42 replies to this topic

[Talio]

I may be jumping the gun here a bit, but I feel it's time I really speak out about something. it's been a hot button topic for the past year or so and I've said quite a bit on the topic, but never really put together a whole article stating my views. There was a time when I was very outspoken about this game and would type these long winded essay's about playing nerf guns. It's been a long time, but I feel the time has come yet again. I've written this article over and over again only to discard it. After a lot of thought and hearing the thoughts of others I feel comfortable finally getting all this off my chest.

There has been a huge shift in philosophy over the past couple of years about the focus of Nerf as a hobby. When I joined the community it seemed to be about people who had a love for playing with nerf guns. Most of us at one point or another probably had battles with our friends or siblings in an unorganized manner in our younger years. We probably really enjoyed that and thought to ourselves, if only our friends could dedicate themselves enough and organize, the game could be tons of fun. Of course our friends probably didn't take the game seriously enough and we were stuck day dreaming about what it would be like to really have a true Nerf war. This was the case for myself. It wasn't until almost 10 years later, that I stumbled upon my childhood toys in the attic and typed "Nerf" into Google. I can say without a doubt that my life has not been the same since. It may be cheesy and it may be goofy, but it was literally fulfilling something in me that I had always dreamed of.

It saddens me as to what that has slowly turned into. Drama, fighting and debate over playing nerf guns. There comes a point where the dream dies and the reality sets in. We've become a parody of ourselves. If Hollywood were to make a movie about Nerf and spoof the bejesus out of it, it couldn't be more warped then the reality. We've taken a fun game and turned it into a competition. A competition with no benchmark or means of declaring a winner. Just the opinions of others and of ourselves. Nerf can be competitive, but we have to ask ourselves if that's what we really want. Because at that point it stops being about fulfilling our crazy, nerdy fantasies of organized Nerf and becomes something very different.

We are Nerf. We are not paintball. We are not airsoft. We are not video games. We are not skate boarding. We are not an extreme sport. We are not science. We are not engineering. We are a bunch of kids taking this shit way too seriously. I've said since I first joined this community that you can never take nerf too seriously, but you can easily take yourself too seriously. I saw it happening then on a small scale. People claiming to the be the best as if they were some kind of God in their small sad world. I hate to break it to you all, but we are not Gods. We are nerds, geeks, dorks or maybe just normal people who really love nerf guns. And there truly is nothing quite like Nerf.

We need to set it straight in our minds. Nerf is not simulated combat, it's a glorified game of tag. Sure you could say that about other games, but nerf definitely has a different appeal. Nerf is a game, not a sport. An underground movement and true testament to technology that we all who love these silly dart guns can come together, organize and meet in a friendly environment. In earnest we have more in common with Ham Radio operators then we do paintballers or players of any sport. It's inspiring to see how it's grown. From my first war of 20 people to my last war of over 70 and with that growth, the spirit of competition generally arises. Get 70 guys in one place and sure enough there's gonna be more then a handful that want to prove that their ding ding is bigger then the rest. But it's ruining the fun of the game. We have to accept that nerf is not going to have the broad appeal of paintball or video games. If this is really want you want to see, then you're losing out on truly great experience.

Nerf is not an arms race as it has so been called, but as more then some have stated, that is what it is slowly becoming. We are not here to "pwn" or "diddle" each other. We are here to have fun with the toys we love in a civilized and friendly manner. I know some of us do not act all that civilized or friendly at times, but the strive to win at a game with no measure of skill creates a volatile environment.

So this is what I declare. If you sit in your workshop scheming on how to make a gun better then everyone else just so you can pwn at you're next nerf war, you are a douche bag. If you count how many hits you've made in a day, you're a douche bag. If you keep track of how many rounds you win, you're a douche bag. If you claim that your clan or team is the best there is at nerf, you are a douche bag. And I'll be the first to admit that I am guilty of a few of those things. But no longer.

