This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Looney Toons: Is that literally correct, or should it be "anti-matter rifle"?
Paul A: I'm not familiar with the specific instance, but materiel is a real word
that seems to be relevant.
Looney Toons: I understand that "materiel" is a real word, but the phrase is a strange one and looks like an error. Antimatter rifles are not unheard of in SF and gaming, and that term makes more far sense to me than "anti-materiel".
Bluetooth The Pirate: Anti-materiel means a weapon used primarily to disable equipment (called materiel by military types) instead of personnel. The current defining example of an anti-materiel rifle is the US M82 sniper rifle, which fits most people's definition of "big gun".
Kendra Kirai: Antimateriel rifles are actually some of the largest single-man, non-mounted weapons around. Think a hunting rifle except about three to five times bulkier, and firing a bullet the size of a professional wrestler's middle finger. These things are HUGE. It's essentially a sniper rifle designed to take out trucks.
Looney Toons: Wow. I didn't know that. You learn something everyday. Thanks!
Kendra Kirai: For the curious, here's a size comparison for the bullets. 
(random passer-by): To clarify a point here, weapons in this class (and they've been around a while, some were created as early as World War I) do exist to give a two-man sniper team additional range and the capability to do things like punch holes in SCUD missiles on the launch pad from a mile away until the leaking rocket fluid blows up. They have been used for punching holes in enemy aircraft parked on an airstrip from a mile away or more, disabling or destroying them. They likewise can be used against trucks. Even some light armored vehicles can be damaged or disabled with a few well-placed rounds (something like a Russian BTR armored personnel carrier, for example). But their most common use is antipersonnel. Their range and power allow a sniper team to engage human targets from a much longer range than less powerful weapons, which increases the odds that they'll get away undetected. Well, and they also have great utility in urban warfare, for punching holes in brick walls that someone is using for cover. (Or, as some in that part of the world have been known to say, "The fifty cal turns cover into concealment, armor into Swiss cheese, and people into paint.")
Kendra Kirai: I don't get the 'Scratches' example. All of those items are fairly small. When's the last time you were burdened by four keys, a knife, and a newspaper?
Arivne: (Neo example) Neo in The Matrix really isn't an example of this trope, because it's completely plausible that he could have kept all of those small weapons under his longcoat. Hyperspace Arsenal means pulling weapons out of nowhere.
Uberschveinen: Changing the Mass Effect example. They mention in-game that the items you're carrying aren't actual items but the blueprints. When you swap out a weapon you're reformatting the thing to a new design.
Diamond Weapon: Where in the game do they say that? In any case it still isn't how it works in the game, you can convert the items into omni-gel so they can't be blueprints.
