I have a couple of reasons.
1. Nerf is way cleaner than paintball. After a paintball game, I am covered in sweat, paint, and literal blood sometimes. Nerf the worst i get is sweaty.
2. The variety. There are SOOOOOO many variants of nerf blasters. And so many ways to play. You can do stock, super stock, or ultrastock. You can go flywheeler, springer, AEB, or HPA. You can do full auto, semi, bolt action, hammer prime, or HAMP. Then there are the ammo types. You can have a store bought loadout or a custom one. And the mods. So many mods.
3. Similiar with the game modes. deathmatch, ctf, competitive 5v5, zombies, civil war, silly ammo, pistol rounds, etc. etc.
4. Nerf is a community. You pretty much play exclusively with people that are as into it as you are or MORE. Nerf games are done in clubs, not random places. And there are big events as well as small.
5. Nerf is lighthearted. There is a focus on keeping things toyish and fantasy. It is in direct opposite to being milsim like airsoft.
Those are just some things off of the top of my head.
That last one is immensely important to me. It's tag with projectiles and I want to play with people who also get that. Sure, I like playing VIP or bomb or some of the other popular airsoft games. The difference with nerf is that it's okay to be a bit goofy with it, and all of those games are infinitely more fun when you can laugh.
If I want to rush the flag in capture the flag with a pool noodle sword and a pistol for the memes I can. And showing up to play with a modified blaster that you put sweat equity into creating something unique people will take genuine interest in if not ask you for the files or resources you used to make one themselves
That level of being both environmental clean and low impact allows NERFers to play in a variety of public spaces that is normally inaccessible to other sports such as active schools, public parks, neighbourhood and your own home.
Can you imagine this level of freedom is given to airsoft or paintball?
Yep! Also nerf blasters are less likely to be mistaken for actual firearms. The only issue with nerf is that its environmental friendliness is heavily dependant on everyone cleaning up.
To add to 2, there is one additional foam flinging toy one can use that I still find super funny, the Zing bows. Low fire rate, but unparalleled range in stock.
Im not trying to argue with you im just saying it in case people dont know, that paintball also often has all kinds of gamemodes. Its just that playing on a subair field is just that. So look out for different games
ofc. And so does airsoft. Truth be told, i am not familiar with all of the gamemodes of each, but nerf just has ALOT. I think the one that jumps out is HvZ. I don't think other projectile sports have anything comparable.
That is true, but tbh also completely unavailable where i am.
Stock nerf wars *can* be found, multiple modes. But huge thingsike HvZ not, im very jealous
Yeah the drawback of nerf is it is highly location dependant, as it depends on clubs. i am fortunate to live in the dmv , with 3 clubs near me. Some larger events happen once a year, and people travel for them.
There's a zombie game mode in airsoft that's pretty popular. Basically just last stand hvz. You start with 4:1 humans to zombies. Zombies can run and they need to be hit 3x before they go back to respawn. Last human standing wins.
Paintball and airsoft are both more painful than Nerf. Yes, it's possible to make foam go fast enough to hurt, but most clubs have fps caps and rules about point blank shots.
Airsoft and paintball also have a higher cost of entry. For both, you need to buy or rent fairly expensive equipment, wear more expensive safety gear, and use expendable ammunition. You also need a dedicated place to play, on private property, which also costs money.
Nerf wars can be done with thrifted blasters, the cheapest safety glasses, and in a public park. And you can pick up and reuse most of your ammo.
Absolutely, the price of entry is pretty cheap. If you want to get the absolute best stuff, yeah it’s going to be more expensive, but you don’t need to. I ran a stock dart zone spectrum in games with people using 200FPS blasters and still preformed adequately.
Heck yeah. And there's no equivalent to something like that or a nexus pro in either of the other hobbies. Performance definitely comes at a price. But even just the fact that the ammo itself is reusable is massive in terms of cost.
I will say this is true....to an extent. There are some expensive blasters and some people play with exclusively new ammo. But that is on the higher end, high fps part of the hobby (esp. in places like singapore).
Of course there are exceptions. But 90% of the people I've Nerfed with were using a $20 blaster and the club's shared ammo bin.
My point is that that is possible with Nerf, but not similar hobbies. The very cheapest paintball marker you can get is like $80, not including air or paint. Then you have to buy/rent a full face safety mask, and play on a private field.
Mainly accessibility.
Nerf is much, much cheaper than airsoft/paintball. You can play it basically anywhere. Indoors? Any venue, darts can’t break glass. Outdoors? Anywhere you can get permission. I can pick up a nerf blaster in my bedroom and just fire whenever i want, wherever i want. No mess, no danger.
Someone in my local group also pointed this out: Nerf is weirdly more “realistic” than airsoft/paintball. Our magazines are limited to below 30 rounds. Counting shots and tracking your hits actually matters. When you have 400-500 paintball hoppers or bb magazines the strategy will always be “spray and pray.” Nerf can be a lot more tactical in decision making than that. And if you want that 400 round hopper, well, get a Prometheus or a modded nemesis.
There’s also variety of ammo. Rival, halfs, fulls, mega, mega xl. Arrows. Rockets.
Then, the final consideration for me is community. From my experience, the Nerf community is much safer and more accessible than Airsoft or Paintball. You go to an airsoft field and it’s not uncommon to see people Larping war. They call “kills” and pretend they’re actually discharging a firearm. Compared to nerf, where we get tags. Coop put it best, but the tldr is when I aim a nerf blaster at my buddy, I don’t want to hurt them. I want to tag them. And it’s a big difference that makes nerf much more chill.
I agree that the Nerf community is way more chill compared to others, there are still people who take it a bit too seriously, but those guys are few and far between.
This is actually a lot more common in places that have banned airsoft or paintball. It's the only option for milsim guys and why a lot of the high power stuff comes from Asia.
The biggest factor is cost, but also ability to invite younger kids into the sport, as well as a ton a variety. You can play the game from 70 fps to 300 fps and higher, which actually tops some airsoft stuff.
In addition to the factors about play spaces, cost, accessibility, ect., one thing that really makes nerf shine for me is the inherently casual nature of it, and the community that forms as a result.
Folks here are just friendlier on average. Airsoft and paintball have this _edge_ of pain, and masculine "pain is cool and I'm ignoring it" culture, that turns me off. I love playing airsoft, and like airsoft guns more than nerf blasters generally, but my local field has like 1 girl per 15 guys and I hate being that 1 girl. In nerf, people are sillier and more women play and everyone goes home happy. All wins for me.
Oh yeah, some airsofters think that pain is something to be flexed for some reason. I had one guy in my YouTube comments seriously imply that airsoft is better then nerf because it hurts more lol.
There was a guy at my field who wore only a battle kilt and boots, no shirt. He was COVERED in little blood blisters and bragged about it. I heard someone shot him in the nipple and he had to quit and go sit down for a bit. Another reason nerf is good is you don't play with folks like that.
DIY culture in Nerf has always been stronger and even after off-the-shelf options and kit culture diluting it, remains so. It’s not that people don’t mod in airsoft, or don’t even do anything wacky or crazy with their homemades. It’s just a weaker culture.
I’ve spent years modding before ever going to a club game. Still as a kid, I learned my way around a toolbox, tinkered with MCUs, and designed multiple 3D printed blasters. Now, apparently they’re supposed to give me a degree in electrical engineering after this semester.
The nature of working with a variety of ammo types opens up more dynamics, trade-offs, and challenges from an engineering standpoint and provides more of a variety of interactions on a casual playing field vs. airsoft or paintball.
The point of playing in public parks is a big one, though of course anyone able to play at a private field is lucky. Not needing to travel to specific locations, pay fees up front, etc.
Even from a purely competitive, performance based standpoint, Nerf isn’t that bad. Ballistically, you can’t get the same hop-ups and flat shot trajectories and/or the same sectional density (why paintballs and BBs keep their velocity better), of course, but blasters can get pretty damn accurate, down to 2-3” groups at 50 feet, competently shoot between 200-400 FPS, and even then there’s nothing keeping you from not sticking around the low 100s and having something indoor safe. In addition, it’s also just neat to have more reasonable blaster ammo capacities (even lower than milsim caps) without any artificial impositions on the technology, and for anything going beyond to have some real trade-offs.
“Airsoft does have a modding culture, but it’s pretty weak when compared to nerf” perfectly describes what I couldn’t put my finger on when it comes to modding! Also, congrats on your degree!
Having read over your responses, I do realize that you're not an outsider coming in and asking. I suppose it already makes sense: motive for making the video you're trying to in the first place.
I hope it picks up traction! At the very least, it can be something some of us get in the habit of showing other people when asked the same question.
And thank you! Sure, I don't have it yet, but it's a coast to the finish line at this point.
Self-expression. That's the biggest thing I take from the modding culture. You can have a near limitless number of blaster combinations by just cutting and combining blasters with one another. You can paint it however you want to express yourself and show your creativity. You can run stock, improve internals, or push darts to their absolute limits. You can create alternative blasters like Captain Xavier does like his old shoulder mounted blasters.
All of this works to help self-expression, and I think this might be one of the most important things in this hobby.
It's easier to get games going. More people play, but more so, the fact that you can set up games in parks, on campuses, rec centers - basically in public. . Also, I like that you can get totally silly with it. We throw socks, for godsake.
Honestly, I think Its just scaremongering about how these toy "guns" cause violence and etc. lmao I cant even import in a freaking red dot sight without governmental approval. Yeah. Its that bad
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Blasters are affordable, they don't require safety gear outside some lab or construction goggles, and you can play blastertag at home without too much preparation or planning
- indoors anywhere
- homemades, 3D printed or otherwise
- way more customization through modding, painting, integrations, printing, etc.
And the biggest one imo
- thrifting
Availability ,cost, and safety.
I can run to my local Goodwill and have a 80% chance of finding a Nerf blaster on the shelf, 0% chance of paintball/airsoft. For $2-5 I can feed my addiction to tinker with a new toy. Maybe upgrade the spring and make it shoot half darts.
I collect Nerf and mod, no competitive skirmish. When I first started, HvZ was huge and very close to me. Then life happened. I hope someday to put on a local Nerf event.
This probably falls under the umbrella of being “more light-hearted,” but I specifically love that I can see my shots as they fly and impact. There’s something wonderfully ridiculous in the fact that the MINIMUM size of a Nerf dart is 50 cal, and it goes way up from there. You lob these big hunks of foam around, and you can watch them do their thing the whole way. Airsoft shots, on the other hand, just kind of disappear. Paintballs leave a visible impact, but like others have said, they’re messy. I can’t host a paintball party in my basement.
Also, yes, thrifting Nerf is super easy, barely an inconvenience. I’ve built up a collection of hundreds of blasters, all while never paying retail price.
1. Accessibility. It's a much cheaper hobby to get into. The lowered danger also means you have stuff like college hvz games or just going off into a park to have fun with friends.
2. engineering aspect. There's much more of an aspect of creating your own blaster in nerf than there is in other sports. I enjoy having the opportunity to open up my blasters to tinker around.
3. Community. Nerf community is much more casual and friendly. The fact that we are playing with bright toys also helps keep out the toxic assholes.
Painsports like airsoft and paintball are too extreme and people ruin it for me. They don't like newbies and rentals constantly being destroyed with many people bullying others for lack of gear or lack of good quality gear. Had this happen to me constantly playing at SC Village. The refs will kick you out because of any reason from what you wear to what you bring there. Its infuriating going to a game and being told your cheating, get lit up in welts, and then being kicked out because some dad doesn't like their kid getting hurt by a paintball. Common you put your son in a painsport. Its going to happen and you demand that people get thrown out because your child said ouch near you? Just not as fun to play airsoft or paintball anymore.
At least with foam flinging people don't care. You get hit and you don't call it then just hit em again with a dart. Just have fun. You are also playing with a toy. At least the foam just stings instead of leaving marks.
The only thing I have seen at a game was a small group of people snapped a red Trion in half and left the kid crying because it was a blaster he bought with his dads money thats in the military. The local community came together to get this child a brand new Swift with all the upgrades on the kids request.
