[Trevatd]

I think it's more of a subset of the locations where people play. From what I've noted, generally locations either consist of 2 kinds of setting a good deal deperated, or are purely one setting or another.

CQB
Woods

It is rare that a location managed to have a diverse mix of terrain or terrain that blends seamlessly so that having a gun that is a generalist is an advantage. Just my opinion, though. Generally some CQB places will have "open" areas where "range" matters, and Woods areas will have some CQB terrain, or such. Having a specialization tends to be more effective than being a generalist for some reason. Or at least there is a common perception that there is.

I think the perception might come from the fact that guns with huge ranges (due to high Power) tend to be annoying to fight- always having to close into range. The same goes for guns with high rates of fire. These players can do spectacularly well, or totally fail- players generally don't talk about their failures.

Just as an example, we've got a player here who managed to achieve 50bps on an MP5 (although at about 310~ FPS) and another who is shooting a fairly hot AEG (490~) and both are lauded as being "nice" and effective weapons, with skilled players. We've seen both of them do damage before- and we often talk about their successes, but rarely comment on their failures- while the middle range guns rarely "clean up" or take home a gold, but aren't often totally lacking. (High rate of fire player sacrificed speed. High power player sacrificed rate of fire.)