Cheesegrater28

I agree with mocking. The major downside of BO2s emblem system is that its a ladder system. When the gamemode is all about coop, you shouldn't label players as better or worse then each other. As a result, people were bad mouthing knives, shotguns were called glitchers, people with skulls were told they suck. It immediately causes friction between a team of randoms. And the worst part about a ladder system is that people will do anything to get the top spot. So people will glitch to maximize kills and rounds. Or others will quit once they go down once because they don't want to risk getting downed again without their perks or because its just gotten too hard for them. So now the ranking system is affecting how random games are played, for the worse.

I like the idea of an emblem system that shows a players style. make the skull reflect how someone plays. If someone has a lot more revives then others with similar stats, then give them a medic type skull. Someone gets a lot of head shots more then other players, give them a sniper skull. Make a list of about 10 skulls that reflect some ones stats where those stats are stronger. Then make another skull for people who are just starting out so people know they are beginners. And then add two more skulls, one for people caught glitching, and the other for people who either lag out or quit early in a good portion of their last 20 games.

Then make the shield in the background a reflection of average rounds for last 20 games. 1-10 would be one shield, 11-17 another, 18-25, 26 - 35, and 36+. And you can have penalty shields like the skulls as well. Then allow players to customize the two objects around the head. Objects that are earned by achievements and challenges. Instead of two shotguns, we could place things we unlock. Get 1000 headshots with the STG then you unlock that gun for your emblem. Do an EE for a map, and you might unlock something for that, like the golden rod. So someone's emblem could be a sniper skull with the 26-35 shield with a bottle of Double Tap on the left side, and a golden SVU (for 10,000 headshots with that gun) on the right side.

An emblem like that is fun while still giving us info about a player. Match that with the ability to check someone's stats and leaderboards like BO1, and you should have a good idea of who you are playing with.

As far as the in game rewards go, I wouldn't mind seeing those things incorporated in story modes of a map or custom games. But as others said, there needs to be a straight up version of survival for each map. No rewards, no banks, and no perma perks. Straight old school survival where you start with nothing.

Wanted to post and work on my theory about the timeline of zombies. I’ve mentioned different parts of it a few times on here, so sorry for repeating myself, but wanted to put it all in one spot. Mostly so I can try to organize it outside of my own head, and so I can get feedback on things that might be right, and more importantly, the things that are off and wrong. I’m known to overlook things and have brain farts. But it’s something I’ve been obsessed about ever since Origins, needing a way to make everything fit a little better in the story and still have the old story matter. I’ll probably add things to this, but right now I mostly wanted to touch on my main theory about how the Aether and Argatha are the keys to keeping everything relevant. So right now, my ever changing timeline spans three dimensions and looks like this:

 

 

The loops of the timeline show how some people are reliving moments over and over, but that time continues for everyone else. So time doesn’t repeat and even places don’t really reset. Just the characters and events they are placed in. I’ll explain toward the bottom but right now it might help to think of it like the déjà vu “I’m driving” scene from Nightmare on Elm Street 4. Two people are stuck in a loop while Time is still moving forward for poor Debbie. (Video might be too graphic for some)

 

“The Aether is Mine”

 

One of the most important questions of CoD Zombies is, Exactly what is the Aether? The game’s story touches on it in several instances and we can relate the real world theories of the Aether to the game, but what do we know exactly about it from the game?

 

The biggest two things we know about the Aether are that the MPD somehow grants control over the Aether, and that we’ve been in the Aether when we teleport. We know the second thing because of Der Riese. Written on the wall relatively close to each of the transporters are the words “Return through Aether”. This might have a deeper meaning like Der Riese is somewhere other than our own world or dimension, and we need to return to our world through the Aether, but if we ignore that deeper meaning and focus on the direct reference of it, we can understand the Aether a little better. If we use the teleporters, we will return to the starting room, presumably by traveling through the Aether.

