hmm.
I suspect a few trolls were alt accounts of 'invested' players just blowing off steam.
In fact Scroll wars was full of them. That was just the way it went.
As to new players being intimidated by loud mouth idiots, I guess it did figure into the way they saw the game, but thats not the only reason people did not stay. For mew playets, it is a bewildering enviroment, no clear aims, no real ability to attack, (pre Npc mobs), and having to go to a forum to find out information is too much trouble for someone who wants to just play. They wander around, use up ap searching for something to use, then run out of ap and quit.
Its what I did in 2012-13. It took me a long time to get used to the short bursts of hunting, then hiding.
People tend, or tended to talk in group chat. The game seemed fairly empty, even though it was actually highly populated, and kinda confusing.
TLDR
Hr is awesome, but only after you get a feel for it.
Mileage may vary is apt. lol.