What does ''balancing'' mean?

[Donald]

People talk about nerfing guns to ''balance'''the game.
What the heck does that even mean?

[N!chola$]

Balancing: offset or compare the value of one thing with another.

[ItsAngel]

A nerf is part of balancing which N!chola$ already defined for you. Nerf - "a nerf is a change to a game that reduces the desirability or effectiveness of a particular game element."

[Joeyaudi1]

People talk about nerfing guns to ''balance'''the game.
What the heck does that even mean?

It means that to be able to balance the game a nerf was needed, the game was unbalanced, a nerf for specific guns balanced it in comparison to weaker guns, this way it was made harder for OP guns to kill which made a consequence of giving weak players a chance of winning in PK and spar with skill, as if weak players with cheap guns can rely on skills as for pro players can rely on their OP guns and lack of skills to balance the gameplay, if course there are unskilled players with weak guns and skilled players with OP guns, though skill after that nerf made it harder for those OP players and at the same time easier for the noobs.
In conclusion balancing the game doesn't require to buff and nerf guns at the same time if the guns that got nerfed were already buffed. In the end players were affected, some positively and some negatively, it's like taking from the rich and giving to the poor, the rich will get mad but it's for the benefit of everyone else.

[Amazing Ace]

Balancing in terms of games means making the gap between a new player and an experienced player smaller in order to make the game more appealing for new players and more competitive for experienced players. Balancing takes many forms, aka gun balances.