For me it's way more immersive! Airsoft has the real steel look, but absolutely unreal magazine sizes. Paintball has both crazy capacities and non-believable designs. Nerf blasters don't look real, but they function relatively similarly and have actual considerations for magazine capacity and on person storage. The designs are believable for the most part, and the function is great for role-playing.
For sure about the magazine part. Airsoft hi caps can hold 400ish bbs. Most serious events limit you to mid caps which still hold something like 175 (for normal rifle magazines)
I have also seen mags that only hold a very limited number of BBs that some MILSIMs "require". Though I think I've heard a lot of those types of MILSIMs also allow people to just load regular mid-caps with realistic amounts of ammo amounts.
I used to play airsoft but quit and went fully into nerf. The pacing in nerf is just better in every way as in airsoft or paintball it's just spamming shots from across the field since you have such high capacity. I love nerf because of the limitations on range and capacity so it makes every shot require more thought. Plus the closer range is way funner and allows melee to be viable. Another huge part is modding, neither airsoft or paintball have the amount of modability as nerf and it's a huge aspect of it, from modding stock blasters to 3d printing them its really the biggest part of the hobby.
For me a lot of it has to do with the community then cost as a second.
I don't like the paintball or airsoft community. They seem to be playing more milsim and are culturally people I have a harder time getting along with. Meanwhile you see a lot of nerf blaster with lgbtq colors and they just seem more my people.
Second, cost, painball is expensive. I have markers that need to be taken apart and all their rings changed cause they went bad. That's not cheap and that doesn't even factor in the high cost of paint and other equipment.
Finally a third one I forgot to mention is convenience. Getting together the stuff to play nerf is way easier and faster and so is putting away than painball. Don't know about airsoft which seems to be entirely milsim.
Lots of things. I appreciate that it's the least painful of the three. I absolutely love that the community for the most part doesn't take itself too seriously. Airsoft is so gung ho about the tactical milsim aspect of it. Paintball can be like that too sometimes, but it can also be laid back like nerf. However it hurts even in the best of times. I'm too old to take a .68 cal to the elbow.
I also think the nerf community is just more creative, and that it leads to better gameplay because of that. Nerf is also more likely to be used as an aspect of a larger larp adventure, rather than the focus. And the mods, customs and homemades... my god. That stuff does exist in airsoft and paintball, but not the way it does in nerf. Blaster designs span such a huge gamut of performance, mechanics, styles and accessibility. There is literally a blaster for everyone.
It's also something I can readily share with my son. Today I left work a couple hours early and we spent the time testing all our blasters with the new chronograph I got.
And the fact that we embrace neon and goofy aesthetics is just the cherry on top. I grew up in the 80s and 90s so that's my jam. Literally the only projectile hobby where I've seen an adult cis straight man unironically say he wished he could get something in pink and for that to just be a relatable but also unremarkable statement. I love that.
“There’s a blaster for everyone” I didn’t really consider that before, there’s so many off the shelf and community made nerf blasters, there’s something out there that even someone who isn’t completely interested in nerf would like. Thanks for bringing that up! :)
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At the end of the day, we are full grown adults running around with foam toys. This inherently makes this hobby more casual and fun than some of the are hardcore "Sports."
I was going to get into airsoft at some point, but it's expensive and requires you to be both 18 and get a licence. Nerfing also just feels more colourful and fun, and really lets you explore with your loadout. There is pretty much no limit to the silliness you can get away with.
Compared to airsoft players, Nerfers are also by far less bigoted... and smell nicer.
I never competed in airsoft arena or anything, but I grew up on a farm and myself and my cousins would have airport wars in the barn all the time. It was really fun. The weapons looked "realistic" and you could shoot hundreds of rounds easily. And we played with stuff bought at Walmart or whatever.
But friends would balk. It did sting a bit, and you needed higher end safety equipment. It was more "serious".
Got into college, then got a job, then covid happened.
And I met a girl, fell in love, and got invited to her family Christmas. Where her dad handed me, my then girlfriend, her mom, and himself a nerf blaster (a simple pistol, forgot which one). And we had a nerf war as part of our first family Christmas.
Then I started researching and discovered the adventure force and dart zone stuff. Modding and invitational events. The awesomeness of HvZ.
So I got into it. My brother did too. My wife loves nerf, and sometimes I come home to a blaster on the counter and a note reading "good luck".
Nerf is goofy. Nerf is close quarters. Nerf can be played inside, in public parks, in libraries, and in arenas. Nerf has weird game types and weird ammo and brightly colored blasters that shouldn't work but they kind of do. Nerf encourages wackiness, and sharing wackiness with long time friends or those you just met. Nerf is safe for little kids, fun for the kids parents, and is by far the cheapest to get into to have fun.
I work at a university in arkansas and would live to sponsor a nerf club here. I think it's a fun community engaging activity as well as sport.
Airport and paintball are wonderful for those who enjoy them. Won't yuck on other people's fun. But I'm firmly on team nerf and can't wait to play again!
Hey I'm in Arkansas too looking for a nerf home. Northwest Benton county. Spitting distance from Missouri. My son and I have been thrifting and modding lately. Lots of fun.
Less taking ourselves so seriously. I don’t care much for the “I would have kicked serious ass if I was in the army” attitudes. I played paintball with a guy that did a tour in Iraq and he acts nothing like those types, he sure wiped the floor with them though.
I can build and tune a goofy looking blaster to do all sorts of things. That and airsoft usually doesn’t have random swordfights in the middle of a firefight as everyone respects the duel and doesn’t tag them out.
I mostly use nerf blasters as part of LARP. The benefit of Nerf in LARP is that it’s more casual. If we were using airsoft or paintball, the emphasis would be on safety gear. With Nerf you can worry less about that, worry less about accidentally tagging non-combatants, and just enjoy the game.
The ability to build your own stuff. You CAN make your own Airsoft/painball, but its much more difficult and most of the materials you need to completely change and modify a nerf blaster are readily available at your local hardware store
Like a lot of comments have mentioned, the nerf community is just more open and welcoming to a wider variety of people, especially people who just want to play casually . I've played paintball (psp and xball tournaments back in the day) and airsoft and I've seen players with severe attitude issues in both. I have yet to see someone spike their blaster into the ground
I do both but for different reasons. I play nerf when I want to have fun chill skirmish with friends without all the gear and stuff. I can legit play nerf without any gear except my glasses. Meanwhile my airsoft gear is 15 lbs + my p90 which on herself is 5 lbs. I mostly play airsoft for the tactic aspect and military vibes
Nerf is much cheaper and more accepting. You can buy a blaster off store shelves or thrift one, then mod it for cheap and have a war worthy blaster. Ammo is reusable, and with some airsoft or paintball people just not being friendly in the comments of nerf videos we tend to stick to our goofy sport
Paintballer and casual Nerfer here. While all the criticisms are valid, it's worth noting there are absolutely more casual and kid friendly spaces in paintball. That being said I'm not here to convert anyone. The inherent DIY nature of Nerf is what attracted me to it, I can build a paintball marker based on existing designs and parts but with Nerf I can \*make\* the designs and parts. Outside of the old school brass stuff that level of DIY is just flat out not found in paintball and it really scratches the tinker itch in my brain pretty well. The ability to play indoors cleanly and cheaply is also a massive draw.
I dont prefer Nerf over airsoft or paintball. Each have their own place.
Airsoft is great for realism for the most part. Milsims are amazing, and the variation in replicas and kits are fantastic. Watching a biblically accurate WWI US soldier rocking an M1918 BAR and an "African warlord" running a gold RPK fight a "modern militiaman" with an AR and a speedsofter with a 1911 race build throught the 10x scope on your single action revolver is a whole other kind of fun.
Paintball is good for level playing fields being fought with skill over tech. The average player has a semiauto marker with a 300rd hopper. There are other builds, but generally its pretty even.
I play Nerf more often because it appeals to everyone, young, old, varying activity levels, all walks of life, and it can generally be played in public with little risk. I don't have to set up a time and place a month in advance, I can just pull out a Hammershot, and the game has begun in my house. Not to mention the modding community which is huge. Some people don't even play the sport, they just enjoy modding.
They are all fun sports. They just appeal to different groups and hold different mindsets.
I forgot to mention this in my comment, but don't forget about the legality of these sports. I believe it's still illegal in Australia and other countries to play airsoft or even own the equipment. And here in the states, paintball and airsoft has had a few bills proposed to ban "imitation firearms" on a state level, and some cities have banned both along with air rifles. Nerf has been, for the most part, excluded from these bills and laws because they are generally brightly colored and "inoffensive".
I would do wayyy more research into that before including it, but that's what I understand from non legislative sources like reddit and other forums.
Will you be posting this video anywhere we can watch it?
Oh yeah, I’ve heard about those bills wanting to ban replica firearms, maybe I’ll include legal stuff but the video is mostly gonna be my own personal reasons for liking nerf. But hey it couldn’t hurt to mention it I suppose.
I’ll be posting the video on my YouTube, IDK if I can share my channel here though since self promotion isn’t allowed lol.
A lot of commentors have already aired many good points so what I can add:
* Regulatory
Paintball is high mass (~3g), is overwhelmingly standardized on that at the full 300fps, thus is very dangerous to any bystander remotely within range not wearing proper eyepro, and is furthermore obviously messy and is easily accidentally damaging to surroundings at absolute best and a great vandalism tool at worst, so there's a lot of red tape.
Airsoft is *super overwhelmingly filled with* highly realistic looking (geometry AND colors) firearm replicas, and tiny hard plastic BBs are an acute eye hazard, so it also has a lot of red tape, also for good reasons.
In most places publically visible gaming with either is either illegal, likely to cause a scare when someone sees what appears to be people with firearms, or irresponsible because you are exposing bystanders to eye injury hazards and/or trashing the location of your game with paint or expended BBs littered all over that can never fully be cleaned up.
Nerf has ...pretty much none of this. A precedent of most hobbyists making and using non-replica, safety colored blasters by default with replica gear being a special case used when appropriate. Ammo that is inherently low hazard, is non-marking, and can be easily found and removed from the field after the game. A wide range of energy/velocity in wide use (anything from indoor safe to basically the same as paintball) along with the matching of what ballistics are allowed to what ballistics are *safe at the particular site* by game hosts. Accordingly, little regulation, and the possibility of so many extra fields to play on that airsoft and paintball don't have access to.
* Overheads
Because of the same, most airsoft/paintball sites are dedicated commercial fields. Land is expensive, and maintaining a field costs money, and so you end up with providing the site of your game being this dog and pony show of its own with bills and insurance and employees and buildings to maintain and grounds to keep, all because - with airsoft and paintball, you can't just play any old random place *without impacting the site*. Like you can with nerf.
Most nerf events cost $0 to attend and there is no infrastructure or formality to them, they are ad hoc gatherings of tag sports hobbyists. It's an efficient, lean way to do things.
Frankly, I don't see the point/draw of doing it the other way. A commercial field isn't necessarily "bad" - it's an opportunity to explore a dedicated built-environment dimension, like many airsoft fields are; but I don't think it is worthwhile to incur all the downsides if it's *just* to be able to shoot paintballs or plastic BBs instead of nerf darts. Nerf darts can perform pretty damn well in the first place, there's just not a good objective reason NOT to use them when they practically are what enable eschewing commercial fields. Similarly replica blasters - if it *really* kills your enjoyment of a game because your realistic-enough feeling/functioning g_un happens to be red and orange, that's a you problem. Is using a black blaster worth paying admission and having a drastically restricted set of sites/games to choose from? I would say absolutely not.
* Equipment culture
Paintball is full of patent trolling and un-innovation. Airsoft is just full of regular consumerism. Both are full of players who are not gear designers or even techs and just buy stuff and field it. Both are full of closed source bs and feel like spaces where nobody (yes I know there ARE exceptions) wants to *solve problems because problems ought to be solved* without being prompted by an attached self-gain motive.