 

So every time we travel through the teleporters, we are briefly moved through this blue spiral place. A place where images pop up. Images of physical things like zombies, hell hounds, Richtofen, and so on. And also images of non physical things. We see the messages of “Help” “Ascend from the Darkness” and we even see images of a periodic table. It’s as if we are traveling through someone’s mind rather than a physical place.

 

 

We got to experience more of these images on Kino, but more importantly, Kino also briefly took us to physical rooms while we teleported. Two of these rooms being Sam’s room. A regular version and a darker version.  Her regular room came with the original 4 as action figures being played with. As if in her mind, this has all been a game to her, hence the points, drops, and other helpful things she gives us while her main goal is still to kill us. Then the darker room with the smashed windows, red glow, and pile of teddy bears laying on the ground with a giant red eyed Teddy Bear standing over it. On Moon, Sam tells us that she isn’t alone in the MPD and something worse is in there with her. So is this giant Teddy bear a symbol of what’s in the MPD with her? Maybe. But the main thing we can take away (or at least I do) from these rooms is that, much like the images we see while teleporting, they probably aren’t real. Even the dentist/torture room and Pentagon room. They are places that are like dreams in Samantha’s head. We step into her little dream about her playing with us, and then we step into her nightmare of how she is with some “evil” being. The other two rooms could be her visions of the actual places she’s seen. Who knows what she has been up to between Der Riese and Kino. We know the Pentagon was involved in making teleporters also, so maybe they got her attention, or the thing in the MPDs.  

 

Now if those rooms are just projections of Sams mind within the Aether, then something else important about them is the film reels that we pull out. Film Reels that show Maxis’ experiments. But the films contain messages in them, like the numbers 935. Again, this could be because these aren’t really Maxis’ videos, but Sam’s vision of them. She possibly saw these slide shows and conjured these reels in her head, which the Old 4 pulled out. That’s why the slides are weird, like the 935 logo turning into an  eyeball. They contain real info mixed with Sam’s increasingly distorted memory of it. But the key thing is that objects can be pulled out of the Aether by anyone and made real.

 

Then the other major thing we know about the Aether is that the MPD controls it. From within there, Sam can manifest multiple monstrous versions of her dog Fluffy to kill us, even though the thing in the MPD sent one back already with Richtofen’s help. And either Sam, or the other being in the MPD, can manifest the drops for us to pick up. We also know that Sam controls the zombies, but apparently not completely. This is proven when Richtofen enters the MPD. Even when he is in there, he doesn’t have complete control, which is why he needs the new four to build his towers.

 

Now why all this talk of the Aether and things long known about it. Because it’s my theory, and many others, that Mob of the Dead and Origins might take place in the Aether, or at least an alternate afterlife dimension. We know that the MotD characters died in 1933-34, but it is unclear what happened to the old group after Moon. Maybe they died or maybe they teleported into the Aether and got stuck. Who knows. But Origins shares a lot of things in common with MotD. Could be because the same development team made those maps but I think there is more to the similarities than that. And the main reason why I think they happen in the Aether is because just like Sam’s red bedroom, both of these maps seem more like someone’s nightmare rather than a reality. And the previous person we knew in the game who was stuck in a “horrible place” was Gersch, who was sent to another dimension by his own device.

 

 

“Fetch me their souls.”

 

Now lets talk about death in the game. One thing we know for sure about death is that it’s not the end in the zombies world. Maxis is shot in the head and then ends up in the computer system on Moon decades later. The MotD crew died in 1933-34, but are somehow reliving a loop over and over past Ferguson retiring in 1942. Afterlife mode, Tombstone, and Who’s who are all things that affect a character after they die. So what does it all mean? Well for one thing, the soul in the game is a real thing. Players have outside the body experiences on MotD and Die Rise. And there are ghosts on Buried. But two things important about the soul in the game are that they can be used as a physical form of energy, as the MPD is powered by them, and that the soul retains someone’s identity. Richtofen and Samantha simply switch bodies. And later, Richtofen either ends up in Stu’s body with him, or in the bodies of zombies. So souls, whether they are animal or human, exist in the CoD world.

