Words of wisdom

Hey, this comment was left on two posts down. It was good enough that I felt it needed to be put right up front. Learn from your elders kids.

"Unfortunately, the fun of running around (notice I mention that first, running around instead of plopping one's butt on the ground somewhere and calling themselves a "sniper") and enjoying the aspects of unmodified Nerf weapons, has been somewhat diffused by what I observe are two factors, of which I'll probably rant about in my own blog (my Xanga or here);

1) Online Nerf forum boards. It seems that some decide to use the boards not to disseminate Nerf information and advice, but to boast about how powerful, how big, or how many guns are stuck on to one weapon. This kind of dick-waving turns the tide toward the new users to obsess on making only powerful weapons, generally too strong to really enjoy at close range. I like my weapons relatively powerful only because the people I used to nerf with needed some kind of positive feedback when they get hit, so they KNOW they got hit. There was honor there also, so the pain was primarily an incentive NOT to get hit.

Now I primarily play with kids, so my emphasis shifted primarily back to an element of safety, combined with somewhat extended range (and the ability to use cheap ammo). My nephew shot me in the hand with a modified Expand-a-Blast (that I modded) at about 25 feet, and I really FELT it. Yeah, reduction in effective range may mean more moving around, but I think that's the spirit of old-school nerfing anyway.

2) This obsession with video gaming, and trying to vicariously live it out in their Nerf wars, is absolutely ridiculous. All I hear is how one blaster does or doesn't look like the HALO gun, or wanting their Titans to shoot 200 feet, like a HALO sniper rifle, it just peeves me to death.

I really believe that a lot of the posters on the forum boards spend more time in front of their TV's and XBoxes than they do out in the yard shooting it up. The claims they make on the forum boards are retarded at best, irritating at worst. Nerf blasters are not meant to shoot 200 feet straight line, 300 rounds per minute, or blow craters into the ground and kill everything in sight. All that military crap just irritates the hell out of me, especially at a time when young men and women are going out and experiencing the real thing, and real death.

Nerf is a game. A game to be enjoyed, like you've said numerous times, like tag with a twist. Anything more is just butt wipeage."

-Pineapple

I agree with almost this entire thing, other then one point made about video games. Yes, video games are a big killer of nerf. Slowly kids are playing outside less and less. We had games back in the day, in fact our big nerf saturdays where spent switching between it and SNES to eventually Golden Eye. But as far as Halo influencing Nerf I'm not sure that there is much to worry about. Notice in Halo 2, it's really an up close and personal game. If you can get a relaxed group of dudes together and just do some CTF or other fun rounds like pistols with no shields, it can feel alot like Nerfing.

What drives me nuts about every war game is the long distance factor of it. Anything closer then 60 feet is over in seconds. What you need is a really good gun fight. Gun fights are done at point blank range. Kinda like that lobby scene in the Maxtrix or the first Ill Duce fight in Boondocks Saints. It's just cool and fun. Where's the fun in shooting someone 200 feet away? Just go join the damn military. In the mean time, I'll watch bad action flicks and play Halo and Unreal, because those games aren't trying to be realistic. So yes I do agree video games are killing nerf, I also think that they can get you excited about it if you play the right ones. Pinney, if you want to write a counter to this point, feel free to email me - alhurst@gmail.com.

Talio.