I don't really understand the word "nerf" as being thrown around without meaning. It has a very specific meaning. When something is "nerfed" it becomes lesser. It is the opposite of "buffed". It's not like people are confusing the words "nerfed" and "buffed" and you can't tell what you're talking about 0_o

I'd also like to add in that I was very confused what this snippet article was about initially, but after reading it twice I see it's a link to a blog post on another website talking about grinding.

Words that are thrown around with little definitive meaning in the MMO-sphere: "over saturated", "out dated", "under represented". The word grind has a definite meaning. You can point at something and say hey, that thing is a grind, and everyone else will say, yeah you're right. It's the unquantifiable phrases that are "essentially meaningless", and that's because they never had any meaning in the first place.

All MMO games have grinding. Grinding is the process of working at something in order to achieve something else. Do you grind your job? No, because a job isn't supposed to be a leisure activity. Grinding involves working during leisure activities in order to enjoy your activity. It also involves not enjoying the journey. Running up a mountain to see the sun rise could be considered a grind if you did it every single day up the same path and the weather never changed and there was no other way up to the top of the mountain and you really want to see that sunset and you don't mind running you just find it mind numbing and it takes up time you'd rather spend at the top of the mountain. Time invested doing monotonous task during leisure time equals reward = grind.