, because he has not been at the community as long as Sam, her father being the one in charge. (Eddy 10 days, Samantha 20)

 

4: "Their eyes should be blue" perhaps, unlike Samantha who has seemingly been safe with Maxis from the start, Eddy knows of the true zombies eyes.

 

5:"Girls don't know enough about Zombies." Eddy says this as if it is a daily part of life, the history of zombies. Perhaps there is a REAL history taught to the inhabitants, he says it as if "Girls don't know enough about sports" resulting in the feeling that zombies have been around for ages.

 

6: The siren resounds around the house, if the community was just their one house, why use a siren, Maxis could merely open the door and ask them to go into the basement. This shows the community is much larger.

 

7: "My father has a plan." Safety Plan. But what would need curing?

 

8: Maxis has stayed a voice throughout the whole game, even our cut scene with the children. Omnipotence is a gift.

Edited May 29, 2014 by Skuld

[ETEl2NAL407]

This is inaccurate. Maxis appears as a man in the Origins Intro. Richtofen is removing his brain.

 

What's making you think of him as an author is just a gimmick that Treyarch employed, the same as a character gimmick of some films. Have you ever seen Jay and Silent Bob?

 

Silent Bob is...Silent. He doesn't speak. That's a gimmick or character trait, whatever you want to call it.

 

Treyarch just gave Maxis the trait that he will never have substantial form. He's not an author or God, he is just never depicted as a normal living being directly. He's a brain in a jar, a voice on the radio, but he's still a character.

 

Anyone remember the show Home Improvement? Tim Allen's neighbor would never show his face below the nose, there were even episodes that he appeared in not standing behind his fence and they still had objects always covering his lower face. 

 

It's the same technique they've used with Maxis. He's never in substantial form. I think this is to illustrate that Maxis represents the Meta or the Ethereal, nothing more.

 

While digging for answers is good, be careful you don't dig too deep or else you'll bury yourself in your own hole.

[DeathBringerZen]

I have to agree with Eternal on this one. Don't take Treyarch's depiction of Maxis too literal... I believe they just did not know how to implement him properly. Take for example the fact that they perceived him as some 80+ year old gentleman in Origins even though he is supposed to then go on and have a kid some 10 years later!?!

These are the reasons why the current storyline is a mess and needed to be abandoned quickly. They could not even implement him into the storyline without messing it all up.

[Skuld]

Unfortunately, due to the nature of the Origins map, I wouldn't put the Maxis represented within the game being dissected as the true Maxis, especially given the end cutscene following its Easter Egg, therefore I'd not count it as his corpereal form since the cutscene shows it isn't a true story after all. Not to mention, I don't doubt he's a character within the story, and my reference to him as an author is due to his manipulations of said story, hence the capitalization, I mean Author as akin to a manipulator, a being like the Editor in the Sisters Grimm series, or an entity removed from the story in such a way as to be able to influence it, yet still be intertwined within it. A Doogie Howser MD inner monologue situation, applied to the entirety of the zombies story if you will. Gimmick you may think it, that certainly doesn't remove it's potential to achieve anything represented in the theory, for I'd believe it altogether not unlike Treyarch to play upon a minor detail such as this being used throughout the game, and expanding it into a greater plot device. Supposedly the yelling of Sam by the zombies in Nacht was altogether imagined by the first players, and yet later was expanded into the character Samantha by the zombie producers. At this point I can't properly debate the validity further, as the term theory suggest I'm certainly not writing this intending you to taker it as known fact. Nor can you deny it's possibility either for the same reasons. However, I'm not one to be boisterous, so I will certainly concede if this proves a fruitless theory.

Edited May 30, 2014 by Skuld

[Tattoo247]

I never really thought of him as the same Maxis as before. He may be the real Maxis, original Maxis, or just an alternate Maxis, but definitely not the same one from W@W and BO1. He could in fact be aged, and lived a life with no children. The fact Samantha refers to him as dad is, to me, just her seeing another version of her father and calling him dad. I'm if you were to meet your father in a time line where he didn't meet your mother, you would still consider that person your father just from an emotional standpoint.

[Abel]

I think Skuld is looking at the wrong person. He is right in saying Maxis is omnipresent, and the Maxis in Origins is not the one we know and love. And right again, given the true nature of Origins being in a reality parallel to the one we’re used to, you can’t really tell which reality from either W@W and Black Ops, is the true reality. The true form of Maxis… Want to know what I think?

I don’t think Maxis was ever just a brain in a machine, leave that within Origins. I think that Maxis is communicating to us through a machine from an outside source; a source which is a reality that harnessed the technological advancements to send messages through the rift without dangerously entering the it.  And the only way he can get a message across is to find the nearest transmitter; the pylons and even a small radio. I think the world he is communicating from is also Homed to our original four characters, and this Home would be regarded as “The Future” of this story.

 

As for you looking at the wrong person… What happened to the Mystery Man? You’re talking about omnipresent, but the one thing I find unsettling is that this Mystery Man was depicted as watching over Shangri-la and Call of the Dead (in the loading screen). He is in the Nacht loading screen as well and Ascension, maybe it’s important analyze these events and pick out its significance to this space/time story. I just thought I’d mention it!

Who he was wouldn’t really matter, whether he was Doctor Porter or Gersch. It still doesn’t explain why he is on the Shangri-La loading screen.

[Guest]

The way I see it is zombies is not a book, as brilliant as this theory is, zombies in my opinion is like a recount of a story. The people it is being recounted to doubt its authenticity but the person telling this story knows its real. I do not believe we have met an author yet though in my theory it wouldn't be an author it would be someone who has experienced it all, but I don't think its Maxis. The way I see it Maxis is just a cover up for the real "Author". But then I believe he is used as a cover up because he is also very important.

 

Though if your theory was correct I would have 2 things to point out: 1) Maxis never seems to be alive, no matter where we see him he is dead we have no cut scenes with him in or even him as playable. No matter how much he tries to exist in the story it will correct itself so that he cannot exist. 2) Notice how Maxis can be seen in Origins. Maybe the loop being an aspect of the zombies story allowed him to finally describe his exact looks though this does not last long as he is yet again killed due to the nature of the story. It is as if no matter how he writes himself into the story it doesn't work and something hinders him from letting himself be in said story.