Country Dictionary

The term "nerfing" comes from the online gaming world of Ultima Online. At one point in the game, the developers reduced the power of swords in melee combat. This resulted in players complaining that it was like they were hitting each other with nerf bats, not swords. From then on, if ever something gets made less worth while than it had been originally, it is considered 'nerfed'

"Oh man, they reduced the dmg on the berserker class and now it's totally nerfed!" "Damn, the Devs nerfed those axe's real good!"

when the makers of a game decide the players are having too much fun

dude, they totally nerfed the energix kit!

v: something that worked at one time, but was changed (usually for the worse) by someone who did not understand that particular thing's usefulness. You used to have something cool, but now your stuff suxors. Often refers to MMOFPS's or MMORPG's, when the game designers change in-game rules and they screw stuff up.

"That game used to pwn, but now it blows. They took out the best part." "Whatever I was doing, I'm not doing it anymore, I got nerfed." "Our junk was so much better before the designers all nerfed it."

Typically applied to online regularly-changed/updated video games. To "nerf" something means to reduce its 'power' or effectiveness within the game. Often times this is to solve some problem in the game (such as an 'overpowered' weapon/ability or super effective strategy), or to push the players in one direction or another (such as a new cosmetic/item/character). Nerfs affect the 'meta' or prevailing strategy/characters/items used to win the game. In this way nerfs also give control to the developer of how the players play the game. i.e. nerfing a commonly used item to discourage the community from playing with it. Some nerfs can be so drastic they change the very fundamentals of the game, and are often a contributing factor to the size of the playerbase, for good or bad. Outside of games, this would again mean to reduce the things 'power' or 'effectiveness'. The exact analogy that gave birth to this term, is that of a Nerf Gun, compared to a real gun.

Oh man, they totally nerfed 'Titans Armor'! Guess I'll stop playing Golem now :/ They nerfed Irelia again?? Oh wait, its actually a buff. <-- (opposite of nerf) Great, so now all the free-2-play guns are nerfed, guess I have to buy some to keep competitive. :(

To make worse or weaken, usually in the context of weakening something in order to balance out a game.

Why the hell did Blizzard nerf Marines' attack damage?

The act of making something worse or weaker. The verb form of "nerf."

So I don't win too much, I'm nerfing my performance to balance the game.

In the game Overwatch when D.va uses her ultimate ability.

I was stuck in Zarya's ultimate and I heard "Nerf this" and I was suddenly dead.