Forum:Locations of the Middle Eastern country.

Since the community has settled on using real-life counterparts for the Unnamed Middle Eastern Country in Call of Duty 4, I would like to clarify some things to help out with determining the locations of these places based on more than just the satellite imagery shown during the loading screens. I will base my findings on things solely shown in-game, while playing as Sgt. Paul Jackson during Act 1 of the campaign.

Language: The Middle Eastern nation's official language presented in Call of Duty 4 is no doubt Arabic. Khaled al-Asad, his paramilitary OpFor forces speak in the Najdi dialect (used exclusively in Saudi Arabia) of Arabic, as well as the signs on buildings/highways in the Middle Eastern portion of the game are all written in Arabic.

What we can conclude from this is that this no doubt is an Arab country.

Transportation: The nation's highway system uses numbers as a designation. This is in-line with real-life Saudi Arabia. Lt. Vasquez refers to a Highway 4 during a level where the location given is near the real-life Highway 5 in western Saudi Arabia.

''What we can conclude from this is that, although not 100% on-the-mark, IW has taken inspiration from real-life. A minute detail, but a detail nonetheless which will come into play later as you are reading this.''

Story: During the opening sequence of the game, al-Asad refers to a monarchy before the revolution. The events of the story take place in the year 2011, so, before the events of the game, a revolution occurred which toppled the monarchy and put President Yasir al-Fulani in power, creating a republic, as based on al-Asad's speech. In 2011,  the coup was staged by al-Asad's forces to topple al-Fulani's government due to what al-Asad believes is being in good relations with the West.

''What we can conclude from this is that the Arab nation is a republic, and that, before this republic (prior to the events of the game), it was a monarchy (based on, again, al-Asad's speech). Saudi Arabia, today, is a monarchy. I realize it is the year 2013, but realize that this is a work of fiction released in 2007. It is inferred that the Al Saud regime was toppled sometime prior to 2011 which, of course, would change the country's name from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to something else'', which no one knows what it is.

Satellite Imagery: This is the big one used in the previous forum. It is this point that has solely determined the locations of the places shown in the Middle East. I will provide some things to help contextualize the things that might seem unclear (such as the location of the Capital City changing and whatnot). Bear with me

Quote from The Bog/Transcript:

"Newscaster: After heavy fighting today, U.S. Marines began their push into the city where Al-Asad is making his last stand. Fighting has intensified in the Capital City. Anti-aircraft fire and burning buildings light the night."

Now, basing this on satellite imagery shown in the forum, the location shown is Al-Qunfudhah, Saudi Arabia, as stated the author of that forum. Now, either, in the game's fiction, the Capital City is the aforementioned city of Saudi Arabia, or, the satellite imagery is not necessarily reflecting what the News Caster is referring to. Why is this? Because that quote is from level "The Bog", later, it is shown that "War Pig" is set somewhere in central Saudi Arabia, despite the fact that the Marines were in Al-Qunfudhah (in south west Saudi Arabia) overnight and the layout of the map is the EXACT same. The Wiki articles state the same location, but the author of the previous forum did not make it clear that this is such, rather, assumed there to be multiple capitals, one of them IRAN, which cannot be, simply based on everything I have stated above, the language, highway system, Arab nation (Iran is a Persian-speaking nation, and actually find it highly-offensive to be referred to as Arabs, which they are racially different from). I will reiterate this further later in the forum.

The following is based on satellite imagery:

Levels taking place in Al-Qunfudhah, Saudi Arabia: The Bog (referred to as Capital)

Levels taking place in central Saudi Arabia: War Pig (Level) (also referred to as Capital, however the satellite imagery changed its location from Al-Qunfudhah to Central Saudi Arabia, despite, again, the layout of the entire map being the exact same, with a different time of day).

The above points essentially nullify the exact accuracy of the satellite imagery, merely providing it for show. If it were indeed accurate, War Pig's loading screen would show it set right back where it left off in The Bog, in Al-Qunfudhah, not some obscure location in central Saudi Arabia.

What we can conclude from ALL OF THIS (I know it's a lot, thank you for bearing with me) is what I just mentioned in the above paragraph, that, the satellite imagery is just merely there for the sake of being there, not being specific, intentionally.

Iran: I mentioned above I would reiterate the point of Iran and its relation to the game. Again, Iran's signs and official language are Persian, not Arabic. The location provided in the forum (at first incorrectly) is Ahvaz, Iran, again, based on the satellite imagery, which I just talked about in full in the above paragraphs. To add, Ahvaz is the capital of a PROVINCE of Iran, not the entire country. The Capital City in the game is referred to multiple times, and at least shown three times (ALL in different areas). This is again, due to the intentinal obscurity by IW, not because it is three separate nations of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iran. The architecture of the buildings in-game are close to that of those present in modern-day Arab countries, Iran's differing quite abit. This is just mere supportive evidence, however, nothing to ground the game's fiction into reality or anything.

WOW, okay, that was a lot of typing. I have more to provide, however, for now, I will leave it to the community to decide on what should be done. I posted this forum as I was too late to bring in up in the other one about this topic, and it was archived. I hope my insight helped clarify things, and if need be, I can clarify anything I have stated or yet to state in the following discussion. It is a lot of info, indeed, and I thank you all for making it this far. I am a lover of the fiction of the Modern Warfare universe, and hate to see it sometimes being incorrect, but that is what a Wiki, and more specifically, Wikia forums, are for. The very nature of Wikis are to edit with information to provide to the world.

Thank you all. The Iranian (talk) 01:55, July 4, 2013 (UTC)