We need to get back to the heart of what made this game great to begin with. The idea of just getting together to play nerf guns in an organized setting that isn't possible with our group of friends. Just for the hell of it and not because we want to show off our 1337 skillz. We need to get away from calling each others mods clean or sloppy. We need to stop acting like this is Xbox Live or the NPPL, because it's not. It's fucking nerf guns. Stop trying to be good at it. It will get you no where in life. So all of you who have come to our little ant hill to climb atop and say, I am king, I say to you, it is yours. If you want to claim that you are the greatest Nerfer to ever live, have at it. Because no one can tell you you're not. There's no way to prove that your not. Wear your crown king nothing.

Change is coming. It may not be wide spread, but a movement toward making the game fun and forgetting the competition is happening. If you strive for competition, I applaud you. I wish I had that desire. In some area's I do. Playing nerf guns is not one of them. It's fun and it feels good to play well, but we need to keep this in perspective. It's a silly game with silly people playing it.

To quote a good friend, to which his words could not be more true then now, "Nerf on or fuck off."

Sincerely,

Talio.

[faddle]

I agree with everything you said. It is not about trying to be the best out of everyone, it is just having fun with nerf guns. That is why I joined the Nerf Community, and I am proud of that.

[Renegademilitia15]

I totally agree with you. Intense competitive spirit is pretty ridiculous in a silly hobby such as nerfing. But can't there be just a little moderation with it?
Sure, getting all up in someones face when you get a kill is quite douchey, but can't you enjoy getting a hit abit? When you take the satisfaction of getting a kill and you just don't care, then it kinda becomes less enjoyable, in my opinion. Don't take this the wrong way, I totally can see the point you're making, but it just seems a little extreme to just play nerf and not care about whether you win or not. I can agree with degrading the it a little bit, but not all the way.

[NerfRogue83]

I will be completely honest and say that though I do not agree with everything posted--But -this: Nerf is not simulated combat, it's a glorified game of tag.----is my new favorite quote, and one of the most intelligent things I have seen posted lately. Well spoken indeed sir. I started nerfing when I was 13 with a stock BnA, shooting my friends wielding ArrowStorms and BallZooka's. 13 years later I look back and think: Wow, I think I actully had more fun then--under those conditions". Granted, I love my LS--but things were so much more relaxed....no one cared about making guns able to shoot through cardboard box's, or "owning" each other----we just wanted to run around flinging foam...I miss that. I believe your either Nerf or your not: but don't try to nerf like your playing Airsoft or Paintball. All 3 have their own place....none of which is in the other.

I agree that a change in attitude and focus on fun are needed in the entire community, and I plan on making these adjustments in my own nerfing. I believe it rests on us old guys--who have nerfed longer than a year or 2, to encourage this type of attitude in younge ,newer members. By setting pace both online, and in person at wars--hopefully the younger generation will adopt these idea's and feel that bliss we all miss so much.----Rogue.

Edited by NerfRogue83, 17 November 2009 - 11:59 AM.

[meatballica]

Smartest thing I have heard since I have joined the nerf community.

[Zorns Lemma]

It may not be wide spread, but a movement toward making the game fun and forgetting the competition is happening. If you strive for competition, I applaud you. I wish I had that desire. In some area's I do. Playing nerf guns is not one of them. It's fun and it feels good to play well, but we need to keep this in perspective. It's a silly game with silly people playing it.

What's the difference between fun and competition? My most memorable war has been SPANO, where the rounds were full of past-paced action, because at least in part, there was a desire from the players to win. Not win in the sense you give it, of crowning yourself some grand master, because we didn't end that war by declaring someone a winner at the end of the war, or even between rounds. Sometimes we even ended rounds and didn't know who the winner was at all. But each round definitely had some method of ending it favorably for you or the team you were on, what we could call "winning." Each player or team strove to be that winner, leading to awesome sacrifices of body for team, plenty of athleticism, and great high-intensity nerfing. After a round, the competition would cool off and we would exchange comments, smiles, and pick new teams. There was high competition, and there was also fun.