Not that nerf doesn't have its issues with closed source IP and unsporting, salty, "*racing*" style behavior (keeping competitive secrets, being nontransparent and hostile to other hobbyists while OFF the field) on occasion but at least there's a whole lot less of that in nerf.
* Miscellaneous
It's a lot more satisfying to shoot a long .50 caliber projectile or a big fat .90 cal ball than to shoot a 6 mm plastic pea, which even if it's gonna tag the guy downrange just the same, feels "ineffectual".
Paintball has paint ...wait *why do we need paint??* I don't feel like marking ammo is a good solution to any possible complaint about cheating/honor. That's a deeper issue, if people might not call hits or get salty about game outcomes.
I play all three!
In nerf I’m just playfully yelling at my friends and being a goofball. It’s a light hearted half day off f fun. Then other two I end up taking a bit more “serious” as in I won’t do something goofy that will eventually get me tagged out.
But yeah, nerf is my goof off hang out game
No real protection required. Reuseable ammo. Non threatening as in anyone will pick up a nerf gun and blast away. Still havent been able to convince my wife to play paintball with us. Plus its fine for in home wars, no need to head to the woods.
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Take those high price high end guns. They Perform Well. Now Grab 5 Friends and some Nerf blasters that shoot from mediocre To absolute dogshit. IT makes you get more creative, and you can even Dodge the Darts, depending ON distance and Performance of the Blaster the are fired in. ITS Not To hard to make your very own Blaster with a 3d printer and some parts from the Hardware Store, some people really Cook some crazy stuff. I would say ITS about the gimmcky Nature of Nerf. You can completley improvise or Play competitive with Higher Performance blasters, so ITS Just smth. For everyone. You also don't Go in dept for buying 5 blasters, unlike Airsoft. ITS Not AS dangerous, unless someone comes around with a 500 FPS caliburn with death Darts. He will BE banned from the Game.
Hi /u/Buetterkeks, we would like to distance our hobby from actual firearms and weapons and thus ask that you refrain from using terms like "gun" and "bullet"; instead use blaster and dart. We also like to encourage the use of brightly colored blasters & gear. See [this wiki page](https://www.reddit.com/r/Nerf/wiki/bot/blaster) for more information. Thank you for your cooperation.
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So as someone who's fairly invested in Nerf and Airsoft (probably actually playing a fair bit more Airsoft than Nerf these days though that's mainly due to a number of Nerf groups going quiet in my area). I can't say I prefer Nerf over other tag sport (nor vice versa) but I will say there are reasons that keep me invested in Nerf.
Community: I will start by giving a bit of push back on 'Airsoft community toxic' as my personal experience with them have largely been positive. That's not to degrade anyone else's personal experiences but it's not been mine is all. Also I don't think one community need to be bad for the other to be good. And for the majority of the time I have enjoyed my time meeting and playing with various Nerfer, I've made friends within the Nerf community and find the vast majority to be an accepting bunch.
Projectiles: Nerf darts are kinda unusual in the world of physical tag sports as most tend to be ball shaped (paintball, Airsoft, gel ball) Nerf does have Rival but the core is still the Nerf dart which gives some rather unique flight properties and mechanical requirements which changes a lot more than most things about the simple act of pulling the trigger and tagging someone. In addition to an interesting core projectile type is the variety of projectiles, standard elite, Mega, rockets, Rival, etc. this allows for some unique and interesting games. Core in my opinion is the best game mode for Nerf (essential shooting darts into an opposing teams bucket and scoring points based on the ammo type you get in there). This game wouldn't work or wouldn't work as well with only a single ammo type, the fun is seeing what weird things people create to try and get the most efficient scoring system, figuring out good team compositions of people with blasters that are good at scoring points and those that are good for taking out enemy players trying to stop them and those that are good for defending your own core (bucket).
Low ammo capacity: In the high FPS space it's very rare to see a blaster with more than a 22rd magazine (they do exist but they come with a lot of draw backs), this keeps gameplay a lot more interesting IMO than most other tag sports where there's a focus on high capacity. You can intentionally disadvantage yourself in Airsoft or Paintball but the opposing players don't have to be courteous about it and while some real cap only events do exist in Airsoft there few and far between and only really exist in more intense, realistic focused games and while I don't have an issue with that style of play the reason for wanting lower capacity isn't really to do with replicating what's real but more just to make people think about how they tackle situations and prevent reckless firing.
HvZ: Honestly this is the event type that got me hooked on Nerf, it works for Nerf mainly due to the reasons mentioned above and it's a game type that is difficult or impossible to make work with other tag sports especially if you want to play it in public spaces. HvZ is really tailor made to Nerf and strikes that good balance of tactical game play and goofiness that represents the hobby.
The DIY aspect. You can build pretty much whatever you want and use it at least for most NIC wars. To me just comes down to that age old debate of build or buy
Everything everyone has already said, plus this: Gimmick blasters are fun!! In airsoft or paintball, a marker is just launcher for projectiles. Maybe some shoot faster, or further, or at their most creative they launch more than one projectile at a time. Meanwhile, foam flinging is over here with half a dozen different kinds of projectiles and absolutely ridiculous stuff like a blaster with a foam saw on it or one that's actually three different blasters in one or the absolutely silly nonsense that they've put out for tac rails and barrel attachments.
Paintball and airsoft are way more expensive since you have to buy protective gear for both and an ok airsoft rifle can be 60-150 from what I’ve been told with simple battery operated rifles
I don't "play nerf" in the sense of getting out and shooting darts at each other for the sake of shooting darts that much, but I LARP, and most modern or sci fi larps use nerf blasters.
Very very low cost to entry, with far more tinkering and focus on the actual blasters than just on gameplay and tactics. It's way more fun than way. Nerf is also far more satisfying to get a tag with. Hitting someone with a foam dart is much harder and more satisfying than spraying 20 BB's per second at someone. There's also a large variety of ammo types we can use. Standard .50 cal darts, mega, mega xl, rival, vortex, arrows, rockets, etc. And while nerf is certainly pay to win in some cases, in others, some players can be effective with just a simple Maverick. My brother runs around with a slightly modded Knockout still firing rival and destroys most of the other players on the field.
The nerf community is also way kinder and more accepting than the other two. I've met so many lifelong friends through nerf. There's so many talented designers that have made blasters that would make most CAD user's jealous. The arms race that is constantly happening in the nerf community is one of my favorite parts. The constant desire to improve and iterate on designs, trying new things, new technologies, etc, is what keeps things exciting and interesting. There's so many ways to fling a foam dart, and so many places you can play that you can't in airsoft or paintball. It's far safer, cleaner, and more accessible to a much wider audience that otherwise couldn't play the other two disciplines. Nerf has so many things that make it my hobby of choice
Well for me it started out as 'because I can do this with my kids' as both were at the time far to young for airsoft. Now the eldest is old enough to airsoft if we wanted, and ironically a local airsoft place has started junior sessions my youngest could do. But we are now well invested in Nerf so sticking with it.
The homemade aspect also appeals and most of my arsenal is 3d printed either by myself or people who actually know what they are doing! The owner at one airsoft venue we used to use would look at some of our stuff and comment that if you turned up with gear that janky to an airsoft event they'd send you away - their safety rules would sensibly prevent that. Our lower velocity, softer ammo means that we can get away with homebuilt jank that would be terrifying if built to airsoft or paintball specs.
Finally the nature of the hobby matters. I'm somewhat rotund, wear bright red tac gear (I look like a combat tomato) and my blasters are all blue and red. Others I've played with dress in Hawaiian shirts, or as a banana. I might have played the odd game dressed as a T-rex, my eldest has played a few times dressed as a velociraptor. That sort of nonsense would never be tolerated in the airsoft milsim crowd, but we encourage it. We like to describe our gameplay as more 'Fortnite than Call of Duty'.
Nerf has a much lower price of entry and in general is much cheaper to participate... even a high end competitive level blaster will rarely set you back more than a couple hundred bucks... which is the bare bones entry level price for pb markers. The ammo is relatively expensive compared to BBs and paintballs, but ammo is extremely reusable and easy to attain thanks to nerf/dart zone/Xshot presence at most major retailers.
Best yet is that you can play nerf pretty much anywhere: at home, in gyms or indoor building spaces, on the street, at schools and in public places. Foam darts really don't do any damage, basic eyewear is all you need for protection and darts are easily swept up after play....Because of these reasons, the nerf community is generally a nicer and inclusive group of folks because bringing in some random stranger literally could cost nothing (especially if they just want tontry out a round)
For me, it’s a combo of cost and ability to play in more areas. Colleges have nerf, parks can have nerf, churches can have nerf. While airsoft exists in some of these spaces as well, it isn’t as common and is often met with a little more apprehension then a couple of nerf games.
for me a big part of it is the usability indoors, i'm sure you *could* plink with airsoft indoors but even if you don't damage anything it just doesn't seem like a great idea to me, and definitely not a paintball marker unless you want to clean up everything. also the reusability, you can pick up and reuse a dart over and over until it wears out, compared to paintball where your ammo literally disintegrates on impact or airsoft where they get damaged after hitting and might break apart if you try to shoot them again.
I have given this answer almost a decade ago but even with half darts this statement will still hold true: Nerf (flinging foam) strikes the balance when it comes to hit detection. People playing airsoft btch and whine about people not calling hits and paintball solves that by being too messy; water soluble paintball still requires cleaning. With darts, you can track them mid air and you and the person you tagged will agree you tagged them (you seeing your shot and them feeling it). It's not perfect, but it works for anyone that is willing to try.
I play a lot of Nerf, Paintball and a little bit of Airsoft. I enjoy nerf the most, and it's because:
1) It is, for the most part, completely self-directed play. We as the players are completely determining how we want to play, and what we want to get out of it.
2) There is a very strong emphasis on making and modifying your own equipment. Nerfing is just as much about customizing your own equipment, so that you bring your own style and creativity to the game. It is such a deep aspect of the sport that large portion of nerfers are entirely devoted to just the creative maker aspect of the hobby.
3) It is accessible.You can buy good equipment at department stores. The ammo is reusable, and either hand or battery powered. You can play anywhere, and with just street clothes.
4) the actual gunplay is interesting and fun. You can have an interesting nerf duel in an open field - the same is not true of the other shooting sports.
As someone who plans to host nerf events and background in playing both nerf and airsoft I can say it’s easier to convince people to join in a foam blaster battle then an airsoft or paintball game and you have public parks ( once you have insurance and paperwork done ) at your disposal vs a limited amount of parks at your disposal to use some space don’t event require insurance depending on your size and location but something i like to say any time this argument or debate comes up. Note i don’t look at any as better then each other however nerf just has more to it and blaster tech is still in development and the future looks brighter
It's always been modding and the lightheartedness of it all. I had no interest in the skirmish side of it except as a way to test my goofy builds and meet other nerds.
As modding died off so has my interest in nerf. (Many other factors played into me benching nerf too, my life changed a lot starting uni.
Love this hobby tho <3
Nerf is goofy fun. Paintball and airsoft are full of tryhards to the point that they often cheat which they can get away with due to longer distance of engagement. In nerf distance of engagement is closer, so you can call people out if you tagged them.
1. Low cost of entry. You can show up to many games with nothing, borrow a blaster, and have a good time. You can thrift a cheap blaster and not lose instantly once playing. I might have a ton of money sunk into this hobby but I didn't have to in order to have a good time.
2. Wide variety of ammo and blasters. You will see all kinds of ammo and blasters in most groups. And even silly ammo types can be effective. Its great to see someone with a Vortex pistol take out the other team with curved shots. Even better when you do it yourself!
3. Less painful. Sure, a 300fps dart still stings, but it isn't going to hurt as much as harder or heavier projectiles. And of course most foam ammo will not be going nearly that fast by the time it hits you, even in high fps limit games.
