I'd like to advocate that Toribash, in its current state, is not a scaleable game (meaning that as the player base gains the potential to grow, the game will become unsustainable and uninteresting). I've been thinking about this subject a little recently and would like to express my thoughts to the community and its developers in the form of this topic.
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• Top 10 Steam games

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  Toribash's current approach to customisation is, for one, by the use of customisable textures. I decided to compare this to the top 10 games currently being played on Steam, Toribash's platform of choice: of these games, only one of them - also the oldest game out of the 10 - uses customisable textures. That game is Team Fortress 2 (TF2). TF2 allows users to upload custom "sprays" and paint them, for example on walls. While this may appear an innocent and fun concept, there is no sense of moderation in this area, and games were (and possibly still are) congested with inappropriate sprays including, but not limited to, distracting images and pornography. Toribash has an age rating of 13 ("Teen") from ESRB, and Steam requires a user to be 13+. The definition of a "Teen" rating is as follows:
  
  
  Originally Posted by http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.aspx

  TEEN
  Content is generally suitable for ages 13 and up. May contain violence, suggestive themes, crude humor, minimal blood, simulated gambling and/or infrequent use of strong language.

  
  No mention of sexual content such as the inappropriate textures that would inevitably be uploaded by users if the game were to grow. This would require a "Mature" rating, requiring users to be the age of 17 or above. This significantly limits Toribash's potential player base, as many of its players are young (just look at the Discord server).
  
  How can this issue be resolved for the release of Toribash Next (TBN)? Of the top 10 games on Steam (listed above), 8 out of 10 of those (Grand Theft Auto V and Football Manager 2019 excluded) use a predefined skin system. This is also present in other prevalent (and top grossing) modern video games, such as Fortnite, Overwatch, League of Legends and Destiny. Especially in third person games, where players can constantly see their character - League of Legends and Fortnite included - these systems are incredibly popular with players. When a player is in a game of Toribash, they are constantly looking at their Tori, thus making appealing skins coveted items. For this reason, I believe that Toribash would greatly benefit from a skin system, to replace the current texture system.
  
  TL;DR: Replace the texture system with a predefined skin system, because people will abuse it. Not to mention, the current system greatly enables texture theft, plagiarism and scams.
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• The next issue is one that I've seen complained about multiple times but has been brushed off as "just the way the game is": the matchmaking system (or lack thereof). Despite the arguable stubbornness of developers relating to this, it needs to be changed. Let's take a look at, as a comparison, the Player vs. Player game mode selection screen for Destiny 2:
  
  

  Destiny 2

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  Options 1, 2, 3 and 5 are matchmaking (majority!).
  Option 4 is a private game (comparable to Toribash's current "servers" setup).
  When compared to that of Toribash (below), Destiny's selection screen offers players matchmaking for the most part, with understandable descriptions when they're hovered over. I will cover why I think that this is a superior screen, and why that of Toribash should hold more focus on matchmaking:
  
  As a previous member of the Help Squad, I found that a lot of new players are confused when they realise that they need to wait in between every single one of their games. In 2019, that's not the way that people want to be playing games; people want fast, action-packed gameplay... not sitting around chatting with the "community" (that we love so dearly that we're stuck with old forums and game setups). This is Toribash's mode selection screen:
  
  

  Toribash

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  Scenario: Let's say that I'm a new player. I see this screen, and the biggest box is Free Play. Great, I'll click that. ...Oh, I'm in Single Player with no idea of what to do, my enemy isn't responding to my moves. This game sucks.
  
  If the new player hasn't already given up and uninstalled the game, he'll move along to the next option: Ranked (the matchmaking system that all modern games use, finally!) - oh wait, that one's only for brown belts and above. Toribash has long had an issue with new players not sticking around, but why would they, if all they have is singleplayer and a confusing-looking server list that forces them to wait for minutes - or hours - for a game? Looking at a range of popular games: Fortnite, Overwatch, League of Legends, Counter-Strike, Dota and Rainbow Six Siege (the list goes on), it's clear that modern players of multiplayer games want to be able to quickly queue up and be matched against someone, or some team. For this reason, I believe that TBN should place much more focus on matchmaking. Ideally, completely remove the queueing system that is present in all games, except for perhaps betting servers and so forth.
  
  I understand that the developers have expressed that games with more Toris and Ukes present will reduce queue times, but not everybody wants to rely on their teammate(s), and who even knows if that idea will take off?
  
  TL;DR: Replace pretty much everything with a matchmaking system, so that players don't become bored and lose interest. Side note: include a game mode with some fun mods! Personally, I don't want aikido all the time. Throw in some stupid mods wherein players can actually focus on fun instead of being competitive.

I'm going to respond to this post with more criticisms - I have a couple in mind - but please do leave feedback etc.

Bit of a rant