 

“A Gateway to Argatha.”

 

Now let’s talk about Argatha. Its referenced a few times in the a story, but it’s never really given any detail. Maxis wants to go there, Sam is trapped there, we need to release the souls of the ancients to get there. A lot of non descriptive details. But one detail we are given about Argatha in the game, was that Shangri La was supposed to be a gateway to there. So after Die Rise and MotD came out and we had the loop cycles introduced to us as real things, this made me think of Brock and Gary since they were the first characters we knew of that were stuck in a loop. Even after we help them reach the end of their journey, they restart back at the beginning of them finding Shangri La. And we never talk to them unless it’s during the eclipse. So this paired with the BO2 loops made me rethink that map.

 

What if Shangri La is a gateway to Argatha? What if when we activate the eclipse, we aren’t going back in time, but rather entering Argatha like we are supposed to? I know the achievement mentions time travel, but that could just be because Richtofen explains it in the game as them time traveling. That’s how he perceives things. Doesn’t mean he knows what’s going on. So what if this dark sunless place with a giant meteor frozen in place is Argatha? I can’t really say what Argatha is or who lives there, but it seems to be a place not unlike the Aether.  Brock and Gary entered this place and are now stuck reliving a loop over and over till they do the right steps, much like the Weasel did, who was aided by someone to get out.

 

Now what’s the significance of this being Argatha? Well firstly, it shows that Argatha isn’t a magical place inside the Earth, but rather a dimension linked to Earths that is always under an eclipse. If you entered it and saw the sun was blocked, you might think you are in a magical place inside the Earth where the light can’t get to you. A Black Sun. "Schwarze Sonne" as it was written on Der Riese. We also see the symbol for Black Sun on the Shangri La loading screen with the eclipse. So what if the loading screen isn’t showing Shangri La being destroyed. What if it is showing Shangri La being created. Richtofen ends up in the jungle after he was teleported to Moon. Something was taking control over him and needed him to help it. So what if it took him to Shangri La and helped him enter the gateway to Argatha. Then it showed him its power within the Aether and created this place for him. Not unlike how something created the prison for the MotD inmates after they died. Shangri La might have been there already, but this power transformed it for Richtofen within Argatha, and then pulled it back out into our world with him. That’s how his name ended up on the pyramid and why Brock could tell something was wrong about it. And that power is what Richtofen is talking about when he returns to Dr Schuster and why he needs to get into the MPD. The power to not only control the dead, but shape the world as he wants to.

 

Then in Origins, we again see the Black Sun symbol on the “Argathian Knights”. The glowing knights that look human, but on closer inspection, can be seen that they are something else. They are guarding things and trying to stop us. They attack the generators on purpose to slow us down. They are not like mindless zombies that are trying to eat us, but something with a plan. And we also know that they aren’t from the same place where Origins takes place. Even when we go to the crazy place, they teleport in from somewhere else. So what if these creatures are Argathian Knights, or at least from there, and they are trying to stop us from entering Argatha, as Sam wants us to do. This then explains where the final cutscene takes place. We are told if we do these steps we will enter Argatha and help free her from there. We also have creatures with the Black Sun symbol trying to stop us from doing the steps. So once the steps are completed, doesn’t it make sense that we enter Argatha. The cutscene is still weird and I have come up with a few explanations, none of which are solid, but the important thing is, once we enter, we are greeted with the “Black Sun” eclipse outside the window. Then we also hear sirens as if something is attacking, possibly us since we are entering a place that didn’t want us.