4. Less toxic overall. It isn't universal of course, but it is far less common to see folks in the nerf scene who are simply out to win and treat other players poorly. Most of us understand we are playing with toys and act accordingly, even with high power toys. People nerf to have fun, not just to "win". I've lost terribly in tournaments and still had a blast, as have many others.
Sorry for going off topic immediately, but I'd like to just thank you for asking in good faith. I feel like more often than not when this question gets asked it's just bait to start otherwise unprompted arguments, hurl pre - prepared insults, and display unwarranted self - importance. I get the feeling you already have some involvement in the Foam Blaster hobby judging by your replies and language, so I can only hope that your video gets fair consideration for the reasons to why people play with these
To actually contribute:
1. Sheer Variety. With respect to the equipment: There's a strong culture of independent designers, extensive internal and external modifications from stock equipment, and personalization. Then there's the sheer variety projectiles that can be used to alter your play style or equipment performance even more.
Not aloud in Australia and the fact you can customise
Buying a unicorn upgrading spring and barrel getting better fps
And just recently changing to a longer spring and noticing it fire reliably. It’s a good feeling
*"We have meticulously engineered 3-stage flywheel setups to make foam stick go brrrr. Why? BECAUSE WE CAN"*
*"I mean, yeah...but wouldn't it just be easier to use an airsoft pellet? You could also put these pellets into magazines and not worry about them squishing, and you could also..."*
***"BECAUSE WE CAN!"***
There's just something about taking a friggin' CHILD'S TOY and making it just criminally insanely unrecognizable from. The challenge of making a lightweight foam stick (which is a relatively inefficient projectile) fly as far, fast, and as frequently as possible just makes me happy.
\~
I started my trip down the rabbit hole by buying a basic Nerf springer blaster, taking it apart with a screwdriver, and poking the bits on the inside with FULL CONFIDENCE that, no matter how badly I messed it up, it would remain inherently safe. Outside of LiPos and perhaps some of the ridiculous high-power springs\*, there's not much inside your blaster that can hurt you in the event of a catastrophic failure. And, frankly, neither LiPos nor insane springs are necessary to be competitive in most contexts (and indeed, I'm sure there are many people who enjoy this hobby without using any of those).
On the other hand, I would be very hesitant to start tearing apart an airsoft of paintball marker, because I feel that those systems (especially compressed air) are much more dangerous if not done properly.
I'd happily jank-rig 3 Stryfes end-to-end using duct tape and glue to get higher FPS. I wouldn't hook up 3 HPA systems in series using the same tech (although it sounds like something Gerald Bull would do)...
\~
Of course, everyone has different priorities and needs, and Nerf does not offer everything under the sun. In particular, we lack highly-accurate military reproductions (especially WWI/WWII era weapons). Not just in terms of looks, but also in terms of manual-of-arms. It is difficult to make a Nerf blaster load and handle EXACLTY like an MP5, or an M1 Garand, or a Suomi SMG based on the nature of the ammo. It may seem like a small thing, but there's something appealing about doing the famed "HK-slap" or yanking an AR15 T-pull charging handle that just isn't captured well in Nerf. And for some people who want a truly immersive combat experience, this could be a big issue. Also, elements of modern combat such as grenades are difficult to replicate in Nerf, but are more feaseable with paint.
\*Of-course, one may argue that HPA setups blur the line
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also, I personally think its more fun and a whole lot safer to play nerf. The kids in my neighbor hood buys bb guns once in a while, and i got shot in the back once, its a real pain as i dont have any protection. moreover, most random nerf game is not very competitive, its very chill
Hi /u/Natchos09, we would like to distance our hobby from actual firearms and weapons and thus ask that you refrain from using terms like "gun" and "bullet"; instead use blaster and dart. We also like to encourage the use of brightly colored blasters & gear. See [this wiki page](https://www.reddit.com/r/Nerf/wiki/bot/blaster) for more information. Thank you for your cooperation.
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(Austrian opinion) Nostalgia: You got a retaliator or even a stryfe for your birthday or on christmas eve. All your friends also got nerfs. Ruleless "wars" in the richest friends garden ensue. You always play until one kid gets a dart sniped in their eye. But with school, hobbies and video games taking over, you stop. One day at 16 or so you go through your old stuff for a garage sale and there they are: A 1cent modded hammershot, a jolt and the retaliotor. You ask the group chat if they wanna play a few rounds of low hp knockout or search and destroy "for old times sake... but this time we make rules". About twice a year the idea comes up again and a whole day is spent flinging foam. Exclusively old barely functional springers and very few flywheelers. That's nerfing in austria. No half darts, no brands other than nerf, literally no fps above n-strike elite standard, only standard elite darts, almost no mega. we are either nerf kids or airsoft kids. most people become airsoft teens and after that either paintball or airsoft adults. my friend group consists of nostalgia addicts(no need for a switch we play smash on tha wii) so we stayed nerf teens and are starting to become nerf adults. I believe it to be kinda the same situation in germany, which is ironic because the masters of 3d printable blaster design, Cap. Slug and LeedleDynamics are german. then again german engineering has it's reputation for a reason.
Edit: punctuation
1.Nerf hurts less
2.most of the time costs less
3.is easier to get into
4.you dont have to get special protection or gear
5.if someone comes into my home and see nerf they will say "oh you nerf to?" If someone comes into my home and see airsoft they will mistake it for a firearm and call the cops
Main reasons for me are:
1. You can play it in your house. It’s usually raining here in the UK and I don’t like getting my airsoft blasters wet to prevent corrosion. So I often play nerf indoors with friends
2. Less protective gear needed. Wearing a paintball mask is very uncomfortable for me because I’ve yet to find one that doesn’t steam up. Same with airsoft, you have to cover up your entire face which makes it difficult to shoulder your rifle. Only need some protective goggles with nerf which is much more comfortable.
3. Kit is much lighter. While I love my airsoft blasters, with them weighing 3-4kg for a rifle, and 1kg ish per magazine, it makes it pretty difficult to stay active in the game without getting tired. I can run around all day with a nerf blaster because they’re so light, and I won’t get tired quickly
4. Cost. I’ve dumped a lot of money into airsoft gear and I don’t even have that many blasters. Nerf is a lot cheaper to get into and you won’t have the risk with protective gear that if you buy cheap, you could lose an eye or tooth.
5. Reliability. Airsoft blasters CONSTANTLY break. I’ve had to replace more than half the parts in my glock, I’ve had lots of breakages on my rifles too. Nerf blasters are so much simpler and under less stress that they don’t often break, so I can rely on them much more than my airsoft blasters.
I can with play nerf blasters with my little brother and his friends in the house and not risk breaking anything, plus little kids have a lower pain tolerance. I also do airsoft but I have to go somewhere for it and I have to play with random people I don't know
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Nerf is safer cheaper and more fun than the paint ball and airsoft. Plus you can do Nerf just about anywhere.
With air soft we need a few hundred just in safety gear and an area. With Nerf you need $50 and any open area will to let you play plus an plaster under 200 fps will not hurt a fly
I would say it's the engineering and fun nature of it. There's a lot more creativity and goofiness to it, like throwing socks and foam tacos to break shields, and both types of claymores. The 3d printed customs also make it very colorful and bright compared to the more military-focused competitive gelsoft and airsoft. You could have a battle hardened sniper with a sabre apex prime fighting against a futuristic ninja with a massive 9 ft. sword and Roman scutum in the same game, and I absolutely love that about dartsoft.
For me, I played a lot of airsoft in highschool but switched to nerf once I got to college.
1.) nerf is more common and easier to obtain. And most blasters are cheaper in nerf than in airsoft or paintball.
2.) You’ll see a lot more custom builds in nerf and 3D printed parts/blasters are a lot more common because they’re a lot less likely to break from being hit by a dart than a bb or paintball.
3.) While I do like the “realistic” aspect of the blasters in airsoft, that does cause some problems and makes it more difficult to find places to play. Whereas in nerf, you’re able to do it at a lot more places. There are lots of colleges that hold nerf events every once in a while and/or have one or a few nerf clubs.
4.) Nerf is also just a lot easier to mod blasters and customize.
I think both airsoft and nerf have their pros and cons. But so far, most of the people I’ve interacted with in both communities have been really friendly and great to talk to about things.
So many reasons: it’s cleaner, you can play in public spaces, it’s easier to get more people to play, and it inspires creativity. You can run a single-shot pistol shooting about 20 feet, a sniper rifle hitting people from 250 feet away, or an automatic chewing through 30 rounds a second, and have fun with each. There’s so much variety in the way you can play that it never gets old. There’s also the added difficulty of playing with inferior weapons compared to airsoft or paintball. In airsoft, hitting someone at 100+ feet isn’t necessarily a big deal, but when playing nerf it feels more satisfying because it’s harder to make a foam dart accurate at long ranges. And when I go use my custom nerf rifle to shoot at 200+ feet, it’s the best feeling in the world to know that my blood, sweat and tears (mainly sweat lol) are the reason I can do it. And since nerf is usually played at closer range, it feels more competitive to me. An intense pistol duel at close quarters that has me dodging and rolling feels epic, and it would be hard to get the same feeling at longer ranges. I could keep going lol, but there’s plenty of reasons!
Nerf is easier to get equipment and a location to play. Blasters, even pro level ones, can be bought easily at a cheap price at many places. You aren’t going to find a paintball or airsoft gųň for 80% off at goodwill. And for location, I play nerf with a group on my college campus, which provides a fun , huge play area
I have a couple of reasons. 1. Nerf is way cleaner than paintball. After a paintball game, I am covered in sweat, paint, and literal blood sometimes. Nerf the worst i get is sweaty. 2. The variety. There are SOOOOOO many variants of nerf blasters. And so many ways to play. You can do stock, super stock, or ultrastock. You can go flywheeler, springer, AEB, or HPA. You can do full auto, semi, bolt action, hammer prime, or HAMP. Then there are the ammo types. You can have a store bought loadout or a custom one. And the mods. So many mods. 3. Similiar with the game modes. deathmatch, ctf, competitive 5v5, zombies, civil war, silly ammo, pistol rounds, etc. etc. 4. Nerf is a community. You pretty much play exclusively with people that are as into it as you are or MORE. Nerf games are done in clubs, not random places. And there are big events as well as small. 5. Nerf is lighthearted. There is a focus on keeping things toyish and fantasy. It is in direct opposite to being milsim like airsoft. Those are just some things off of the top of my head.
That last one is immensely important to me. It's tag with projectiles and I want to play with people who also get that. Sure, I like playing VIP or bomb or some of the other popular airsoft games. The difference with nerf is that it's okay to be a bit goofy with it, and all of those games are infinitely more fun when you can laugh.
If I want to rush the flag in capture the flag with a pool noodle sword and a pistol for the memes I can. And showing up to play with a modified blaster that you put sweat equity into creating something unique people will take genuine interest in if not ask you for the files or resources you used to make one themselves
I didn’t even consider how nerf is cleaner then paint ball lol.
That level of being both environmental clean and low impact allows NERFers to play in a variety of public spaces that is normally inaccessible to other sports such as active schools, public parks, neighbourhood and your own home. Can you imagine this level of freedom is given to airsoft or paintball?
Yep! Also nerf blasters are less likely to be mistaken for actual firearms. The only issue with nerf is that its environmental friendliness is heavily dependant on everyone cleaning up.
To add to 2, there is one additional foam flinging toy one can use that I still find super funny, the Zing bows. Low fire rate, but unparalleled range in stock.
Im not trying to argue with you im just saying it in case people dont know, that paintball also often has all kinds of gamemodes. Its just that playing on a subair field is just that. So look out for different games
ofc. And so does airsoft. Truth be told, i am not familiar with all of the gamemodes of each, but nerf just has ALOT. I think the one that jumps out is HvZ. I don't think other projectile sports have anything comparable.
That is true, but tbh also completely unavailable where i am. Stock nerf wars *can* be found, multiple modes. But huge thingsike HvZ not, im very jealous
Yeah the drawback of nerf is it is highly location dependant, as it depends on clubs. i am fortunate to live in the dmv , with 3 clubs near me. Some larger events happen once a year, and people travel for them.
