The Necessary Nerf

I’ve been close to MMORPGs since the inception of the genre in 1997. Without exception, the biggest complaint about every game I have ever played is how much the development team “nerfs” game mechanics. For those of you who do not know what “nerf” means in the context of an MMORPG, I’ll explain (if that is the case, you’ve never played an MMOG, and you should probably just get off my site now):

nerf (nûrf): To weaken or make less dangerous in the interest of game balance. The term came about in gaming because the Nerf company creates harmless versions of harmful devices (swords, guns, etc). Hence, if a game developer makes a weapon less dangerous, it has “nerfed” that item. Mind you, this does not only apply to items and equipment; it also applies to classes, spells, etc.

Now that we have that out of the way, let me explain to you why game developers nerf their game. It is all in the interest of balance. No, contrary to popular belief, it is not because developers hate you and like to watch you squirm. It is not because they have a vendetta against the character you play. It is simply to enhance game balance, and therefore increase the enjoyability of the game as a whole as well as the long term game potential.

If a game is easier if you are a certain class or create your character a specific way, it will become stale. Everyone will want to be that class, everyone will want to have that sword. Players will no longer feel different from the majority, because they won’t be. If they are, they are different from the majority, they are at a handicap and the game will not be fun.

There are always players, whom I like to refer to as “the boy who cried nerf”, who tend to look for the strong points of every other class or weapon type and attempt to get it nerfed. This isn’t necessarily something they do to be assholes, but they are suffering from acute “grass is greener” syndrome. They see the good points in everything that they cannot be, but are unable to see those strong points in their own character. Ignore them. They are stupid. Yes, you are more intelligent than they are.

There are others who get angry when something is nerfed because they feel developers are lazy. They think that a design team should revisit the entire game system and balance it out such that the mechanic they intend to nerf is simply the example they should aspire to match. This is foolish for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it requires a ridiculous amount of time. Second, and in reality more importantly, it would be the exact same thing as nerfing in the end.

Yes, we all want to be unique. Yes, we all want to be powerful. However, if we are more powerful than others, we have to be nerfed. It reduces our overall enjoyment for a period of time, but we as players need to learn how to deal with it.

So what is the point of this entire post? Developers have to nerf. They don’t hate you, and they aren’t trying to piss you off. A mechanic is only nerfed if the design team feels that it will make the game more fun in the long term. There is always the potential for overcompensation, but we’ll leave that for another rant altogether.