Guild Wars 2

The word nerf, which refers to a change to an ability or game mechanic that makes said content weaker, originates from when archers were nerfed in ultimate online.

The archers were too powerful, so their bows got a balance update which made them weaker. In fact, it made them so weak that they hit like noodle or like foam.

People started saying “archers got nerfed” because their bow attacks were so weak that they started calling it a “nerf” because the (physical) Nerf branded toy guns shoot foam bullets which are not likely to cause serious injury.

This actually means we have the more right to say nerf because we have 2 type of bows we can use.

Kthxbye

I played a ranger on opening day with UO (actually an archer – UO’s skill system didn’t have classes). Archery was in a terrible state at the start of the game. Unlike GW2, you didn’t have infinite arrows. You had to chop wood to make shafts, and kill birds to collect feathers for fletching. It was so bad about a week into the game I made a post commenting that I needed some thing like 43 arrows to kill a bird, which only gave me enough feathers to make 12 arrows. I basically had to learn swordsmanship to kill birds to feed my archery habit.

This went on for a month or two, when someone made a long post about the deplorable state of archery. Part of what he wrote was, “these are not arrows we’re firing, these are nerf arrows.”

That was the first time I saw “nerf” used to describe a game mechanic.

Later, after some really detailed posts by RL archery fans about the role of English lowbowmen in defeating the armored French knights at Agincourt, the UO devs tweaked archery so it became a penetrating weapon effective against heavy armor. They went a bit overboard, and the heavy crossbow became the weapon of choice against heavy armor. I remember it vividly because I asked a friend (heavy armor poleaxe warrior type) if I could test my heavy xbow on him to see how much damage it did. He was at about 70% HP from a duel so I asked if he wanted to heal up first. He said “naw, how much can it hurt?” So I fired and killed him with a single bolt.

That’s when you’re remembering archers being too powerful. And yes it was scaled back, but not too badly (to about 4-5 shots from a heavy xbow to take down an armored character). But the first reference to “nerf” (that I saw) predates that. The first use of “nerf” as a verb probably came from the patch that scaled back archery damage, as you’re remembering. I think I had a deadline at work and wasn’t able to play (or browse forums) for about a week after that patch.