 

So the cutscene might be Argatha, but then where does the Origins map take place. As a stated earlier, I think it’s in the Aether. Just like MotD, Origins is riddled with afterlife themes and dead bodies on display in an unnatural way all around the map. And like the Weasel, something is trying to help us escape the place. And lastly, when we do escape, it’s the same way Al escapes. If the other three inmates kill Al on the bridge, we get the white cutscene with “The cycle continues…” and then the camera pans through the prison like a regular match ending. If we let Al win, then we get “The Cycle is Broken” and then Al’s view looking down as he spirals up into the sky. If we do the Lost Little Girl EE, right before the cutscene, just like Al, the camera goes straight up into the air spinning, except we are looking up, not down. And the music for both endings sounds the same. So it’s pretty much the same ending for the characters escaping.

 

 

But what about how the characters in Origins never let on things like déjà vu or living in a loop or anything about knowing each other? So why have the MotD crew sometimes aware of these things, specifically Al, and then the Origins group has no clue. I think it’s because they haven’t been there as long as the MotD crew. The feelings of déjà vu and their ability to leave notes like Al did hasn’t happened yet. One way of thinking about it is that Al was more like Leonard Shelby with his notes to help while the Origins crew are like Sammy Jankis, just going through the motions J. But one hint we are given about them living a loop is that Samantha states “You don’t even know how long this has been going on. How long we’ve been trapped here.”

 

So if they are living a loop, then why are they in a WWI style map. And I think the answer to that is they are fighting in Maxis’ loop. As the MotD inmates are living in a loop of the night Al died, it might have been Al’s last day, but the other three lived on for a couple of more weeks. So it’s not about last day but rather living in an important moment of their lives and being tortured by it. Maxis, being an older scientist, probably fought along with or aided German troops in WWI. And this might actually be the battle where he and others discovered things that led to his obsession with 115 and Argatha later in life. This is the moment that led to the Giant project and then all the outbreaks. So he is stuck reliving it over and over and then eventually being killed by Richtofen, as he was in real life. And as Al’s journal shows him piecing things together, Maxis’ radios show him piecing together the mysteries of his nightmare. Sam says he never gets as far as we do while doing the EE, so he never reached Argatha, but he eventually learns how to escape from the place and then end up in the machines on Moon and Earth. Then the old crew either dies or teleports and ends up living in this nightmare created for Maxis. So the Maxis drone is still there, but Maxis is long gone. Kind of like how Ferguson is in the MotD nightmare, but in reality he lived on without him. It’s just a shadow of him torturing them. But since this is Maxis nightmare, his shadow helps us in the form of the drone.

 

“Except your fate. Begin Anew!”

 

So if the loops and cycles are a part of these other two dimensions, then why is the New 4 experiencing them in our World? This is because the Moon rockets opened up a rift between our world and the Aether. This is why there are so many weird things happening in the N4 maps, and why all the weird things are happening to the MotD crew. In MotD, modern guns are now in the box and the modern perks start phasing in and out. Electric Cherry is the only perk that’s really there because it was given to them by whoever is in charge of the place. But now that the Rift is open, more perks are there. Same thing is happening on the N4 maps. Nacht is on Tranzit along with some other weird creatures. And the merging might explain the two different times on all the clocks. Then Die Rise is stated to be in Province 22, but we are in Shanghai. Buried’s a haunted western ghost town under an African mine. These oddities are because the Aether is merging with the destroyed planet.

 

This is also why the New 4 are living in loops since that aspect of the Aether is merging with our world. As Die Rise showed, once they die they start again. But not everything resets. Time keeps going. We know this because we can progress our situation on those maps. We can save money and guns and even build the Nav table. Those things don’t reset. Just the characters and their memories reset (along with doors and buildables: things outside of the story elements). Same is true for MotD since Al keeps adding to his notes and journals and reminds himself not to forget.

 

Possible theories and roads that stem from this main theory.

