For me, the strongest point of Mordhau is how it enables to create and play according to own style. Mordhau's customization options are broad, and they are not hidden behind paywalls. One is free to experiment with minimal restrictions and shape playing style according to personal fantasies and desires, allowing to craft an individualized experience. However, this freedom to create one's own experience means that Mordhau does not provide a definite experience by itself, instead requiring players to create their own with the tools provided. Mordhau provides the bare bones basics of a multilayer game whilst featuring in-depth fighting mechanics, a wide variety of medieval weaponry, and a king-sized garderobe of cosmetics to enable all kinds of roleplay. Consequently, everyone's experience in Mordhau will be unique. I would like to share my own Mordhau experience.

I migrated to Mordhau from another game of the same genre: "Chivalry: Medieval Warfare." When Mordhau was first announced, I was very excited about its promises of polished fighting mechanics and unprecedented customization options. These promises directly targeted Chivalry's weak points. Back then, I imagined Mordhau to be "Chivalry, but better." This was a misjudgment, since I failed to consider Chivalry's strong points, which were plenty. This misjudgment consequently led to initial disappointment in Mordhau.

Mordhau delivered on every promise better than I anticipated: its melee weapon systems were refined, and there were more available customization options than eyes could observe. I was very happy and spent hours creating virtual knights and learning new mechanics. Nevertheless, as novelty began to wear off, I started to notice missing things which I took for granted in Chivalry. For instance, map objectives did not have context behind them. In Chivalry, objectives were 'capture the village and kill the peasants," "use balistas to destroy ships with enemy reinforcements," "break through barricades and kill the royal family," etc. In Mordhau, you had to "capture the point," "kill an NPC," along with other basic multiplayer objectives. To further contrast the two different approaches, here's a comparison of the "push the cart" objective: In Mordhau, one simply had to push a cart from point A to point B. In Chivalry, one had to push an explosive petard to blow up city gates, deliver a cart full of plague-ridden bodies to the enemy's water supplies, bring a battering ram to guarded castle gates, and so on. Technically, it's the same objective: stand next to a moving point until it arrives at a predetermined destination. However, objectives in Chivalry felt engaging, immersive, and epic due to the context surrounding them. In Mordhau, objectives were implemented on a basic technical level, making them abstract, boring, and unengaging.

Contextual objectives were not the only missing feature. Mordhau maps weren't as atmospheric, complex, and beautiful as Chivalry's, musical compositions felt bland and unexciting in comparison; and voice lines were not as charismatic. Worst of all for me, there was no sense of unity in teams. Chivalry's combat mechanics were cumbersome and rigid, which forced players to stick together in order to overpower enemies with numerical superiority. Everyone had each other's back, and there was a strong sense of community. It seems there were hidden positives to having unwieldy fighting mechanics. This said, I still enjoyed Mordhau's mechanics more. Even though Mordhau's refinement and movement speed allowed people to go about by themselves, which made battlefields very chaotic, where everyman fights for himself.

Mordhau could not offer a well-crafted experience like Chivalry did. I felt like Mordhau could offer only a bland, typical multilayer game experience one may find in games like "Battlefield" or "Call of Duty." My friend summarized this feeling perfectly with: "It's basically like any modern FPS game with 64 player conquest maps, but with swords instead of guns". I felt disappointed, but I did not give up on the game. I loved fighting mechanics and customization, but I felt like massive battlefields were a massive letdown. I decided to focus on the things I loved about Mordhau and moved to play duels, where I could focus on character customization and fighting.
When escaping a tyrant, you escape to a desert. When escaping disappointment from massive battlefields, I escaped frustration from competitive dueling. Ranked dueling was stressful and infuriating. After each round, ranking points were either added or subtracted. One could have risen or one could have fallen any round. Defeats were taken personally, and victories bred a fear of losing. On one hand, under dueling conditions, I could utilize the best parts of Mordhau to their fullest extent. On the other hand, dueling was so stressful that I could not enjoy these parts. The game made me unreasonably angry and sad. At one point, I realized: "Even winning isn't fun." "I try to win only to prevent myself from feeling angry." After this realization, I decided not to waste my time being mad at the game. Instead, I decided to learn from it—from the anger Mordhau sparked in me. My line of thinking was: "If I can't use this game for fun, I will use it for learning." "It makes me mad, so I can practice staying calm under stressful stimuli, such as competition and hostility." I had all the tools at my disposal. Mordhau allowed me to create my own style, which fit my goals.

