A "kill-time" takes into account all the variables and makes an average. I am not disagreeing that a 3sk from the Pistol is stupendously fast, but assuming two equally-skilled players, a 3sk is not going to happen. They will take measures to prevent it including grenades, strafing, and other forms of deception. It was a veritable dog-fight. On PC, those of us who knew how to compensate for the lag were far fewer than the pubbies who just thought it was random, and it therefore seemed like a cinch to be godlike. In all the Xbox LANs I've played, though, it was a strafing match. The average time it took to make the kill was much less, mostly because you couldn't shoot twice then punch to the face, but also because the auto-aim in the other games made it so much easier.

That kind of verifies the idea that Halo 2 and onwards are easy-mode, made more "accessible" to new players. Personally, I don't see the need to make a game more "accessible" when you separate players based on their skill-level.

Fake E: ninja'd.