How the Aether will be Destroyed

[NaBrZHunter]

Samantha doesn't need an MPD anymore. Once a simple child, a "woman scorned," as Dr. Monty once pointed out, a surprising element has given her power that she never was meant to possess...and this time, it wasn't an atomic element, but something much more powerful.

 

"NS" is Neilsborium 107 - but that doesn't matter. I'm referring to nostalgia. This element of human thought, like Element 115, is incredibly powerful and can be used to influence mass numbers of people, and like 115, this can be used for good...but it can also have disastrous results.

 

Since the beginnings of the Call of Duty Zombies mode, expectations have increased with every new map developed: Nacht Der Untoten featured almost nothing, and the potential for growth was infinite, yet Verruckt only gently stepped that level up. Shi No Numa blew the lid off, however, introducing elements that had only been imagined prior to its release, and the pressure was truly on. 

 

From Der Reise onwards, this amazing growth trend continued...until it suddenly changed. It reached the point that the level of complexity was overkill, the easter eggs stopped making sense, and the story became so convoluted that often, theorizing felt pointless (I'm looking at you, Multiverse). So what happened?

I believe we stopped appreciating the little things. In days long past, the nostalgia pool was small - a virtual puddle. Creativity could still run wild, and new mysteries could develop without the need for an attempt at a mindblowing cameo or plot twist involving a beloved character. Inspiration came from the real world around each map, each date and time at which they supposedly occurred.

An easter egg, meanwhile, might be a somewhat practical series of steps, accompanied by entertaining dialogue that led to the acquisition of an item or achievement of a small goal: those Easter Eggs are still beloved today, and are often to root of the nostalgia that we now feed off of.

 

On the bright side, I feel that Classified and Alpha Omega have made a truly genuine attempt at rediscovering that balance of simplicity, outward thinking, and small, exciting discoveries. A great example is the audio reel reference to "Operation Stapler." This type of outward reference to real world events (Operation Paperclip) is the kind of thing that feeds that creative pool, and once upon a time, even made the line between reality and fiction hard to discern. How many of you wondered, long ago, if the Waffenfabrik Der Reise was a real place? What about the Fly Trap? Now, what about Operation Stapler?

 

The point is that not everything needs to be tied together. Dempsey and McCain don't need to be old friends to make the story interesting. Russman and George Barkley didn't need to be former coworkers. Peter didn't need to be brought back to life, and Pernell, if we're honest, really didn't even need to be the head of Broken Arrow.

Furthermore, not everything needs to be mind blowing or extravagant. In a day and age when Marvel rules the theatres, and epic, tearjerker endgames are a daily occurence, the temptation is to follow suite, creating superheroes and supervillians whose powers emminate from their empty hands on command...but Zombies has never been a superhero story. It’s been one that might be explained via some fun, albeit stretched, pseudoscience. Powers came from the weapons and tools each character wielded - it is Call of Duty, after all. 

 

As a final thought, think about LOST - the TV show that so many of us know and love (or hate, or love to hate): the one thing you can't deny is the fact that, although it is long over, there is still so much to know, so many questions to ask, and that keeps us intrigued, and keeps us studying both the show and the real world for more clues. But tying nostalgia to nostalgia can lead to stagnation...so I'm begging the writers at Treyarch to look back outside the extant lore of zombies, and restore the complex simplicity of this mode and story that we all love. 

 

There are ways to fix this. Please keep trying.

 

With love,

 

NaBrZHunter

[Boom115]

I don't believe that the steep decline in interest is primarily drive by direction of the story, game play style, or even difficulty. These are absolutely contributing factors, but in my opinion there is a single factor that drove the "down fall" of this game mode. DLC Exclusivity.

Lets Recap a bit

• November 13, 2012 - Black Ops 2 released
• May 16, 2013 - Mob of the Dead released
• August 27, 2013 -Origins Released
• June 16, 2015 - Sony gains DLC Exclusivity
• November 6, 2015 - Black Ops 3 released
• October 12, 2018 -Black Ops 4 released

 

Take a journey with me back to 2013, B02 had just wrapped up and interest in the mode remained consistent with the previous 5 years. In November 22, 2013 xbox releases their long awaited console the Xbox One. Of course, over the next two years dedicated fans hop at the opportunity to buy a new console that is already connected with some many friends and has early access to the game they love. Then the Aether crept its way into Activision and corrupted the minds of their board allowing Sony to sign a new contract for DLC exclusivity in June of 2015. Now this transitions the majority of the dedicated fans in position of players to the position of spectators. Players have to wait a full month as content creators spoil all Easter Eggs and elements in the maps. With this event B03 receives the lowest interest of all previous Treyarch titles and begins the downward trend that has continued through 2019. Of course PS4 has this same problem previously, but the fact the fans bought a console with an understanding that they would be able to play their game early is the difference. 

 

Now you can absolutely make the argument for sales over time. However, I see interest as the true north in understanding the success of the game. CoD titles are like Marvel movies, even the shit ones make a billion dollars. Anyway thats just my two cents. 

[NaBrZHunter]

@Boom115 That is so true. And not only did this rip the carpet from under the feet of the primary fanbase, but PlayStation as a console just isn’t even as good as Xbox. So it’s not like buying a PS4 is apples to apples with buying and XB1. This was honestly just devastating. 

[Spider3000]

2 hours ago, NaBrZHunter said:

@Boom115 That is so true. And not only did this rip the carpet from under the feet of the primary fanbase, but PlayStation as a console just isn’t even as good as Xbox. So it’s not like buying a PS4 is apples to apples with buying and XB1. This was honestly just devastating. 

What is the difference between the PlayStation and the Xbox? They’re pretty similar consoles as far as I can see. And as far as I’m aware, Black Ops 3 sold more on PS4 than Xbox One.

[NaBrZHunter]

7 minutes ago, Spider3000 said:

What is the difference between the PlayStation and the Xbox? They’re pretty similar consoles as far as I can see. And as far as I’m aware, Black Ops 3 sold more on PS4 than Xbox One.

The interface on PS4 is slower, less intuitive and efficient, and generally less accessible. I love the controller, and game quality is great, but it just isn’t as far along as Xbox in functionality.

[Spider3000]

18 hours ago, NaBrZHunter said:

The interface on PS4 is slower, less intuitive and efficient, and generally less accessible. I love the controller, and game quality is great, but it just isn’t as far along as Xbox in functionality.

Yes, I can agree there. The interface can often be glitchy. And of course whenever the consoles servers get DDoS’ed, Xbox is always up before PlayStation. At least the terrible 30 days has been deducted to a mere 7 now, even if it maybe couldn’t have come at a worse time for the community.

[NaBrZHunter]

On 7/14/2019 at 11:43 AM, Spider3000 said:

Yes, I can agree there. The interface can often be glitchy. And of course whenever the consoles servers get DDoS’ed, Xbox is always up before PlayStation. At least the terrible 30 days has been deducted to a mere 7 now, even if it maybe couldn’t have come at a worse time for the community.

Also, I have big issues with file transfer. For some reason, any clip I create that's more than 10 seconds in length gets corrupted and will not survive the move to a PC via flash drive, and PS4 doesn't offer cloud storage like Microsoft does via OneDrive, so I had to upload the PS4 clips to YouTube just to get them to my PC.