So is the difference then that I view nerf as a sport, where intense sportsmanlike competition during rounds and camaraderie outside of the rounds is what creates the best nerfing experience, while you, with your allegory of ham radio operators think of it more as some hobby, where we gather now and then to show off our collection?

Even if nerf is a hobby, I believe that the modifying and collecting part is the true hobby aspect, whereas nerfing is when we come together to enjoy that hobby. I admit that sometimes the modifying starts to dominate the nerfing part and we want to be the "best" in the hobby.

But in the end, when we come to enjoy that hobby together, isn't nerf still a sport? Isn't friendly competition what makes sports enjoyable? Where do you draw the line between what is friendly competition, and what is competition to be the "greatest nerfer of all time?"

Edit:

I just posted something to the Midwest nerf and I think I understand your point now perhaps. The problem isn't the competition. The problem is the attitude change from "friendly competition" to "need to win competition."

The nerfing in both is still the same. The round still run the same. But when I compare the recent wars to things like Showdown or SPANO or SoFAIL-MN, the difference is not in the intensity of nerfing, or the guns used, or the injuries caused, but that at the end of rounds, we no longer came together like friends. Instead players held grudges or elation and wanted to push for the next round to "win" again or to "beat out those winners."

Competition is what makes a nerf war fun. But the fun in a nerf war isn't about who wins the competition.

At Beatdown4, there was a DTC round where some shenanigans happened, and so the "winner" at the end probably wasn't the real winner. We made a deal about it. And that was stupid. At SPANO instead of complaining about rules, we would've just talked about how much rushing there was at that round, not cared about who won, and moved on.

And that's the problem.

Edited by Zorn's Lemma, 17 November 2009 - 12:34 PM.

[Talio]

Competition:
n.

1. The act of competing, as for profit or a prize; rivalry.
2. A test of skill or ability; a contest: a skating competition.
3. Rivalry between two or more businesses striving for the same customer or market.
4. A competitor: The competition has cornered the market.
5. Ecology. The simultaneous demand by two or more organisms for limited environmental resources, such as nutrients, living space, or light.

Fun:

n.

1. A source of enjoyment, amusement, or pleasure.
2. Enjoyment; amusement: have fun at the beach.
3. Playful, often noisy, activity.

You may find it fun to be competitive, but it makes you a douche bag if you do it while playing with nerf guns.

[Zorns Lemma]

Competition is what makes a nerf war fun. But the fun in a nerf war isn't about who wins the competition.

So you would disagree with this entirely, and that fun and competition while nerfing are mutually exclusive unless you're a douche.

I'm not really concerned about the modding aspect. There is no "best mod."
I'm not really concerned about the winning aspect. There is no "best nerfer."

But aren't nerf wars all about the rushing and the objectives, the challenging each other and friendly rivalry, and the camaraderie you build with your fellow enthusiasts afterwards? What do you want to see then at nerf events, if not nerfing?

Edited by Zorn's Lemma, 17 November 2009 - 01:02 PM.

[BritNerfMogul]

You the man Talio.

[VACC]

So you would disagree with this entirely, and that fun and competition while nerfing are mutually exclusive unless you're a douche.

I don't think that Nerf has to be devoid of competition to be fun, but the objective of the experience should be the latter, not the former. When I throw a nerf war, I go to as many of the nerfers in attendance throughout the day, and I ask them 1 question, repeatedly. "Are you having a good time?" I don't ask them what they think about my nerf gun, or if they have won a round, or even how they've been faring. I ask if it's fun. That should be your goal.

If you can accomplish that with healthy competition, than I don't really see a problem. Look, everybody nerfs a little differently. What's important is not to find a central mantra for all nerfers everywhere, but to figure out what you and your friends consider fun. This was never a problem when people actually nerfed with their friends.

