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Other than the skill ceiling and toxic aspects of the community, the biggest obstacle to new players is the purchase option of a 30$ multiplayer only game that offers no guarntee that players can learn and enjoy the (to most people) new and complex melee combat. Mordhau was probably the riskiest (and most expensive) game purchase I've made in 2019 due to not being an experienced chiv player. (sub 50 hours, mostly archer, stopped after the low level servers) But after purchasing the game and spending a dozen or so hours learning the basics in the first few months of release, I fell in love and am now a mid level player that just hit lvl 80+. Mordhau is fast becoming my 2nd most played game.
A great way to stimulate the playerbase is to essentially allow players to demo the game, try out the combat, and maybe get hooked enough to purchase the game for good in an official and meaningful way. Most people do not want to purchase a game and try to time themselves and refund after 2 hours, because 2 hours isn't enough time to and/or because of a fear of wasting their cash and not being able to refund.
Rising Storm 2 Vietnam is a great comparison here, which does essentially the same thing and faces the same problems of a high skillcap game which is multiplayer only. They do periodic free weekends and sales and it helps tremendously to reinvigerate the playerbase in 2 ways.
People can install and try out the game risk free for a weekend and determine whether they want or are able to invest enough time to get good enough to play consinstetly and casually.
Apathetic community members who know the game will be filled with more players will get back on, if only for the sadistic desire to kick new players sh*t in.
An alterantive would be to release the tutorial and maybe offline bot matches as a free demo accessbile and installable at anytime, which would allow hesitant players to get a grip on the basic of combat before diving into the community gameplay.
We can't let Mordhau die like Chiv did, it deserves so much more than that.
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