I actually don't have to do that. There is a better way to tell what a much larger cross section of the community thinks. This forums own search feature, google's search, and youtube. If you type mw3 shotguns into all of those platforms the results are immensely in favor of buffing them. There is no way to deny that this is what the community wants with a cross section this wide.
The only people who ever oppose these buffs are the people that only present these arguments. "I saw a guy go 30-2 on a certain map with the pump shotgun, shotguns are amazing!" or "They require no skill to use" (after checking the stats of the person they have less than 100 kills total with all pumps and they have them as some of their lowest performing weapons) or my personal favorite, "I already get killed across the map by them now." None of these arguments have any statistical evidence behind them and for the most part no actual experience either.
In the face of all we have presented (I still have more to show ghandi, and a final argument to present and I am just waiting for him to come online) The only reason I can imagine the shotguns have not been buffed is the idea that it will somehow make them an over used weapon.
First off it wont. The opportunity cost of using a pump shotgun is too large for most players. That is why in mw2 people using the spas as a primary like I did was a rare sight. An even rarer sight in mw2 was someone doing well with it. And in mw2 you could pack a sniper secondary with no movement penalty. In the face of the sheer effectiveness of the pp90, p90, mp7, and Acr the opportunity cost of taking the pumps in mw3 is again ridiculously high especially now because the thing is a true primary and you cant take a sniper secondary and dominate all ranges. (unless you take overkill but then you get picked up on the constant steam of uavs and then there is no point to having a shotgun as a weapon.)
Secondly even if it did (it won't) why would it be bad? Why does everyone treat shotguns so badly? I went 24-6 on hard hat with the spas and I got bitched at for using a shotgun, the next game I went 30-2 on lockdown with the pp90 with rapid fire+emags and steady aim almost exclusively hipfiring. They were silent. People might move away from the striker and usas to the pumps and aa12 but very few smg and assault rifle user would. And considering you would still have to level the pumps to at least range to make them effective would be a large deterrent for most gamers. Most people don't suffer through bad weapons, that is why the mp7, pp90, and Acr dominate mw3.
Third with the release of more open large scale maps shotgun usage will decline even further.
Doing what we have suggested in the original post in this thread will not increase the total numbers of shotgun users by any noticeable margin. All it will do is move some people away from the striker and usas because the opportunity cost of doing so is less severe than going from ARs or SMGs to a shotgun.
Branched to a new discussion.
