I am someone who is fascinated by flags and how we load meaning to shapes and colours. There is something medieval feeling about it, yet we have come to accept flags as representatives of countries.
This was never always the case of course, since “nations” weren’t always a thing.
But enough about the real world, I want to know what is going on in the fictional worlds that we surround ourselves with. More specifically I want to look at two fictional countries from the universe of Call of Duty.
You will have heard of COD, whether you are into gaming or not, since it’s a juggernaut of the medium of video games. COD has been running pretty much annually since 2003, and of course it has its fair share of controversies.
Number one being that, in general, it’s criticized for glorifying violence and war, and that it enshrines the US military solely as a source of good against evil. I wouldn’t necessarily agree to all of these points, as I would argue the way COD looks at war has changed throughout the years, that is not to say major missteps haven’t occurred throughout that time.
This has lead to Call of Duty venturing back and forth through time. One day you are in space and then the other, back on the beaches of Normandy. And in the early 2020s, two countries, Urzikstan and Kastovia.
To side-step getting into any trouble, developers Infinity Ward made up two fictional countries: Generic Middle Eastern Country and Generic Eastern European Country, for a series that was otherwise grounded.
Let’s take a look at Urzikstan first.
Left: Flag of Urzikstan (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)). Right: Seal of Uzbekistan (Real world, if you needed to know).
It’s not just me, right?
Not only is “Urzikstan” basically a jumbled up form of “Uzbekistan”, it also steals its seal to pretty much one to one. In the centre is this bird? Horse? Bat? Mythical creature? And behind it is basically the same background from the seal of Uzbekistan. Mountains and the Sun, and they couldn’t even be bothered to change the way the rivers flow.
On top of the seal, to avoid getting into further controversy one would suggest, the crescent and the star is replaced with a non-descript diamond, on top of a crown? Then it seems they wanted throw in everything else they can think of to make the country more “Middle Eastern”. Arabic text instead of the Latin script, an opium wreath instead of Uzbekistan’s wheat and cotton and a sword for good measure, because I guess Saudi Arabia has one on their flag.
And where is this Arabic speaking country located? The famously Arabic speaking North Caucasus. I’ll give Infinity Ward a pass on this one. From a distance, the seal looks good. But it only looks good because Uzbekistan has a great looking seal.
Now, Kastovia.
Left: Flag of Kastovia (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)). Right: Flag of Serbia (Again, from the real world).
I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to sense a pattern. At least this time the seal is different enough. The real world has plenty of double headed eagles/lions/any other animal, so Kastovia gets a pass.
Plenty of flags and seals in the real world also have mythical creatures on them. For example, the UK’s coat of arms has a unicorn on it and Bhutan has the Thunder Dragon.
If you look at the top of the crown on the flag of Serbia, you’ll notice a small cross, since Serbia is a predominantly Christian country. Now, if you look at the seal and the crown on the flag of Kastovia, you’ll notice that apparently Kastovia is not a Christian country, but that it actually prays to what appears to be an ancient, slumbering God that the rest of the world hasn’t heard of yet. Even though, its symbol appears to also be on a cross.
And of course, Kastovia is also located in the magical land of the Northern Caucasus.
It’s okay to take inspiration from the real world, but this is basically stealing, without adding any amount of world-building to these fictional countries.
I’m biased, but I’d argue Ace Combat’s strangereal does a better job at adapting real world flags into its fictional universe.
Left: Flag of the Osean Federation (Ace Combat). Right: Flag of Greenland (Real world, yes, again, try to keep up).
Simple, elegant, effective. While the inspiration is there, it is different enough that you wouldn’t understand it from a single glance.
Unlike Kastovia and Urzikstan, it isn’t trying so hard to fit into one niche, leaving you to wonder more about the flag and what its symbolisms might be. Much like real flags. I mean, do you know what the stars on the flag of Uzbekistan mean? Or the ones on China, Venezuela, or Sao Tome and Principe?
In the end, it only matters as much as you allow it to matter. Activision would never care about the depth of their fictional flags, only how much money their games make.
They went a step further then by trying to incorporate Gen-“AI” into their games and rightfully got called out for it, because it looked, unsurprisingly, bad.
Thanks for indulging me, I suppose. I’m off.
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