Now, however, people seem to feel that nerfing in great numbers is more important than nerfing with people they get along with. This is where the problems occur. The obvious example is when you and your buddies went to the chicago war. You guys rolled in with the nerf guns that would give you the greates advantage that you could legaly obtain. In your wars I'm sure that's the trend, and everyone enjoys the technilogical, as well as physical, competition. There's really nothing wrong with that when everyone is on the same page. At this war, however, those nerfers weren't into that, and you guys came accross like assholes to a bunch of them because your expectations of what would be a fun nerf war were divergant from theirs.

Look, my meandering point is this: nerf how, where, and with whom you enjoy nerfing. But always remember that the people hosting a war are the ones who decide how that war will be played. If you don't care for their plans, host your own war.

VACC

[Langley]

Talio, I think there's a typo in the thread title. It should read, "In the Nerf Arms Race, Jlego is Down by One".
Also Talio and Zorn, you two clearly agree more than you disagree.

The competition should end when the round ends. On one hand, Talio's post is totally spot on: focusing on winning the round or promoting your rep as a nerfer with more 'skill' is pretty douchey. But if you came to a war just to dick around, act aloof, and ignore your team while you wander around taking pot shots then you aren't taking the war seriously enough and you're fucking up other people's good time. If you're not going to even try to win the round, you didn't come to nerf. You come to a nerf war to nerf, not goof around a and fuck off all day.

I guess it's just a question of priorities. You try and have a good time, you make sure everyone who isn't a dick is having a good time, you promote the hobby and try and teach new people the basics, and then you worry about winning the round as a team. When the round is done, you get a new team, you worry about them. If you win, you end up with a few of the losing team on your side next round, so there's no point being a dick about winning. If you loose, and you get pissed off about it and take it personally, then you need to re-read Talio's post.

Edit:

words

Well put. This is what I was trying to say with my inarticulate cro-mag brain.

Edited by Langley, 17 November 2009 - 01:46 PM.

[Talio]

To make sense of what Langley said in the beginning that was the title of one of the many articles I began working on to make this point. He laughed his ass off and has pushed me to finish the article for a long time. I didn't because it took along time to even figure out what I'm saying. When I showed up to Apoc in 08 I had a good time, but I knew something was wrong. I blamed the guns initially, but after a year of thinking and talking to people it became more clear. The only definition of competition that actually applies to nerf is this:

2. A test of skill or ability; a contest

There is no prize and this is not a business, so the rest of them really don't make sense in the context of nerf. But it's in that definition where the problem lies. Nerf shouldn't be a test of skill, ability or a contest. When you make it that, when you make it competitive, you're like the guy who takes Monopoly too seriously. Only instead of ruining an hour of what should be a fun, goofy activity, you're ruining a whole day. It's great to see people showing up in droves to nerf wars, traveling across country and giving up their precious free time. But when a handful of people show up with a shitty attitude and this uncanny will to dominate the field, they put the game into this weird head space that doesn't even exist.

Zorn, here is why I disagree with you. Look at this:

Game:
n.

1. An activity providing entertainment or amusement; a pastime: party games; word games.
2.
1. A competitive activity or sport in which players contend with each other according to a set of rules: the game of basketball; the game of gin rummy.
2. A single instance of such an activity: We lost the first game.
3. games An organized athletic program or contest: track-and-field games; took part in the winter games.
4. A period of competition or challenge: It was too late in the game to change the schedule of the project.
3.
1. The total number of points required to win a game: One hundred points is game in bridge.
2. The score accumulated at any given time in a game: The game is now 14 to 12.
4. The equipment needed for playing certain games: packed the children's games in the car.
5. A particular style or manner of playing a game: improved my tennis game with practice.
6. Informal.
1. An active interest or pursuit, especially one involving competitive engagement or adherence to rules: "the way the system operates, the access game, the turf game, the image game" (Hedrick Smith).
2. A business or occupation; a line: the insurance game.
3. An illegal activity; a racket.
7. Informal.
1. Evasive, trifling, or manipulative behavior: wanted a straight answer, not more of their tiresome games.
2. A calculated strategy or approach; a scheme: I saw through their game from the very beginning.
8. Mathematics. A model of a competitive situation that identifies interested parties and stipulates rules governing all aspects of the competition, used in game theory to determine the optimal course of action for an interested party.
9.
1. Wild animals, birds, or fish hunted for food or sport.
2. The flesh of these animals, eaten as food.
10.
1. An object of attack, ridicule, or pursuit: The press considered the candidate's indiscretions to be game.
2. Mockery; sport: The older children teased and made game of the newcomer.