 

Now what does this all mean, if any of it is true? Well for starters, the more I think about this theory, the more some things make sense and other things seem confusing. One thing I’ve been stuck on is considering what other maps take place in our real world and which ones might not. Five is one map that sticks out as possibly occurring in the Aether. It has a black and white intro like MotD, where once everything starts to go wrong, the color kicks back in. Another reason to think this could be an afterlife type map is because of the dates on that map. It seems to occur right before JFK is assassinated, kind of like how MotD is right before they all died. And it also occurs during a storm, again like MotD and Origins which are the two maps I think take place in the Aether. And while I think the map reflects reality, as in the Pentagon was really working on these things and probably had teleporters, the Pack-a-Punch in the meeting room seems out of place. As do JFKs spinning wall of guns. So perhaps this is the afterlife map JFK has been stuck in since he died. This meeting might have really happened in 1963, but there was probably never a zombie outbreak at the Pentagon.

 

If this is what happened, then what year did this map really happen in? Could be 1963-64, and the other three men are shadows like Ferguson was, or it could be after 2009 when McNamara died and he ends up there with the others. Then you also have to wonder when Ascension takes place, since that map occurs during Five, because of the phone calls. And is Ascension taking place in the Aether like Five, since we start out with the screen turning black and white as we are lowered into the map. Maybe we get stuck in the Aether while teleporting. In the beginning of the map, Takeo says "Darkness is the domain of the dead, we must give this place life!".  And we know Gersch was sucked into another dimension. And all of a sudden Richtofen is wearing a space suit while demon monkeys drop down from the sky as everything turns red during a dark cloudy night. And the EE ends with us releasing him from this “horrible place”, just like how MotD and Origins ends. So is it in another dimension?

 

Considering that theory then leads me to wonder if the Old 4 ever really jumped through time at all. It seems like we never really go backwards in time but possibly never jumped into the future either. What if we were stuck in Der Riese, a map with an eclipse and clocks stuck at a single moment, living that loop over and over till 1969, when we finally escape that place and end up in Kino. Then Kino, possibly being a regular map, teleports us into the Aether where we end up at Ascension. Then we are stuck in there, during Gersch’s nightmare, till Call of the Dead. That map along with Shangri La and Moon, are modern maps. So if Five did take place after 2009, its possible we were stuck in Ascension till then before escaping to Call of the Dead. And if you wanted to kill more time, you could say we got stuck in the old WaW maps while in the Aether. That’s why they end up at Nacht and Verruckt, and why Mule Kick was added. And being in the other dimension keeps them from aging. This is all one theory if we go down the road of maps taking place in the Aether. 

 

 

Thanks for reading and Sorry about the length.  Wanted to use a couple more points and pictures to back up some things, but took forever to type this up and just wanted to get it posted before the internet shuts off or something and I lose it. I'm sure additions and changes will be made since I'm up and down on different aspects of the theory constantly.

 

Thanks again!

I would be hugely disappointed if they just killed the story and started fresh. The next story might be really good and I could enjoy it maybe even more than the old one, but it wouldn't make me forget that they just crapped up a really good story, introduced a lot of things, and then never took them anywhere. I dislike The Sopranos for that very reason, cause all the good story lines went no where and many were left unfinished. It would make me lose a lot of respect for them as story tellers. I still hold some hope that Treyarch knows what they have been doing with the story and that all the details we've been finding and debating about, actually matter.

 

I'm still really bummed about where the story went in BO2 and the complete lack of meaningful info that progressed anything, but I'm hoping they can make sense of a lot of it next game. WaW created a really good foundation of story and BO1 added a whole lot more while progressing events and shining some light on past events. I'm hoping BO2 was just introducing ideas like WaW did, and the next game will do for it what BO1 did. Feed us just enough info to tie some things together, both past and present story line elements, while still keeping a lot of the answers in the dark, and that it leads us up to a real ending. 

Can you elaborate more on "time travel"? I think there are some ways that time travel can be used, but those theories, like pretty much every theory, still leaves holes. Biggest being that how does time travel take you from two American kids who are about the same age, to a grown up German Man and a young German girl?

How is he wrong?