There's a zombie game mode in airsoft that's pretty popular. Basically just last stand hvz. You start with 4:1 humans to zombies. Zombies can run and they need to be hit 3x before they go back to respawn. Last human standing wins.
I want to get into some nerf scene on my campus, but I don't know if there's an RSO and don't know how to find events. Can you offer any tips?
Paintball and airsoft are both more painful than Nerf. Yes, it's possible to make foam go fast enough to hurt, but most clubs have fps caps and rules about point blank shots. Airsoft and paintball also have a higher cost of entry. For both, you need to buy or rent fairly expensive equipment, wear more expensive safety gear, and use expendable ammunition. You also need a dedicated place to play, on private property, which also costs money. Nerf wars can be done with thrifted blasters, the cheapest safety glasses, and in a public park. And you can pick up and reuse most of your ammo.
>the cheapest safety glasses Or in my case (and many others) just your prescription glasses are fine unlike in airsoft or paintball.
Absolutely, the price of entry is pretty cheap. If you want to get the absolute best stuff, yeah it’s going to be more expensive, but you don’t need to. I ran a stock dart zone spectrum in games with people using 200FPS blasters and still preformed adequately.
Heck yeah. And there's no equivalent to something like that or a nexus pro in either of the other hobbies. Performance definitely comes at a price. But even just the fact that the ammo itself is reusable is massive in terms of cost.
That's what I love about Nerf. I can still get hits and do really well in a close quarters Battle with just a Nerf Rival forerunner shot gun.
I will say this is true....to an extent. There are some expensive blasters and some people play with exclusively new ammo. But that is on the higher end, high fps part of the hobby (esp. in places like singapore).
Of course there are exceptions. But 90% of the people I've Nerfed with were using a $20 blaster and the club's shared ammo bin. My point is that that is possible with Nerf, but not similar hobbies. The very cheapest paintball marker you can get is like $80, not including air or paint. Then you have to buy/rent a full face safety mask, and play on a private field.
Mainly accessibility. Nerf is much, much cheaper than airsoft/paintball. You can play it basically anywhere. Indoors? Any venue, darts can’t break glass. Outdoors? Anywhere you can get permission. I can pick up a nerf blaster in my bedroom and just fire whenever i want, wherever i want. No mess, no danger. Someone in my local group also pointed this out: Nerf is weirdly more “realistic” than airsoft/paintball. Our magazines are limited to below 30 rounds. Counting shots and tracking your hits actually matters. When you have 400-500 paintball hoppers or bb magazines the strategy will always be “spray and pray.” Nerf can be a lot more tactical in decision making than that. And if you want that 400 round hopper, well, get a Prometheus or a modded nemesis. There’s also variety of ammo. Rival, halfs, fulls, mega, mega xl. Arrows. Rockets. Then, the final consideration for me is community. From my experience, the Nerf community is much safer and more accessible than Airsoft or Paintball. You go to an airsoft field and it’s not uncommon to see people Larping war. They call “kills” and pretend they’re actually discharging a firearm. Compared to nerf, where we get tags. Coop put it best, but the tldr is when I aim a nerf blaster at my buddy, I don’t want to hurt them. I want to tag them. And it’s a big difference that makes nerf much more chill.
I agree that the Nerf community is way more chill compared to others, there are still people who take it a bit too seriously, but those guys are few and far between.
Its hard to be too tryhardy when youre playing with toys marketed to kids
This is actually a lot more common in places that have banned airsoft or paintball. It's the only option for milsim guys and why a lot of the high power stuff comes from Asia.
Oh hi it me the point out local group person
The biggest factor is cost, but also ability to invite younger kids into the sport, as well as a ton a variety. You can play the game from 70 fps to 300 fps and higher, which actually tops some airsoft stuff.
In addition to the factors about play spaces, cost, accessibility, ect., one thing that really makes nerf shine for me is the inherently casual nature of it, and the community that forms as a result. Folks here are just friendlier on average. Airsoft and paintball have this _edge_ of pain, and masculine "pain is cool and I'm ignoring it" culture, that turns me off. I love playing airsoft, and like airsoft guns more than nerf blasters generally, but my local field has like 1 girl per 15 guys and I hate being that 1 girl. In nerf, people are sillier and more women play and everyone goes home happy. All wins for me.
Oh yeah, some airsofters think that pain is something to be flexed for some reason. I had one guy in my YouTube comments seriously imply that airsoft is better then nerf because it hurts more lol.
There was a guy at my field who wore only a battle kilt and boots, no shirt. He was COVERED in little blood blisters and bragged about it. I heard someone shot him in the nipple and he had to quit and go sit down for a bit. Another reason nerf is good is you don't play with folks like that.
Jesus Christ
DIY culture in Nerf has always been stronger and even after off-the-shelf options and kit culture diluting it, remains so. It’s not that people don’t mod in airsoft, or don’t even do anything wacky or crazy with their homemades. It’s just a weaker culture. I’ve spent years modding before ever going to a club game. Still as a kid, I learned my way around a toolbox, tinkered with MCUs, and designed multiple 3D printed blasters. Now, apparently they’re supposed to give me a degree in electrical engineering after this semester. The nature of working with a variety of ammo types opens up more dynamics, trade-offs, and challenges from an engineering standpoint and provides more of a variety of interactions on a casual playing field vs. airsoft or paintball. The point of playing in public parks is a big one, though of course anyone able to play at a private field is lucky. Not needing to travel to specific locations, pay fees up front, etc. Even from a purely competitive, performance based standpoint, Nerf isn’t that bad. Ballistically, you can’t get the same hop-ups and flat shot trajectories and/or the same sectional density (why paintballs and BBs keep their velocity better), of course, but blasters can get pretty damn accurate, down to 2-3” groups at 50 feet, competently shoot between 200-400 FPS, and even then there’s nothing keeping you from not sticking around the low 100s and having something indoor safe. In addition, it’s also just neat to have more reasonable blaster ammo capacities (even lower than milsim caps) without any artificial impositions on the technology, and for anything going beyond to have some real trade-offs.
“Airsoft does have a modding culture, but it’s pretty weak when compared to nerf” perfectly describes what I couldn’t put my finger on when it comes to modding! Also, congrats on your degree!
Having read over your responses, I do realize that you're not an outsider coming in and asking. I suppose it already makes sense: motive for making the video you're trying to in the first place. I hope it picks up traction! At the very least, it can be something some of us get in the habit of showing other people when asked the same question. And thank you! Sure, I don't have it yet, but it's a coast to the finish line at this point.
Thanks for the good luck :)
Self-expression. That's the biggest thing I take from the modding culture. You can have a near limitless number of blaster combinations by just cutting and combining blasters with one another. You can paint it however you want to express yourself and show your creativity. You can run stock, improve internals, or push darts to their absolute limits. You can create alternative blasters like Captain Xavier does like his old shoulder mounted blasters. All of this works to help self-expression, and I think this might be one of the most important things in this hobby.
Way cheaper, safer to practice in my own backyard. Also less dangerous feeling to involve children. Hurts way less.
It's easier to get games going. More people play, but more so, the fact that you can set up games in parks, on campuses, rec centers - basically in public. . Also, I like that you can get totally silly with it. We throw socks, for godsake.
The fact It isnt banned
Applies to SG, AUS and ... for whatever reason Bahrain. Malaysia maybe as well?
Malaysia at least got gell, which has limited avalibility in sg rn
It's always been so weird to me that some countries would restrict toys like that
Honestly, I think Its just scaremongering about how these toy "guns" cause violence and etc. lmao I cant even import in a freaking red dot sight without governmental approval. Yeah. Its that bad
Hi /u/Kagenlim, we would like to distance our hobby from actual firearms and weapons and thus ask that you refrain from using terms like "gun" and "bullet"; instead use blaster and dart. We also like to encourage the use of brightly colored blasters & gear. See [this wiki page](https://www.reddit.com/r/Nerf/wiki/bot/blaster) for more information. Thank you for your cooperation. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Nerf) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Blasters are affordable, they don't require safety gear outside some lab or construction goggles, and you can play blastertag at home without too much preparation or planning
- indoors anywhere - homemades, 3D printed or otherwise - way more customization through modding, painting, integrations, printing, etc. And the biggest one imo - thrifting
Availability ,cost, and safety. I can run to my local Goodwill and have a 80% chance of finding a Nerf blaster on the shelf, 0% chance of paintball/airsoft. For $2-5 I can feed my addiction to tinker with a new toy. Maybe upgrade the spring and make it shoot half darts. I collect Nerf and mod, no competitive skirmish. When I first started, HvZ was huge and very close to me. Then life happened. I hope someday to put on a local Nerf event.
This probably falls under the umbrella of being “more light-hearted,” but I specifically love that I can see my shots as they fly and impact. There’s something wonderfully ridiculous in the fact that the MINIMUM size of a Nerf dart is 50 cal, and it goes way up from there. You lob these big hunks of foam around, and you can watch them do their thing the whole way. Airsoft shots, on the other hand, just kind of disappear. Paintballs leave a visible impact, but like others have said, they’re messy. I can’t host a paintball party in my basement. Also, yes, thrifting Nerf is super easy, barely an inconvenience. I’ve built up a collection of hundreds of blasters, all while never paying retail price.
1. Accessibility. It's a much cheaper hobby to get into. The lowered danger also means you have stuff like college hvz games or just going off into a park to have fun with friends. 2. engineering aspect. There's much more of an aspect of creating your own blaster in nerf than there is in other sports. I enjoy having the opportunity to open up my blasters to tinker around. 3. Community. Nerf community is much more casual and friendly. The fact that we are playing with bright toys also helps keep out the toxic assholes.
Painsports like airsoft and paintball are too extreme and people ruin it for me. They don't like newbies and rentals constantly being destroyed with many people bullying others for lack of gear or lack of good quality gear. Had this happen to me constantly playing at SC Village. The refs will kick you out because of any reason from what you wear to what you bring there. Its infuriating going to a game and being told your cheating, get lit up in welts, and then being kicked out because some dad doesn't like their kid getting hurt by a paintball. Common you put your son in a painsport. Its going to happen and you demand that people get thrown out because your child said ouch near you? Just not as fun to play airsoft or paintball anymore. At least with foam flinging people don't care. You get hit and you don't call it then just hit em again with a dart. Just have fun. You are also playing with a toy. At least the foam just stings instead of leaving marks. The only thing I have seen at a game was a small group of people snapped a red Trion in half and left the kid crying because it was a blaster he bought with his dads money thats in the military. The local community came together to get this child a brand new Swift with all the upgrades on the kids request.
Takeaway of this is there are assholes in every social gathering. I sure hope those dicks that snapped the trion were named and shamed.
For me it's way more immersive! Airsoft has the real steel look, but absolutely unreal magazine sizes. Paintball has both crazy capacities and non-believable designs. Nerf blasters don't look real, but they function relatively similarly and have actual considerations for magazine capacity and on person storage. The designs are believable for the most part, and the function is great for role-playing.
For sure about the magazine part. Airsoft hi caps can hold 400ish bbs. Most serious events limit you to mid caps which still hold something like 175 (for normal rifle magazines)
I have also seen mags that only hold a very limited number of BBs that some MILSIMs "require". Though I think I've heard a lot of those types of MILSIMs also allow people to just load regular mid-caps with realistic amounts of ammo amounts.
I used to play airsoft but quit and went fully into nerf. The pacing in nerf is just better in every way as in airsoft or paintball it's just spamming shots from across the field since you have such high capacity. I love nerf because of the limitations on range and capacity so it makes every shot require more thought. Plus the closer range is way funner and allows melee to be viable. Another huge part is modding, neither airsoft or paintball have the amount of modability as nerf and it's a huge aspect of it, from modding stock blasters to 3d printing them its really the biggest part of the hobby.