Look at the difference between the first two definitions. Do you see that there is a difference in something being an entertaining activity and a game being a competition? What I'm trying to assert here is that we should strive to keep nerf the mere entertaining activity it is, rather then trying to contend with each other. If you disagree, so be it, but please don't come to any of my nerf wars.

[Blacksunshine]

talio. you long winded bastard. i like what you type. im not going to be a douche and try and nit pick it apart to find some deep hidden message like some others here. i think if people dont get the point of your post at its face value they are really missing the point of it all toghether. good stuff. i appreciate that you took the time to write this all up. good man.

[Ryan201821]

All of you have very important points. I whole-heartedly agree that Nerf is not about winning or raping face. That doesn't mean I want to win every round I'm playing in. The difference is I don't need to win a round to feel happy or have fun. I don't track how many "kills" I get in a round or over the course of a day. That's not what this is about. Now, however, I am going to go all-out in every round at every Nerf war and try to to win the round for my team. That's what I like to see. People working together in order the achieve an objective. If people stood around and didn't give a fuck about what's going on, Nerfing wouldn't be any fun. If people think you're being a douche for trying to win a round at a nerf war, then I'll just stop nerfing. Langley explains this dead on in his post. The difference is if you are upset you didn't win a round, then you shouldn't nerf.

The modifications aspect to nerfing makes that line of balance between fun and competitiveness a fine one. People in the community who modify Nerf blasters to shoot further, faster, and more accurately, should not be blamed. But when you have the intent to modify blasters in order to "diddle" or "pwn", then you're a douche. People are modifying blasters that shoot further and further. It's completely inevitable. We all share our ideas on this forum about how to modify certain blasters and what you can do to improve it's effectiveness in a war. Eventually those ideas keep building off each other and new methods develop for making the blasters shoot even further. As a modifier myself, I'm not going to purposely half-ass modify something if I know I can make it more efficient. And as a modifier, I share all my ideas with the community so they can be replicated by other members and hopefully create new ideas. I want them to show up to my next war, with a new awesome blaster that is effective. So, in a way it is an arms race. The incident that happened at our last Chicago event was a misunderstanding of the intentions of the people using the over-powered blasters. We haven't had too many problems up until this war, and a few blasters that dominated the field. Now I never think you should ban a blaster on the basis that it is "too good". But that means you have to change other rules, which bring me to my next point...

Dart making also has a lot to do with this. When I first started nerfing, practically no one could make good darts, and they didn't weight them with slingshot weights. So after years, you can perfect the dart making process making Nerf blasters too powerful. I am guilty of this myself. The darts we make now are too heavy and too accurate. My honest opinion is just to regulate the weight in your darts. You could even just use stock darts. The point is, the darts people are using now are more and more accurate making it a game of taking pot shots and taking target practice basically. This is not what I want, but that's where things seem like they have headed. Regulating dart weight to a single BB, or Slug darts, makes the game safer and more fun. Darts become a lot less accurate and loose their velocity much quicker. Instead of everyone having blaster shooting over 100', they all shoot under 100'. And the good thing about this is it doesn't effect the lower powered blasters, such as automatics, and pistols. I think it would give a lot better variety of blasters out on the field and let people to use what they feel best suits their playing style.

