nerfed
adj.— «In addition to that, though I thought that, though the colors certainly popped, I felt that the sword should really be a much darker weapon than is portrayed in the reproduction. The bright oranges should have been black or some other dark color. In essence, the sword was kinda “nerfed” (as we say in gaming parlance), by the designer.» —“Oni Battling Fun…“ by phyreblade The Realm Of The Dark Blade Sept. 1, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Have you ever googled your own name and found someone else who goes by the very same moniker? There’s a word for that: googleganger. Plus, the language of hobbyists and enthusiasts: If you’re a beekeeper, perhaps you call yourself a...
We asked for your thoughts about whether cursive writing should be taught in schools — and many of you replied with a resounding “Yes!” You said cursive helps develop fine motor skills, improves mental focus, and lets you read old...
The word ‘Nerfed’ is used in the game World of Warcraft when the developers see one class (Mage,Warrior, Priest and so on) has an advantage over the other classes, so in the interest of fairness -in the next patch- they reduce the classes power (by reducing attack power, attack cool down times or some other factor) to bring them in-line with the other classes. Gamers refer to this as “LOL!!1! MY CLASS GOT TOTALLY NERFED IN THE LAST UPDATE!1!! LOL!!”
While mildly annoying for most gamers, the nerf is an essential part of the on-line game, if it never happened everyone would be a mage.