The style I sought depended on striking a balance between various factors. I designed my warrior to be weak enough to put me at a major disadvantage in front of enemies, but strong enough to give me a reasonable chance of winning. The reasoning was: "I don't want to focus too much on victory, but I also don't want to be too demotivated to fight." I dressed my warrior in clothing that provided no armor and had bland colors. Nontheless, I attempted to put clothing together with a sense of style and a pleasant color scheme. The reasoning was: "I don't want to focus on the looks of my warrior; I don't want it to affect my gameplay." If I make my clothing too fancy, I will think too much about my looks. "If I make my clothing too sloppy, my opponents will not take me seriously or think I am trying to be provocative." And so, I created an old man armed with a quarterstaff and dressed in a dim cyan tunic. This character fit perfectly to my playstyle and goals.

From this point on, I began my journey. I focused on my internal self-development, using Mordhau as a tool. All my rank-points were taken away, and I descended to the bottom; to "Unranked" status. There I stayed for many days, playing as an old man with a stick. And I mostly enjoyed it. Every round was victorious, regardless of "winning" or "losing" the game. My victory condition was to learn more about the frustration I felt. And with each round, I learned a little more. Without caring about some "virtual rank," I could allow myself to lose. By allowing myself to lose, I allowed myself to experiment, take greater risks, be silly, and do things I just felt like. Without rank obsession, most of the frustration went away. This was my first observation: "Most of the frustration came from the attachment of value to ranks." The higher, the more desirable. When rank is taken away, it causes major frustration. Many others came later. I spend hours and hours having fun, meeting new people, and learning new things.

Mordhau allowed me to create an experience I greatly enjoyed and learned from. My initial mistake was to assume Mordhau would provide an experience similar to Chivalry. Instead, it allowed me to create my own. It took time to understand what I wanted, but after I discovered it, I was able to bring this experience to life. And it felt fantastic. I am sure anyone can craft their own individualized, cool experience in Mordhau. But for that, one must know own desires.