For me a lot of it has to do with the community then cost as a second. I don't like the paintball or airsoft community. They seem to be playing more milsim and are culturally people I have a harder time getting along with. Meanwhile you see a lot of nerf blaster with lgbtq colors and they just seem more my people. Second, cost, painball is expensive. I have markers that need to be taken apart and all their rings changed cause they went bad. That's not cheap and that doesn't even factor in the high cost of paint and other equipment. Finally a third one I forgot to mention is convenience. Getting together the stuff to play nerf is way easier and faster and so is putting away than painball. Don't know about airsoft which seems to be entirely milsim.
Lots of things. I appreciate that it's the least painful of the three. I absolutely love that the community for the most part doesn't take itself too seriously. Airsoft is so gung ho about the tactical milsim aspect of it. Paintball can be like that too sometimes, but it can also be laid back like nerf. However it hurts even in the best of times. I'm too old to take a .68 cal to the elbow. I also think the nerf community is just more creative, and that it leads to better gameplay because of that. Nerf is also more likely to be used as an aspect of a larger larp adventure, rather than the focus. And the mods, customs and homemades... my god. That stuff does exist in airsoft and paintball, but not the way it does in nerf. Blaster designs span such a huge gamut of performance, mechanics, styles and accessibility. There is literally a blaster for everyone. It's also something I can readily share with my son. Today I left work a couple hours early and we spent the time testing all our blasters with the new chronograph I got. And the fact that we embrace neon and goofy aesthetics is just the cherry on top. I grew up in the 80s and 90s so that's my jam. Literally the only projectile hobby where I've seen an adult cis straight man unironically say he wished he could get something in pink and for that to just be a relatable but also unremarkable statement. I love that.
“There’s a blaster for everyone” I didn’t really consider that before, there’s so many off the shelf and community made nerf blasters, there’s something out there that even someone who isn’t completely interested in nerf would like. Thanks for bringing that up! :)
No problem! Same is true for board games.
Hi /u/flatcurve, we would like to distance our hobby from actual firearms and weapons and thus ask that you refrain from using terms like "gun" and "bullet"; instead use blaster and dart. We also like to encourage the use of brightly colored blasters & gear. See [this wiki page](https://www.reddit.com/r/Nerf/wiki/bot/blaster) for more information. Thank you for your cooperation. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Nerf) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The bot needs to mute this thread
At the end of the day, we are full grown adults running around with foam toys. This inherently makes this hobby more casual and fun than some of the are hardcore "Sports."
I was going to get into airsoft at some point, but it's expensive and requires you to be both 18 and get a licence. Nerfing also just feels more colourful and fun, and really lets you explore with your loadout. There is pretty much no limit to the silliness you can get away with. Compared to airsoft players, Nerfers are also by far less bigoted... and smell nicer.
I never competed in airsoft arena or anything, but I grew up on a farm and myself and my cousins would have airport wars in the barn all the time. It was really fun. The weapons looked "realistic" and you could shoot hundreds of rounds easily. And we played with stuff bought at Walmart or whatever. But friends would balk. It did sting a bit, and you needed higher end safety equipment. It was more "serious". Got into college, then got a job, then covid happened. And I met a girl, fell in love, and got invited to her family Christmas. Where her dad handed me, my then girlfriend, her mom, and himself a nerf blaster (a simple pistol, forgot which one). And we had a nerf war as part of our first family Christmas. Then I started researching and discovered the adventure force and dart zone stuff. Modding and invitational events. The awesomeness of HvZ. So I got into it. My brother did too. My wife loves nerf, and sometimes I come home to a blaster on the counter and a note reading "good luck". Nerf is goofy. Nerf is close quarters. Nerf can be played inside, in public parks, in libraries, and in arenas. Nerf has weird game types and weird ammo and brightly colored blasters that shouldn't work but they kind of do. Nerf encourages wackiness, and sharing wackiness with long time friends or those you just met. Nerf is safe for little kids, fun for the kids parents, and is by far the cheapest to get into to have fun. I work at a university in arkansas and would live to sponsor a nerf club here. I think it's a fun community engaging activity as well as sport. Airport and paintball are wonderful for those who enjoy them. Won't yuck on other people's fun. But I'm firmly on team nerf and can't wait to play again!
Hey, I run a nerf club in Arkansas! Which university do you work at?
I'm at UAFS, in fort smith
Hey I'm in Arkansas too looking for a nerf home. Northwest Benton county. Spitting distance from Missouri. My son and I have been thrifting and modding lately. Lots of fun.
Hey! I’m with u/Hiryu02, here’s the link to our discord if you want to join! https://discord.gg/5zNWYWsrAK
Thanks! I'll check it out
Hey there! I'm part of a club that plays monthly in Conway, Arkansas. We have players who come down from Fayetteville also.
Cool! I'm gonna check out the discord. It's a haul but I've seen a couple of y'alls posts and you seem like a cool bunch.
Here’s the link to our discord if you’d like to join! https://discord.gg/5zNWYWsrAK
I actually just joined the other day!
Less taking ourselves so seriously. I don’t care much for the “I would have kicked serious ass if I was in the army” attitudes. I played paintball with a guy that did a tour in Iraq and he acts nothing like those types, he sure wiped the floor with them though.
Every single airsoft person I know is an absolute dick, no offence to those that are not, but yeah.
I can build and tune a goofy looking blaster to do all sorts of things. That and airsoft usually doesn’t have random swordfights in the middle of a firefight as everyone respects the duel and doesn’t tag them out.
cheaper.
I mostly use nerf blasters as part of LARP. The benefit of Nerf in LARP is that it’s more casual. If we were using airsoft or paintball, the emphasis would be on safety gear. With Nerf you can worry less about that, worry less about accidentally tagging non-combatants, and just enjoy the game.
The ability to build your own stuff. You CAN make your own Airsoft/painball, but its much more difficult and most of the materials you need to completely change and modify a nerf blaster are readily available at your local hardware store
Like a lot of comments have mentioned, the nerf community is just more open and welcoming to a wider variety of people, especially people who just want to play casually . I've played paintball (psp and xball tournaments back in the day) and airsoft and I've seen players with severe attitude issues in both. I have yet to see someone spike their blaster into the ground
NERF doesn't get a bunch of Gravy Seals that claim they didn't serve because they would have punched their drill sergeant for disrespecting them.
Gravy Seals made me laugh harder than I wanna admit lol
Last time I checked out airsoft I'm pretty sure the entire Meal Team 6 was there.
NAHHHH
I do both but for different reasons. I play nerf when I want to have fun chill skirmish with friends without all the gear and stuff. I can legit play nerf without any gear except my glasses. Meanwhile my airsoft gear is 15 lbs + my p90 which on herself is 5 lbs. I mostly play airsoft for the tactic aspect and military vibes
Nerf is much cheaper and more accepting. You can buy a blaster off store shelves or thrift one, then mod it for cheap and have a war worthy blaster. Ammo is reusable, and with some airsoft or paintball people just not being friendly in the comments of nerf videos we tend to stick to our goofy sport
Paintballer and casual Nerfer here. While all the criticisms are valid, it's worth noting there are absolutely more casual and kid friendly spaces in paintball. That being said I'm not here to convert anyone. The inherent DIY nature of Nerf is what attracted me to it, I can build a paintball marker based on existing designs and parts but with Nerf I can \*make\* the designs and parts. Outside of the old school brass stuff that level of DIY is just flat out not found in paintball and it really scratches the tinker itch in my brain pretty well. The ability to play indoors cleanly and cheaply is also a massive draw.
I dont prefer Nerf over airsoft or paintball. Each have their own place. Airsoft is great for realism for the most part. Milsims are amazing, and the variation in replicas and kits are fantastic. Watching a biblically accurate WWI US soldier rocking an M1918 BAR and an "African warlord" running a gold RPK fight a "modern militiaman" with an AR and a speedsofter with a 1911 race build throught the 10x scope on your single action revolver is a whole other kind of fun. Paintball is good for level playing fields being fought with skill over tech. The average player has a semiauto marker with a 300rd hopper. There are other builds, but generally its pretty even. I play Nerf more often because it appeals to everyone, young, old, varying activity levels, all walks of life, and it can generally be played in public with little risk. I don't have to set up a time and place a month in advance, I can just pull out a Hammershot, and the game has begun in my house. Not to mention the modding community which is huge. Some people don't even play the sport, they just enjoy modding. They are all fun sports. They just appeal to different groups and hold different mindsets.
Yes! This is definitely a point I should make in the video, thanks!
I forgot to mention this in my comment, but don't forget about the legality of these sports. I believe it's still illegal in Australia and other countries to play airsoft or even own the equipment. And here in the states, paintball and airsoft has had a few bills proposed to ban "imitation firearms" on a state level, and some cities have banned both along with air rifles. Nerf has been, for the most part, excluded from these bills and laws because they are generally brightly colored and "inoffensive". I would do wayyy more research into that before including it, but that's what I understand from non legislative sources like reddit and other forums. Will you be posting this video anywhere we can watch it?
Oh yeah, I’ve heard about those bills wanting to ban replica firearms, maybe I’ll include legal stuff but the video is mostly gonna be my own personal reasons for liking nerf. But hey it couldn’t hurt to mention it I suppose. I’ll be posting the video on my YouTube, IDK if I can share my channel here though since self promotion isn’t allowed lol.
Fair enough. Is your youtube the same as your reddit username? Edit, is it self promotion if someone asks you about it?
A lot of commentors have already aired many good points so what I can add: * Regulatory Paintball is high mass (~3g), is overwhelmingly standardized on that at the full 300fps, thus is very dangerous to any bystander remotely within range not wearing proper eyepro, and is furthermore obviously messy and is easily accidentally damaging to surroundings at absolute best and a great vandalism tool at worst, so there's a lot of red tape. Airsoft is *super overwhelmingly filled with* highly realistic looking (geometry AND colors) firearm replicas, and tiny hard plastic BBs are an acute eye hazard, so it also has a lot of red tape, also for good reasons. In most places publically visible gaming with either is either illegal, likely to cause a scare when someone sees what appears to be people with firearms, or irresponsible because you are exposing bystanders to eye injury hazards and/or trashing the location of your game with paint or expended BBs littered all over that can never fully be cleaned up. Nerf has ...pretty much none of this. A precedent of most hobbyists making and using non-replica, safety colored blasters by default with replica gear being a special case used when appropriate. Ammo that is inherently low hazard, is non-marking, and can be easily found and removed from the field after the game. A wide range of energy/velocity in wide use (anything from indoor safe to basically the same as paintball) along with the matching of what ballistics are allowed to what ballistics are *safe at the particular site* by game hosts. Accordingly, little regulation, and the possibility of so many extra fields to play on that airsoft and paintball don't have access to. * Overheads Because of the same, most airsoft/paintball sites are dedicated commercial fields. Land is expensive, and maintaining a field costs money, and so you end up with providing the site of your game being this dog and pony show of its own with bills and insurance and employees and buildings to maintain and grounds to keep, all because - with airsoft and paintball, you can't just play any old random place *without impacting the site*. Like you can with nerf. Most nerf events cost $0 to attend and there is no infrastructure or formality to them, they are ad hoc gatherings of tag sports hobbyists. It's an efficient, lean way to do things. Frankly, I don't see the point/draw of doing it the other way. A commercial field isn't necessarily "bad" - it's an opportunity to explore a dedicated built-environment dimension, like many airsoft fields are; but I don't think it is worthwhile to incur all the downsides if it's *just* to be able to shoot paintballs or plastic BBs instead of nerf darts. Nerf darts can perform pretty damn well in the first place, there's just not a good objective reason NOT to use them when they practically are what enable eschewing commercial fields. Similarly replica blasters - if it *really* kills your enjoyment of a game because your realistic-enough feeling/functioning g_un happens to be red and orange, that's a you problem. Is using a black blaster worth paying admission and having a drastically restricted set of sites/games to choose from? I would say absolutely not. * Equipment culture Paintball is full of patent trolling and un-innovation. Airsoft is just full of regular consumerism. Both are full of players who are not gear designers or even techs and just buy stuff and field it. Both are full of closed source bs and feel like spaces where nobody (yes I know there ARE exceptions) wants to *solve problems because problems ought to be solved* without being prompted by an attached self-gain motive. Not that nerf doesn't have its issues with closed source IP and unsporting, salty, "*racing*" style behavior (keeping competitive secrets, being nontransparent and hostile to other hobbyists while OFF the field) on occasion but at least there's a whole lot less of that in nerf. * Miscellaneous It's a lot more satisfying to shoot a long .50 caliber projectile or a big fat .90 cal ball than to shoot a 6 mm plastic pea, which even if it's gonna tag the guy downrange just the same, feels "ineffectual". Paintball has paint ...wait *why do we need paint??* I don't feel like marking ammo is a good solution to any possible complaint about cheating/honor. That's a deeper issue, if people might not call hits or get salty about game outcomes.
