What Is “Nerfing” in Video Games and Why Do People Keep Complaining About It?

If you’re not someone who plays online video games, you might be confused at the occasional online outrage when something in a game gets “nerfed,” but what does it actually mean? Why do so many gamers get worked up when developers “nerf” their favorite toys?

The Origins of “Nerf”

“Nerf” is a toy brand for soft foam-based toys. These include foam balls meant to look like real sports balls, foam swords, and most-famously toy “blasters” that shoot foam ammunition. Think “paintball,” but it doesn’t actually hurt when you get hit. That’s the whole appeal of Nerf and the many different off-brand toys that are referred to as “Nerf” in the same way that every vacuum is called a “Hoover” by some people.

Nerf toys and their “blasters” have had significant cultural impact, and even some of those cool sci-fi guns you see in movies are actually just Nerf blasters painted and dressed up to look real.

What Does It Mean to “Nerf” Something in a Game?

As you may already have surmised, to “nerf” something is to render it less harmful, or make it less effective or useful. So if you hear someone say “they nerfed the shotgun in the last patch” it means that the in-game weapon is now worse in some way. It might do less damage, take longer to reload, or be less accurate. No matter which aspect was touched, if it’s now a weaker weapon in some way, It’s been nerfed.

Nerfing can apply to anything. It can be a character in a fighting game, a specific skill or ability in an RPG, or any aspect of the game. It doesn’t just have to be something that makes players less powerful. Nerfs can be applied to enemies or hazards in a game as well. As long as something in a game has been purposely weakened, that counts as a nerf.

Why Do Developers Nerf Things?

Games are carefully designed to provide a balance of challenge and fun in a game, with most games offering different levels of difficulty for players who want more or less challenge. However, until your game is in the hands of actual players, no amount of planning and testing will ensure you got it perfectly right. If some aspect of the game turns out to affect game balance negatively, then subsequent patches can tweak those aspects.

While this can definitely happen in single player games, it’s far more common in player-vs-player multiplayer games. No one really cares of the player has an unfair advantage in a single player game unless it makes the game less fun, but no one likes feeling other players have an unfair advantage over them when humans are duking it out in multiplayer.

Of course, players that have relied on those unbalanced weapons won’t be happy with the nerf, and there will always be arguments whether the game was really unbalanced or not. A lot of this has to do with the metagame or so-called “meta.” The meta is the prevailing doctrine or strategy for playing a game optimally, based on the best combination of gear and tactics.

Unfortunately, online games can become toxic when over-serious players are mean to players who don’t follow the meta. So, sometimes a nerf is done to break the viability of a particular meta and force players to vary up their play styles again. Of course, nerfing is just one way to address these issues.

The Opposite of a Nerf Is a “Buff”

Sometimes, instead of nerfing something in a game to address balance issues, developers will “buff” something, making it more potent. This usually happens when players are ignoring a weapon, power, or character, because it’s just not effective. This doesn’t happen as often as nerfing, but sometimes a buff is the path of least resistance depending on the details.

Our friends over at The Gamer have an interesting list of the biggest nerf in patch note history if you want some concrete examples of developers taking a hammer and a saw to their own games to make things more squishy and harmless.