Its a german word and means,  to screw over.

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Legionairre wrote:

All I hear these days is NERF , NERF, NERF. I want to know the origin of that word. Please enlighten me.

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Remember those Nerf footballs?  well, they were made of spongy material -- and all the hardcore players who were intent on playing the the original pigskins used that term when describing somthing that has been cheapend down or is not as good as the real thing.

actually I just made that up -- but sounds good, dont it?

a nerf is a change to the rules of the game that is generally considered to have a weakening or negative effect upon the affected object(s). The term 'nerf', originating from the days of Ultima Online, relates to how Nerf toys for children use safe, soft foam and plastic to mimic sports balls and guns.

wiki FTW

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BeefNoBroccoli wrote:

a nerf is a change to the rules of the game that is generally considered to have a weakening or negative effect upon the affected object(s). The term 'nerf', originating from the days of Ultima Online, relates to how Nerf toys for children use safe, soft foam and plastic to mimic sports balls and guns.

wiki FTW

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If you want to understand "Nerf" better here you go:

"Nerfing" does not make the game safer or anything like that... it robs the power out of a thing.

Take a wooden baseball bat and take a solid swing into a normal baseball and you can watch the ball fly a grand arch out into the bleechers, then...

Take a NERF bat (this is an actual product sold in toy stores) and a nerf ball and try the same thing, and the ball barely sails across the room.

Safer may apply in the real world, but then you factor in that we are playing a video game and no one can possibly get more than their feelings hurt.  In game it just means weaker, or fake, or even "not at all what is was."

I "Nerf baseball bat" can be called a "bat" I suppose, but it still is not a baseball bat.  It's nerf (foam).

So if you cheapen down and take the heart and soul out of a thing, oh lets say the way Jedi has been gutted and made weak and impotent, and then you think of swinging a foam bat at a brick wall, and VOILA!  You understand the meaning and etymology (history) of the word:  NERF.

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mcpryon wrote:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerf_(computer_gaming)

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