Good post. I agree with a lot of this and never really considered how they understand their own death in the game when they go down, but its not aknowledged when they are revived. As you said, to everyone not down that revives them, its like Dempsey reviving Takeo on any other map. Its not a moment of someone dying but to the person who is down, they are aware of it. And then when they all die, their memories all reset. 

 

But I have to agree with Tatoo. Their memories reset but their effects on the map don't completely reset. The Weasel's  maps and notes show that he documents the loop and has a better understanding of it than the others. Partly because he is smarter than them and partly because he was there before them since he died in real life first. And since he died first and then they arrived, it shows that time is continuing while their loop goes on. As you state, its most likely a post 1940s map. Ferguson has retired in the real world and described the events in his recordings. So we can assume the map is at least 1942. 

 

But I think it even goes past that. I think they have been reliving the loop over and over up to a modern date. I think thats what the perks and weapon box show us, why the water tower is there, and the mention of Nikolai's name. As the real world goes on, perks from the real world pop up in the MotD world and so do the weapons. One reason why these things are suddenly phasing into the prison is because the map occurs after Moon. The rockets hit earth, the rift opens, and the real world is somehow merging with the place where the MotD map occurs. This is also why in the real world, the N4 start to relive their own loops on each map. But even they can make progress and save things before their loops restart. We can save money, weapons, and even build the Nav table which saves. So not everything resets. Time itself keeps going. 

 

The merging also explains the two different times on the clocks on Tranzit along with why Nacht might be there. Why Die Rise is in Province 22 but the city looks like Shanghai. Why there is an old Western town under and African mine. The Earth world is merging with this other world of the dead. Why we have a Tombstone and WHo's Who perk which affect people when they die and why we fight an actual ghost on Buried. 

 

The big question than is what is this other dimension/Purgatory/hell where MotD takes place? And does is mean something bigger to the story than MotD lets on. Once we acknowledge that a map takes place in an alternate reality that parallels our own, than it brings up the question of what other maps do this.  

 

MotD's setting a a dark stormy night. Origins is a dark stormy night. And both Origins and MotD have the same ending. If we complete the cycle on MotD, the Weasel escapes by floating straight up into the air spinning. If we break the cycle on Origins, the characters fly up into the air spinning. And the reason I say Origins is a cycle is because one of Sam's quotes is about "Not knowing how long they have been trapped here" or something like that. So is Origins and MotD happening in the same place?

 

Then we can also look at Ascension and Five. Five is another map that occurs during a storm and Ascension is a dark foggy night. Both maps start out in Black and White like MotD and Takeo says something about the dark being a place of the dead on Ascension. And Five is a scene in the Pentagon right before Kennedy is shot, according to the schedule on the map, just like how MotD is set right before those characters died. 

 

I've been trying to piece these things together for a while but its all very confusing when you try to commit to one specific timeline. I've been trying to make it as this alternate "Afterlife" place could be the Aether, which the MPD controls. And than whenever the eclipse is shown, it is a sign of Argatha. Like Origins is in the Aether and the end cutscene is in Argatha. But there is still so many pieces missing. And as you said in your first post about the water tower, you expect that Treyarch knows what they are doing when they added it. But than they do things like change the loading screens from CotD to Shagri La and than again from Die Rise to Buried. And then they change accents and appearances. And the Buried cutscene was showing Misty's gloves changing from scene to scene. Its hard to want to analyze small details when sometimes Treyarch doesn't seem to know exactly which way they want to go. 

That explains it better. Always hear it referred to as a gas canister but never really looked at it myself. Need to take a closer look next time I play the map. 

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.

Infest+Warrior, don't underestimate the amount of work that is needed to own and operate a high round leaderboard. In order to prove the legitamacy of the record the user will have to provide full game play which will need reviewed (Most use the Twitch archive feature for this). This would be a huge undertaking requiring hours and hours of work on your behalf. It would also be to your benefit to learn the ins and out of game mods/glitches. Just a fair warning.

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. 

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. 

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

 

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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.