For me, the strongest point of Mordhau is how it enables to create and play according to own style. Mordhau's customization options are broad, and they are not hidden behind paywalls. One is free to experiment with minimal restrictions and shape playing style according to personal fantasies and desires, allowing to craft an individualized experience. However, this freedom to create one's own experience means that Mordhau does not provide a definite experience by itself, instead requiring players to create their own with the tools provided. Mordhau provides the bare bones basics of a multilayer game whilst featuring in-depth fighting mechanics, a wide variety of medieval weaponry, and a king-sized garderobe of cosmetics to enable all kinds of roleplay. Consequently, everyone's experience in Mordhau will be unique. I would like to share my own Mordhau experience. I migrated to Mordhau from another game of the same genre: "Chivalry: Medieval Warfare." When Mordhau was first announced, I was very excited about its promises of polished fighting mechanics and unprecedented customization options. These promises directly targeted Chivalry's weak points. Back then, I imagined Mordhau to be "Chivalry, but better." This was a misjudgment, since I failed to consider Chivalry's strong points, which were plenty. This misjudgment consequently led to initial disappointment in Mordhau. Mordhau delivered on every promise better than I anticipated: its melee weapon systems were refined, and there were more available customization options than eyes could observe. I was very happy and spent hours creating virtual knights and learning new mechanics. Nevertheless, as novelty began to wear off, I started to notice missing things which I took for granted in Chivalry. For instance, map objectives did not have context behind them. In Chivalry, objectives were 'capture the village and kill the peasants," "use balistas to destroy ships with enemy reinforcements," "break through barricades and kill the royal family," etc. In Mordhau, you had to "capture the point," "kill an NPC," along with other basic multiplayer objectives. To further contrast the two different approaches, here's a comparison of the "push the cart" objective: In Mordhau, one simply had to push a cart from point A to point B. In Chivalry, one had to push an explosive petard to blow up city gates, deliver a cart full of plague-ridden bodies to the enemy's water supplies, bring a battering ram to guarded castle gates, and so on. Technically, it's the same objective: stand next to a moving point until it arrives at a predetermined destination. However, objectives in Chivalry felt engaging, immersive, and epic due to the context surrounding them. In Mordhau, objectives were implemented on a basic technical level, making them abstract, boring, and unengaging. Contextual objectives were not the only missing feature. Mordhau maps weren't as atmospheric, complex, and beautiful as Chivalry's, musical compositions felt bland and unexciting in comparison; and voice lines were not as charismatic. Worst of all for me, there was no sense of unity in teams. Chivalry's combat mechanics were cumbersome and rigid, which forced players to stick together in order to overpower enemies with numerical superiority. Everyone had each other's back, and there was a strong sense of community. It seems there were hidden positives to having unwieldy fighting mechanics. This said, I still enjoyed Mordhau's mechanics more. Even though Mordhau's refinement and movement speed allowed people to go about by themselves, which made battlefields very chaotic, where everyman fights for himself. Mordhau could not offer a well-crafted experience like Chivalry did. I felt like Mordhau could offer only a bland, typical multilayer game experience one may find in games like "Battlefield" or "Call of Duty." My friend summarized this feeling perfectly with: "It's basically like any modern FPS game with 64 player conquest maps, but with swords instead of guns". I felt disappointed, but I did not give up on the game. I loved fighting mechanics and customization, but I felt like massive battlefields were a massive letdown. I decided to focus on the things I loved about Mordhau and moved to play duels, where I could focus on character customization and fighting. When escaping a tyrant, you escape to a desert. When escaping disappointment from massive battlefields, I escaped frustration from competitive dueling. Ranked dueling was stressful and infuriating. After each round, ranking points were either added or subtracted. One could have risen or one could have fallen any round. Defeats were taken personally, and victories bred a fear of losing. On one hand, under dueling conditions, I could utilize the best parts of Mordhau to their fullest extent. On the other hand, dueling was so stressful that I could not enjoy these parts. The game made me unreasonably angry and sad. At one point, I realized: "Even winning isn't fun." "I try to win only to prevent myself from feeling angry." After this realization, I decided not to waste my time being mad at the game. Instead, I decided to learn from it—from the anger Mordhau sparked in me. My line of thinking was: "If I can't use this game for fun, I will use it for learning." "It makes me mad, so I can practice staying calm under stressful stimuli, such as competition and hostility." I had all the tools at my disposal. Mordhau allowed me to create my own style, which fit my goals. The style I sought depended on striking a balance between various factors. I designed my warrior to be weak enough to put me at a major disadvantage in front of enemies, but strong enough to give me a reasonable chance of winning. The reasoning was: "I don't want to focus too much on victory, but I also don't want to be too demotivated to fight." I dressed my warrior in clothing that provided no armor and had bland colors. Nontheless, I attempted to put clothing together with a sense of style and a pleasant color scheme. The reasoning was: "I don't want to focus on the looks of my warrior; I don't want it to affect my gameplay." If I make my clothing too fancy, I will think too much about my looks. "If I make my clothing too sloppy, my opponents will not take me seriously or think I am trying to be provocative." And so, I created an old man armed with a quarterstaff and dressed in a dim cyan tunic. This character fit perfectly to my playstyle and goals. From this point on, I began my journey. I focused on my internal self-development, using Mordhau as a tool. All my rank-points were taken away, and I descended to the bottom; to "Unranked" status. There I stayed for many days, playing as an old man with a stick. And I mostly enjoyed it. Every round was victorious, regardless of "winning" or "losing" the game. My victory condition was to learn more about the frustration I felt. And with each round, I learned a little more. Without caring about some "virtual rank," I could allow myself to lose. By allowing myself to lose, I allowed myself to experiment, take greater risks, be silly, and do things I just felt like. Without rank obsession, most of the frustration went away. This was my first observation: "Most of the frustration came from the attachment of value to ranks." The higher, the more desirable. When rank is taken away, it causes major frustration. Many others came later. I spend hours and hours having fun, meeting new people, and learning new things. Mordhau allowed me to create an experience I greatly enjoyed and learned from. My initial mistake was to assume Mordhau would provide an experience similar to Chivalry. Instead, it allowed me to create my own. It took time to understand what I wanted, but after I discovered it, I was able to bring this experience to life. And it felt fantastic. I am sure anyone can craft their own individualized, cool experience in Mordhau. But for that, one must know own desires.