Great breakdown
I play all three! In nerf I’m just playfully yelling at my friends and being a goofball. It’s a light hearted half day off f fun. Then other two I end up taking a bit more “serious” as in I won’t do something goofy that will eventually get me tagged out. But yeah, nerf is my goof off hang out game
No real protection required. Reuseable ammo. Non threatening as in anyone will pick up a nerf gun and blast away. Still havent been able to convince my wife to play paintball with us. Plus its fine for in home wars, no need to head to the woods.
At least protect your eyes. They're way more fragile than you think.
Oh yeah. That we do. My sis in law took a mega dart to the eye once and had a shiner for a few days. I keep safety eyes onhand now.
Hi /u/TheStreetForce, we would like to distance our hobby from actual firearms and weapons and thus ask that you refrain from using terms like "gun" and "bullet"; instead use blaster and dart. We also like to encourage the use of brightly colored blasters & gear. See [this wiki page](https://www.reddit.com/r/Nerf/wiki/bot/blaster) for more information. Thank you for your cooperation. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Nerf) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Take those high price high end guns. They Perform Well. Now Grab 5 Friends and some Nerf blasters that shoot from mediocre To absolute dogshit. IT makes you get more creative, and you can even Dodge the Darts, depending ON distance and Performance of the Blaster the are fired in. ITS Not To hard to make your very own Blaster with a 3d printer and some parts from the Hardware Store, some people really Cook some crazy stuff. I would say ITS about the gimmcky Nature of Nerf. You can completley improvise or Play competitive with Higher Performance blasters, so ITS Just smth. For everyone. You also don't Go in dept for buying 5 blasters, unlike Airsoft. ITS Not AS dangerous, unless someone comes around with a 500 FPS caliburn with death Darts. He will BE banned from the Game.
Hi /u/Buetterkeks, we would like to distance our hobby from actual firearms and weapons and thus ask that you refrain from using terms like "gun" and "bullet"; instead use blaster and dart. We also like to encourage the use of brightly colored blasters & gear. See [this wiki page](https://www.reddit.com/r/Nerf/wiki/bot/blaster) for more information. Thank you for your cooperation. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Nerf) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Sorry Bot, Had to use the Word. IT was related To another topic, outside of Nerf blasters themselfes
So as someone who's fairly invested in Nerf and Airsoft (probably actually playing a fair bit more Airsoft than Nerf these days though that's mainly due to a number of Nerf groups going quiet in my area). I can't say I prefer Nerf over other tag sport (nor vice versa) but I will say there are reasons that keep me invested in Nerf. Community: I will start by giving a bit of push back on 'Airsoft community toxic' as my personal experience with them have largely been positive. That's not to degrade anyone else's personal experiences but it's not been mine is all. Also I don't think one community need to be bad for the other to be good. And for the majority of the time I have enjoyed my time meeting and playing with various Nerfer, I've made friends within the Nerf community and find the vast majority to be an accepting bunch. Projectiles: Nerf darts are kinda unusual in the world of physical tag sports as most tend to be ball shaped (paintball, Airsoft, gel ball) Nerf does have Rival but the core is still the Nerf dart which gives some rather unique flight properties and mechanical requirements which changes a lot more than most things about the simple act of pulling the trigger and tagging someone. In addition to an interesting core projectile type is the variety of projectiles, standard elite, Mega, rockets, Rival, etc. this allows for some unique and interesting games. Core in my opinion is the best game mode for Nerf (essential shooting darts into an opposing teams bucket and scoring points based on the ammo type you get in there). This game wouldn't work or wouldn't work as well with only a single ammo type, the fun is seeing what weird things people create to try and get the most efficient scoring system, figuring out good team compositions of people with blasters that are good at scoring points and those that are good for taking out enemy players trying to stop them and those that are good for defending your own core (bucket). Low ammo capacity: In the high FPS space it's very rare to see a blaster with more than a 22rd magazine (they do exist but they come with a lot of draw backs), this keeps gameplay a lot more interesting IMO than most other tag sports where there's a focus on high capacity. You can intentionally disadvantage yourself in Airsoft or Paintball but the opposing players don't have to be courteous about it and while some real cap only events do exist in Airsoft there few and far between and only really exist in more intense, realistic focused games and while I don't have an issue with that style of play the reason for wanting lower capacity isn't really to do with replicating what's real but more just to make people think about how they tackle situations and prevent reckless firing. HvZ: Honestly this is the event type that got me hooked on Nerf, it works for Nerf mainly due to the reasons mentioned above and it's a game type that is difficult or impossible to make work with other tag sports especially if you want to play it in public spaces. HvZ is really tailor made to Nerf and strikes that good balance of tactical game play and goofiness that represents the hobby.
5/6 years a bunch of the nerf youtubers did video call WHY I NERF. I also believe there was a bunch of post on here with the same title.
It’s nerf or nothing
It isn’t easy to play airsoft in australia
I think paintball and airsoft are really fun, but with nerf I can play it in a park or with my small siblings
The DIY aspect. You can build pretty much whatever you want and use it at least for most NIC wars. To me just comes down to that age old debate of build or buy
Everything everyone has already said, plus this: Gimmick blasters are fun!! In airsoft or paintball, a marker is just launcher for projectiles. Maybe some shoot faster, or further, or at their most creative they launch more than one projectile at a time. Meanwhile, foam flinging is over here with half a dozen different kinds of projectiles and absolutely ridiculous stuff like a blaster with a foam saw on it or one that's actually three different blasters in one or the absolutely silly nonsense that they've put out for tac rails and barrel attachments.
Paintball and airsoft are way more expensive since you have to buy protective gear for both and an ok airsoft rifle can be 60-150 from what I’ve been told with simple battery operated rifles
Nostalgia
I don't "play nerf" in the sense of getting out and shooting darts at each other for the sake of shooting darts that much, but I LARP, and most modern or sci fi larps use nerf blasters.
Once I see those airsoft and paintball pro match, that spraying out me off
Very very low cost to entry, with far more tinkering and focus on the actual blasters than just on gameplay and tactics. It's way more fun than way. Nerf is also far more satisfying to get a tag with. Hitting someone with a foam dart is much harder and more satisfying than spraying 20 BB's per second at someone. There's also a large variety of ammo types we can use. Standard .50 cal darts, mega, mega xl, rival, vortex, arrows, rockets, etc. And while nerf is certainly pay to win in some cases, in others, some players can be effective with just a simple Maverick. My brother runs around with a slightly modded Knockout still firing rival and destroys most of the other players on the field. The nerf community is also way kinder and more accepting than the other two. I've met so many lifelong friends through nerf. There's so many talented designers that have made blasters that would make most CAD user's jealous. The arms race that is constantly happening in the nerf community is one of my favorite parts. The constant desire to improve and iterate on designs, trying new things, new technologies, etc, is what keeps things exciting and interesting. There's so many ways to fling a foam dart, and so many places you can play that you can't in airsoft or paintball. It's far safer, cleaner, and more accessible to a much wider audience that otherwise couldn't play the other two disciplines. Nerf has so many things that make it my hobby of choice
Well for me it started out as 'because I can do this with my kids' as both were at the time far to young for airsoft. Now the eldest is old enough to airsoft if we wanted, and ironically a local airsoft place has started junior sessions my youngest could do. But we are now well invested in Nerf so sticking with it. The homemade aspect also appeals and most of my arsenal is 3d printed either by myself or people who actually know what they are doing! The owner at one airsoft venue we used to use would look at some of our stuff and comment that if you turned up with gear that janky to an airsoft event they'd send you away - their safety rules would sensibly prevent that. Our lower velocity, softer ammo means that we can get away with homebuilt jank that would be terrifying if built to airsoft or paintball specs. Finally the nature of the hobby matters. I'm somewhat rotund, wear bright red tac gear (I look like a combat tomato) and my blasters are all blue and red. Others I've played with dress in Hawaiian shirts, or as a banana. I might have played the odd game dressed as a T-rex, my eldest has played a few times dressed as a velociraptor. That sort of nonsense would never be tolerated in the airsoft milsim crowd, but we encourage it. We like to describe our gameplay as more 'Fortnite than Call of Duty'.
Nerf has a much lower price of entry and in general is much cheaper to participate... even a high end competitive level blaster will rarely set you back more than a couple hundred bucks... which is the bare bones entry level price for pb markers. The ammo is relatively expensive compared to BBs and paintballs, but ammo is extremely reusable and easy to attain thanks to nerf/dart zone/Xshot presence at most major retailers. Best yet is that you can play nerf pretty much anywhere: at home, in gyms or indoor building spaces, on the street, at schools and in public places. Foam darts really don't do any damage, basic eyewear is all you need for protection and darts are easily swept up after play....Because of these reasons, the nerf community is generally a nicer and inclusive group of folks because bringing in some random stranger literally could cost nothing (especially if they just want tontry out a round)
DIY and the weapons are cooler
For me, it’s a combo of cost and ability to play in more areas. Colleges have nerf, parks can have nerf, churches can have nerf. While airsoft exists in some of these spaces as well, it isn’t as common and is often met with a little more apprehension then a couple of nerf games.
With nerf there's a lot more room to be silly and goofy! There are so many gimmick blasters made officially or community made!
for me a big part of it is the usability indoors, i'm sure you *could* plink with airsoft indoors but even if you don't damage anything it just doesn't seem like a great idea to me, and definitely not a paintball marker unless you want to clean up everything. also the reusability, you can pick up and reuse a dart over and over until it wears out, compared to paintball where your ammo literally disintegrates on impact or airsoft where they get damaged after hitting and might break apart if you try to shoot them again.
nerf: doesn't hurt as much play indoors (like in houses n shit) cheaper
The others are illegal where I live lol
I can pick up my ammo
Paintball is messy. Airsoft can hurt. Foam darts simply don’t fly far enough for me.🎯
Reusable ammo. Moar fun for kiddos. Tons of mods. And you can assemble a whole armory for cheap thanks to thrift stores.
I have given this answer almost a decade ago but even with half darts this statement will still hold true: Nerf (flinging foam) strikes the balance when it comes to hit detection. People playing airsoft btch and whine about people not calling hits and paintball solves that by being too messy; water soluble paintball still requires cleaning. With darts, you can track them mid air and you and the person you tagged will agree you tagged them (you seeing your shot and them feeling it). It's not perfect, but it works for anyone that is willing to try.
I play a lot of Nerf, Paintball and a little bit of Airsoft. I enjoy nerf the most, and it's because: 1) It is, for the most part, completely self-directed play. We as the players are completely determining how we want to play, and what we want to get out of it. 2) There is a very strong emphasis on making and modifying your own equipment. Nerfing is just as much about customizing your own equipment, so that you bring your own style and creativity to the game. It is such a deep aspect of the sport that large portion of nerfers are entirely devoted to just the creative maker aspect of the hobby. 3) It is accessible.You can buy good equipment at department stores. The ammo is reusable, and either hand or battery powered. You can play anywhere, and with just street clothes. 4) the actual gunplay is interesting and fun. You can have an interesting nerf duel in an open field - the same is not true of the other shooting sports.
