The reason i nerf, is its advantage over paintball. i.e; 1. you can shoot your freinds in the house or the yard without someone having a hissy-fit. 2. it's cheap.
3. Mr elite can still have fun with "johny 9 year old" 4. Not only can you mod them you can build them from scratch
If nerf was as big as paintball,in my opinion, it would be more wide spread. Anybody can play with the right regulations. Improvements for the minor deficiencies in the nerf designs are being thought of with regularity. Things can only get better.
Ya its sometimes hard to convince people that its not just a kids toy anymore. The sports image really helps I find. That and letting them shoot pop cans off the wall at 40 feet using my sm5k with custom pvc berral(very accurate for reemed plastic). Start with just one or two and convert them slowly.