“Nerf” is one of the best-known terms for MMO players – but where does it come from?

The term “Nerf” for the attenuation of elements in games should be rudimentary to every gamer. But many wonder where the word comes from and what the origins are. We at MeinMMO have researched and explain the background to the “Nerf” to you.

What does nerf actually mean? The term nerf is feared and celebrated by gamers alike. Because it simply means that an element in a game is reduced and weakened in its effect.

One hears particularly often about NERFs in MMORPGs and shooters when it comes to weapons or certain skills. In the case of a nerf, these are then weakened to a greater or lesser extent or otherwise reduced.

Depending on whether the nerf puts a rightly exaggerated feature back into perspective or unnecessarily weakens an actually passable weapon, a nerf is perceived positively or negatively in the communities.

But what exactly is behind the term? Does it have to do with the fact that nerf are often “annoying”? Or is there even a reference to the toy guns of the same name?

Nerf in gaming actually has to do with toy guns

Where does the term really come from? In fact, the term comes from the primeval times of online gaming. In the MMORPG veteran Ultima Online, the swords were far too powerful when it was launched in 1997. Everyone used them as all of the other guns just didn’t punch in that hard.

Therefore, the developers had to make improvements here and install a patch that weakened the swords quite roughly. This practice of radically changing a running game from one day to the next was completely new at the time.

At that time games were usually delivered locked and if there were serious bugs, the developers had to release a completely new version of the game.

With Ultima Online the devs could simply patch the client accordingly and suddenly the swords were no longer the OP super weapons from one moment to the next.

The players noticed this quickly and in disbelief they compared their modified blades with harmless toy weapons from the NERF brand in message boards and chats. “Fights now feel like being beaten up with NERF foam swords” was probably the wording of that time.

What are NERF “weapons”? The term NERF (capitalized) stands for “Non-Expanding Recreational Foam” (in German roughly dimensionally stable toy foam). It describes the material from which the “ammunition” of the popular NERF blasters is made. These are ingenious toy guns that have been sold by the US toy company Hasbro since 1969.

Since the so-called “darts” are made of a soft foam material, you can safely shoot yourself with them without injuring yourself.

In addition to the “NERF blasters”, there are also various close combat weapons, such as swords, which are also made of NERF foam and with which you can safely beat each other.

The term NERF stands for safety from injury and was therefore applied to the reduced damage effect of the swords in Ultima Online. From there, the term “nerf” became a catchphrase for weakening features in (online) games.

Incidentally, there are also various NERF blasters inspired by games, such as this Overwatch NERF collection.