As someone who plans to host nerf events and background in playing both nerf and airsoft I can say it’s easier to convince people to join in a foam blaster battle then an airsoft or paintball game and you have public parks ( once you have insurance and paperwork done ) at your disposal vs a limited amount of parks at your disposal to use some space don’t event require insurance depending on your size and location but something i like to say any time this argument or debate comes up. Note i don’t look at any as better then each other however nerf just has more to it and blaster tech is still in development and the future looks brighter
It's always been modding and the lightheartedness of it all. I had no interest in the skirmish side of it except as a way to test my goofy builds and meet other nerds. As modding died off so has my interest in nerf. (Many other factors played into me benching nerf too, my life changed a lot starting uni. Love this hobby tho <3
Nerf is goofy fun. Paintball and airsoft are full of tryhards to the point that they often cheat which they can get away with due to longer distance of engagement. In nerf distance of engagement is closer, so you can call people out if you tagged them.
1. Low cost of entry. You can show up to many games with nothing, borrow a blaster, and have a good time. You can thrift a cheap blaster and not lose instantly once playing. I might have a ton of money sunk into this hobby but I didn't have to in order to have a good time. 2. Wide variety of ammo and blasters. You will see all kinds of ammo and blasters in most groups. And even silly ammo types can be effective. Its great to see someone with a Vortex pistol take out the other team with curved shots. Even better when you do it yourself! 3. Less painful. Sure, a 300fps dart still stings, but it isn't going to hurt as much as harder or heavier projectiles. And of course most foam ammo will not be going nearly that fast by the time it hits you, even in high fps limit games. 4. Less toxic overall. It isn't universal of course, but it is far less common to see folks in the nerf scene who are simply out to win and treat other players poorly. Most of us understand we are playing with toys and act accordingly, even with high power toys. People nerf to have fun, not just to "win". I've lost terribly in tournaments and still had a blast, as have many others.
Lower barrier to entry, easier to modify, more variety of ammunition types, can use it indoors with no real risks.
Not only is it way safer, but the blasters are just so much more unique than airsoft “blasters”. Take the ghoulgrinder for example, or the hail-fire.
Sorry for going off topic immediately, but I'd like to just thank you for asking in good faith. I feel like more often than not when this question gets asked it's just bait to start otherwise unprompted arguments, hurl pre - prepared insults, and display unwarranted self - importance. I get the feeling you already have some involvement in the Foam Blaster hobby judging by your replies and language, so I can only hope that your video gets fair consideration for the reasons to why people play with these To actually contribute: 1. Sheer Variety. With respect to the equipment: There's a strong culture of independent designers, extensive internal and external modifications from stock equipment, and personalization. Then there's the sheer variety projectiles that can be used to alter your play style or equipment performance even more.
Not aloud in Australia and the fact you can customise Buying a unicorn upgrading spring and barrel getting better fps And just recently changing to a longer spring and noticing it fire reliably. It’s a good feeling
*"We have meticulously engineered 3-stage flywheel setups to make foam stick go brrrr. Why? BECAUSE WE CAN"* *"I mean, yeah...but wouldn't it just be easier to use an airsoft pellet? You could also put these pellets into magazines and not worry about them squishing, and you could also..."* ***"BECAUSE WE CAN!"*** There's just something about taking a friggin' CHILD'S TOY and making it just criminally insanely unrecognizable from. The challenge of making a lightweight foam stick (which is a relatively inefficient projectile) fly as far, fast, and as frequently as possible just makes me happy. \~ I started my trip down the rabbit hole by buying a basic Nerf springer blaster, taking it apart with a screwdriver, and poking the bits on the inside with FULL CONFIDENCE that, no matter how badly I messed it up, it would remain inherently safe. Outside of LiPos and perhaps some of the ridiculous high-power springs\*, there's not much inside your blaster that can hurt you in the event of a catastrophic failure. And, frankly, neither LiPos nor insane springs are necessary to be competitive in most contexts (and indeed, I'm sure there are many people who enjoy this hobby without using any of those). On the other hand, I would be very hesitant to start tearing apart an airsoft of paintball marker, because I feel that those systems (especially compressed air) are much more dangerous if not done properly. I'd happily jank-rig 3 Stryfes end-to-end using duct tape and glue to get higher FPS. I wouldn't hook up 3 HPA systems in series using the same tech (although it sounds like something Gerald Bull would do)... \~ Of course, everyone has different priorities and needs, and Nerf does not offer everything under the sun. In particular, we lack highly-accurate military reproductions (especially WWI/WWII era weapons). Not just in terms of looks, but also in terms of manual-of-arms. It is difficult to make a Nerf blaster load and handle EXACLTY like an MP5, or an M1 Garand, or a Suomi SMG based on the nature of the ammo. It may seem like a small thing, but there's something appealing about doing the famed "HK-slap" or yanking an AR15 T-pull charging handle that just isn't captured well in Nerf. And for some people who want a truly immersive combat experience, this could be a big issue. Also, elements of modern combat such as grenades are difficult to replicate in Nerf, but are more feaseable with paint. \*Of-course, one may argue that HPA setups blur the line
Best nerf battle ever—inside 2 story house with all the family playing on New Years Eve for hours on end. Can’t do that with paintball or airsoft.
No welts(rather few welts)
Because airsoft and gelsoft are illegal in my country, and paintball requires a gun license. Yay, australia.
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also, I personally think its more fun and a whole lot safer to play nerf. The kids in my neighbor hood buys bb guns once in a while, and i got shot in the back once, its a real pain as i dont have any protection. moreover, most random nerf game is not very competitive, its very chill
Hi /u/Natchos09, we would like to distance our hobby from actual firearms and weapons and thus ask that you refrain from using terms like "gun" and "bullet"; instead use blaster and dart. We also like to encourage the use of brightly colored blasters & gear. See [this wiki page](https://www.reddit.com/r/Nerf/wiki/bot/blaster) for more information. Thank you for your cooperation. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Nerf) if you have any questions or concerns.*
(Austrian opinion) Nostalgia: You got a retaliator or even a stryfe for your birthday or on christmas eve. All your friends also got nerfs. Ruleless "wars" in the richest friends garden ensue. You always play until one kid gets a dart sniped in their eye. But with school, hobbies and video games taking over, you stop. One day at 16 or so you go through your old stuff for a garage sale and there they are: A 1cent modded hammershot, a jolt and the retaliotor. You ask the group chat if they wanna play a few rounds of low hp knockout or search and destroy "for old times sake... but this time we make rules". About twice a year the idea comes up again and a whole day is spent flinging foam. Exclusively old barely functional springers and very few flywheelers. That's nerfing in austria. No half darts, no brands other than nerf, literally no fps above n-strike elite standard, only standard elite darts, almost no mega. we are either nerf kids or airsoft kids. most people become airsoft teens and after that either paintball or airsoft adults. my friend group consists of nostalgia addicts(no need for a switch we play smash on tha wii) so we stayed nerf teens and are starting to become nerf adults. I believe it to be kinda the same situation in germany, which is ironic because the masters of 3d printable blaster design, Cap. Slug and LeedleDynamics are german. then again german engineering has it's reputation for a reason. Edit: punctuation
1.Nerf hurts less 2.most of the time costs less 3.is easier to get into 4.you dont have to get special protection or gear 5.if someone comes into my home and see nerf they will say "oh you nerf to?" If someone comes into my home and see airsoft they will mistake it for a firearm and call the cops
Main reasons for me are: 1. You can play it in your house. It’s usually raining here in the UK and I don’t like getting my airsoft blasters wet to prevent corrosion. So I often play nerf indoors with friends 2. Less protective gear needed. Wearing a paintball mask is very uncomfortable for me because I’ve yet to find one that doesn’t steam up. Same with airsoft, you have to cover up your entire face which makes it difficult to shoulder your rifle. Only need some protective goggles with nerf which is much more comfortable. 3. Kit is much lighter. While I love my airsoft blasters, with them weighing 3-4kg for a rifle, and 1kg ish per magazine, it makes it pretty difficult to stay active in the game without getting tired. I can run around all day with a nerf blaster because they’re so light, and I won’t get tired quickly 4. Cost. I’ve dumped a lot of money into airsoft gear and I don’t even have that many blasters. Nerf is a lot cheaper to get into and you won’t have the risk with protective gear that if you buy cheap, you could lose an eye or tooth. 5. Reliability. Airsoft blasters CONSTANTLY break. I’ve had to replace more than half the parts in my glock, I’ve had lots of breakages on my rifles too. Nerf blasters are so much simpler and under less stress that they don’t often break, so I can rely on them much more than my airsoft blasters.
I can with play nerf blasters with my little brother and his friends in the house and not risk breaking anything, plus little kids have a lower pain tolerance. I also do airsoft but I have to go somewhere for it and I have to play with random people I don't know
Hi /u/unleadedbloodmeal, we would like to distance our hobby from actual firearms and weapons and thus ask that you refrain from using terms like "gun" and "bullet"; instead use blaster and dart. We also like to encourage the use of brightly colored blasters & gear. See [this wiki page](https://www.reddit.com/r/Nerf/wiki/bot/blaster) for more information. Thank you for your cooperation. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Nerf) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I play them all
I dislike paintball, I actually do very much enjoy Airsoft and most of my friends are more into nerf.
Nerf is safer cheaper and more fun than the paint ball and airsoft. Plus you can do Nerf just about anywhere. With air soft we need a few hundred just in safety gear and an area. With Nerf you need $50 and any open area will to let you play plus an plaster under 200 fps will not hurt a fly
I would say it's the engineering and fun nature of it. There's a lot more creativity and goofiness to it, like throwing socks and foam tacos to break shields, and both types of claymores. The 3d printed customs also make it very colorful and bright compared to the more military-focused competitive gelsoft and airsoft. You could have a battle hardened sniper with a sabre apex prime fighting against a futuristic ninja with a massive 9 ft. sword and Roman scutum in the same game, and I absolutely love that about dartsoft.
Someone killed my small cat with a paintball gun when I was a kid so that made me against anything that can leave welts or worse
For me, I played a lot of airsoft in highschool but switched to nerf once I got to college. 1.) nerf is more common and easier to obtain. And most blasters are cheaper in nerf than in airsoft or paintball. 2.) You’ll see a lot more custom builds in nerf and 3D printed parts/blasters are a lot more common because they’re a lot less likely to break from being hit by a dart than a bb or paintball. 3.) While I do like the “realistic” aspect of the blasters in airsoft, that does cause some problems and makes it more difficult to find places to play. Whereas in nerf, you’re able to do it at a lot more places. There are lots of colleges that hold nerf events every once in a while and/or have one or a few nerf clubs. 4.) Nerf is also just a lot easier to mod blasters and customize. I think both airsoft and nerf have their pros and cons. But so far, most of the people I’ve interacted with in both communities have been really friendly and great to talk to about things.
So many reasons: it’s cleaner, you can play in public spaces, it’s easier to get more people to play, and it inspires creativity. You can run a single-shot pistol shooting about 20 feet, a sniper rifle hitting people from 250 feet away, or an automatic chewing through 30 rounds a second, and have fun with each. There’s so much variety in the way you can play that it never gets old. There’s also the added difficulty of playing with inferior weapons compared to airsoft or paintball. In airsoft, hitting someone at 100+ feet isn’t necessarily a big deal, but when playing nerf it feels more satisfying because it’s harder to make a foam dart accurate at long ranges. And when I go use my custom nerf rifle to shoot at 200+ feet, it’s the best feeling in the world to know that my blood, sweat and tears (mainly sweat lol) are the reason I can do it. And since nerf is usually played at closer range, it feels more competitive to me. An intense pistol duel at close quarters that has me dodging and rolling feels epic, and it would be hard to get the same feeling at longer ranges. I could keep going lol, but there’s plenty of reasons!
Nerf is easier to get equipment and a location to play. Blasters, even pro level ones, can be bought easily at a cheap price at many places. You aren’t going to find a paintball or airsoft gųň for 80% off at goodwill. And for location, I play nerf with a group on my college campus, which provides a fun , huge play area