Josh Holmes has addressed the issue more formally in the latest Halo Bulletin. It's worth a read: [quote]The goal of my presentation was to discuss the many challenges that we faced when building a new team and taking on such a massive and high profile project, specifically for an audience of developers and creators going through similar situations. In preparing my talk, I was trying to encapsulate three years of development into a 45-minute presentation. One of the things that I talked about was the desire to make Halo more accessible to players of all skill levels. [b]What I did a poor job of articulating because of the nature of the intended audience is the importance of balancing the needs and desires of a hardcore Halo population that was born, bred and breathes prior Multiplayer philosophies, with an approachable and open-to-all design style.[/b] It’s been a delicate balance and one that we haven’t necessarily succeeded with but continue to work on. [b]CSR, our partnership with top competitive players to build and refine Team Throwdown, adding pro options and arena-style maps to select playlists and our upcoming sandbox balances are a few of the things that we are working on for that particular part of our community on this title.[/b] Since my GDC talk, I’ve received a ton of feedback from the competitive community. I want you to know that we hear you, we value you and we are going to continue to listen to your feedback and suggestions. We won’t be able to implement all of them; it’s just not possible with the given resources and time. But we are in this for the long haul, and you’ll see our continued commitment to this aspect of our experience reflected in future projects as well as in our sustain efforts for Halo 4. /Josh[/quote]