: So basically, because a bunch of complacent gamers who couldn't bother
: themselves to learn anything other than "boring but practical"
: weapons, which in Halo is mainly UNSC weapons, especially whatever the
: mid-range headshot weapon is. Even though Halo 4 allows anyone to spawn
: with anything that isn't a power weapon, most everyone prefers using the
: DMR above all else. If you took a look at everyone's service record, 95%
: of them would have the DMR as the weapon they are most killed by, and the
: rest of the top 5 causes of death will likely be the BR, melees, plasma
: 'nades, and the AR. The DMR and BR alone are the cause of over a third of
: all my deaths (that number is slightly inflated because I've played a few
: matches of SWAT, but since out of the 540 Slayer matches I've played, at
: most only about a dozen or so were SWAT matches it shouldn't be too
: inflated). That's two weapons. Meanwhile, aside from the Boltshot and
: plasma pistol, how often do you see anyone use anything other than UNSC
: weapons in their loadouts? Of the 3830 times I've died in matchmade Slayer
: gametypes, I've only been killed 43 times by the lightrifle, 38 times by
: the Carbine, 22 times by the Suppressor, and paltry 7 times by the Storm
: Rifle. That's a total of 110 deaths, less than 3% of my total. Obviously,
: having nearly full parity between the UNSC, Covenant, and Promethean
: arsenals didn't encourage people to use those weapons more often.

: RC Master is right. Focus groups shouldn't dictate what the rest of us end up
: getting. Most players aren't going to bother to learn to use anything more
: than the bare minimum they need to succeed in the game anyway, which means
: they'll be using what's familiar for the most part (mainly the DMR and BR
: against guys on foot, and plasma pistols and stickies again vehicles), and
: few will take that limited time to go through the learning curve for
: something new and different. Plus a lot of people are uncreative morons
: who refuse to use anything other than so-called "first-order optimal
: strategies" (or player-preferred patterns or whatever you want to
: call them) and therefore at least some of the people that make up these
: focus groups must fit that description (I'd also like to know under what
: circumstances they were playing in, and if they were "hardcore"
: Halo fans or simply random people). So, why not take a chance and make
: some really new and interesting weapons instead of making and entirely
: "new" batch of weapons that for the most part only have trivial
: differences with the other weapons? Some people will use them, love them,
: and make frequent use of them. There are lots of games that have weapons
: that deviate from the "Standard FPS Guns" trope. Resistance and
: Unreal are notable examples. Even Halo's Needler and plasma pistol
: deviated from the norm, yet they have remained popular. Just because some
: idiots in a focus group didn't "get it" doesn't mean that those
: weird Promethean weapons they conceived wouldn't catch on and never get
: used out in the wild. I could see myself making frequent use of the Stasis
: Rifle both offensively (slow the enemy down and start chucking 'nades) and
: defensively (lay down a field to slow the guy chasing you and run away to
: let your shields come back). If there are any Forerunner guns in Halo 5
: and 6, they need to be something other than "Forerunner
: shotgun," "Forerunner AR," etc.

I have to agree with you here. I rarely ever see anything other than DMR, BR, or AR in the hands of any players as spawn weapons.

Similarly, I don't really recall the Needle Rifle or Plasma Repeater being used all that much in Reach, except in Invasion where you were forced to use them. I think the Plasma Launcher was a pretty cool "Sci-Fi" gun, and I don't feel like checking my stats, but I'm pretty sure I got killed by it like once or twice and that's it. Meanwhile, since I actually took the time to figure out how to use it, I would pick it up (since nobody else would) and get four or five kills with it. Nobody realized you could fire single grenades. Similar story with the Concussion Rifle. Also Plasma Rifles in Halo 3. Quick burst/melee killed just about everyone, but nobody ever picked them up. Also Brute Shots. :p

In all of those cases, the majority of the times I used those guns I felt like the person I was attacking didn't know what to do. They acted, in game, like "They are actually using that? Haha, watch while I use my BR to- *DEAD*" They couldn't comprehend that something other than DMR/BR/AR was actually useful, and they died for their ignorance.

I wonder if weapons like that get cut because they don't want people who actually like to explore and use new weapons gain the element of surprise on those who don't care to learn anything new?