The Minnesota crew is hosting a war next month imposing the single BB only rule. I hope to see if this brings the game back to what it was before this shit storm. I will be imposing the same rules at future events that I'm hosting and I encourage everyone else to start doing the same thing.

Of course you want everyone to have a good time at the war. That's the mentality of Nerfing. If I'm hosting a war, it's my job to make sure all the attendees are having fun and always tell people thanks for coming out.

I don't want to be portrayed as one of these "douche bags". Any of you that have nerfed with me, know that my intentions are good and friendly. Our entire Midwest group is the best group of people I've met. We've never had problems with people being douchebags to other war participants. I am friends with every nerfer I meet. But this "arms race", makes it look like the people who are using them have intentions of Nerfing purely to win and get as many "kills" as possible.

I'm not nit-picking at what Talio has discussed, but trying to clarify what is happening with our hobby.

Edited by Ryan201821, 17 November 2009 - 05:10 PM.

[carlough]

I mostly agree with you Talio, but not entirely. Without any competitive spirit, the game is no fun. I have sat and thought how to make the gun better, but I make alot of guns better, so that the round has equal guns on each team. The part about "Pwning" everyone else never enters my head when making a gun. For example, I made my longshot too powerful. So whoever uses it has to load it by hand, with no magazine. It still only hits 60 or so feet, but the loading is slow as hell. 60 feet is alot for my wars. I don't make them too powerful though, because people wont play if welts are an issue. Yeah, some of us are wimps.

But, I have Rambled from the point. There MUST be some competitive spirit, but its gotten out of hand recently.

And before you say that I haven't been around long enough to see it, I watched the forums for a year or two before making an account.

[dog9]

I totaly agree Talio i started nerf with little backyard wars with stock guns with my freinds and when I went to my first organized war it was more competetive than fun

[Talio]

What I set out to accomplish I think I have. Nerf is going to exist in a gray area. On one hand you're gonna have your kids playing in their basement which turns into wrestling matches by the end and you're going to have people who play with an organized set of rules. This walks a fine line between doing it for the entertainment and doing it for the competition. There is a competitive spirit, but when the game spills over and becomes a full blown competition, it stops being fun. I'm not out to crush the spirit of people trying to win a round. You have to do that and you have to give it all you've got so it'll be fun. If you've ever played against people who just don't give a shit, you know it kind of deflates the experience. But in the spirit of the internet, where everyone is constantly trying to one up each other, I saw a bunch of assholes taking themselves and their skills to seriously. This goes back to taking the game serious and not yourself. My goal was to merely acknowledge the balance where nerf prospers over other games and hopefully get some of you thinking next time you go to a war or choose the gun you're going to use. Just keep it all in mind next season and remember that sweet spot where nerf is really awesome.

[JATDO]

I completely agree, some of my favorite times with nerf is when I was younger (well not that young, I'm only 14) but me and my best friend would gather all our recon/ls clips and just duke it out. 2 hits and you were "dead" then we would pick them up and do it again.
Then I wanted that little more "umph" in my guns, I got tired of the dart landing 4 feet infront of my target. So I tryed nodding them. I didn't want them to hurt more, like airsoft or paintball, I just wanted more fun! And I did.
Then earlyer this year I went to my first and latest war, there weren't many of us and it was downpouring, I had shit darts and half my guns broke there. But everyone was nice, helped as much as possiable, and lent guns/darts. I've never been that competative, I'm so not competative I make it a compatition... This was a different compatition, it was fun and trying to see how each of could do with the guns we modded guns. Except Stealthman who bought all the guns he used...
It was some of the most fun I have ever at with nerf guns, everytime I meet another Nerfer I find that they are nice.

As for upkeeping the site and trying to stop the dickwads from comming to our site and making it even more worse I think we need to stop banning/suspending people for one tiny offence, and being overall nicer. My first post was a n00b one with spelling mistakes AIM talk and I basicly disregarded the CoC, but I shaped up and in my mind I consider my self a moderate nerfer.


