3rd November 2007, 10:22 PM
Quote:I play PC games, and I've stiff never heard the term. Why not just say "weaken"?
Now "buff" I've heard. But nerf? it just sounds odd. Like shmup.
"Buff" has two different definitions, really. The more common one is a skill that boosts player stats or resistances in some way -- Bless or somesuch. Nerfing refers instead to game balance changes -- changes made to the stats by a patch. Really, the two terms are unrelated. Perhaps it's sometimes used instead of debuff for skills that reduce character stats, etc, but usually it's just used for balance changes. Buff, however, refers to both balance changes (things increased) and skills (that improve)...
Quote:I'm that way with some of this slang. Some of it just grates across the spine when ya hear it. This isn't one of them really. I got used to it pretty quick. Nerf is a word they use for exactly the reason you picked that picture. It's a soft thing. Shmup? Now that's a retarded word. I mean how do you even pronounce that? Isn't side scrolling shooter, or SSS, sufficient? It sounds ugly, like "blog". So unattractive to the ears...
"Shooter" is a fine term, but it's really not descriptive enough. 'Shooter' can refer to a lot of kinds of games, while 'shmup' has been taken to have one specific definition: "2d or 2.5d horizontal or vertical auto-scrolling shooting games". Into-the-screen autoscrolling 3d titles like Star Fox don't count, free-flying or moving 3d shooters don't count, stuff like Contra doesn't count... the term is a subject of some debate, admittedly, but among shmup fans most of those basics are usually agreed to (unless someone wants to redefine shmup to include a wider range of the types of shooting games that are out there).
What's wrong with using a word that specifically describes the situation or event at hand?