The moral of the story is, nerf is fun. Keep it fun.

[JATDO]

Double post
sorry.

Edited by JATDO, 17 November 2009 - 07:43 PM.

[TED]

Is this your retirement from Nerf essay?

[z80]

Is this your retirement from Nerf essay?

We can only hope.

[Zorns Lemma]

But in the spirit of the internet, where everyone is constantly trying to one up each other, I saw a bunch of assholes taking themselves and their skills to seriously. This goes back to taking the game serious and not yourself. My goal was to merely acknowledge the balance where nerf prospers over other games and hopefully get some of you thinking next time you go to a war or choose the gun you're going to use. Just keep it all in mind next season and remember that sweet spot where nerf is really awesome.

In that case I agree with you entirely. Competition should be within the rounds, but not outside of them. Outside of them should be fun and friendship and goofing off.

As to what you're addressing, I've already apologized to all parties involved, and resolved the issues with almost everyone. In my defense, the initial portrayal was completely one-sided, and if you reread my post it should clarify things a bit.

[Talio]

My article was not directed towards the Chicago group, but everyone as a whole.

[pjotrkuh]

Amen Talio, Amen

As for me I've never been to a war, hell the only nerfers that have a war here are larpers, witch I'm not, I'm not an actor, I don't want to have another personality of me to act in a "war" or fight with other actors, who glorify themselves and I don't want to be restricted in my amount of darts I can fire.

The NIC over here is very small, as well in age as in numbers: 12-13 year old kids who think painting their blasters flat black is cool...Telling me their vulcan shoots farther and bragging about they have a magstrike and I don't...who cares.......

I joined here just to modify blasters and paint them in cool color shemes, integrating blasters in each other and show them to you people, giving my opinion on some of your guns and helping you people out with solutions to your problems, like you do for me...

BTW: Talio nice reffering to Metallica's - King Nothing

[dizzyduck]

First let me say that I have only been nerfing for about a year in the NIC. I've been to a few wars but I've made a few observations that I feel are worth sharing.

Nerf is a hobby, first and foremost. There aren't any "pro" nerfers out there. I don't know why some people feel the need to take the competitive aspect to the point where it becomes no fun for others to play. "I didn't lose a single round!" or "I didn't lose all my lives a single round!" or whatnot, sure that's fine to keep track of if it's just for kicks, but when you shove it in peoples' faces it gets very, very annoying.

"lol u got pwned noob" is something I expect to hear on Xbox Live, not at a Nerf War.

NIC wars are a lot different than the more casual wars I've been to at the University of Maryland, where you just get a bunch of guys who throw down some money, buy whatever they find at Target, yank the AR's out and just nerf for an afternoon. Frankly, I had more fun at UMD's Dart of War than any other war this past summer because everyone was laid back and nobody really cared who won what round or how many kills someone had. Nobody had those massive ego trips ("omfg do you know who I am on NerfHaven?! I'm more pro than you'll ever be!!!1")

I think the culprit is people taking this hobby too seriously. I must admit as an avid modder I do get a thrill out of "building a better mousetrap", but truth be told I'd rather use something fun than something that "pwns". That's why you'll see me out on the field with something like a Ratchet Blast in one hand and an AirTech 1000 in the other. I don't really care if I get wiped out, but for me every kill I get with that is more fun than getting a dozen kills with a +bow. And as long as me enjoying myself doesn't detract from other people having fun, where's the harm in that?

Conversely, being killed by the same guy with the same blaster over and over and over again is not fun at all. If I get my ass handed to me by some fellow dual-wielding Whiptail Scoprion, more props to that guy. But really, any schnook can lay down $120 to get a +bow with a hopper clip and "dominate". Where's the fun in that? If that were me, I'd get bored. "Oh look, another round where I cleared their team without breaking a sweat."

Anyway, enough rambling. Have fun, go nerf.