Well...first off, games are 'entertainment', not real life. The game developers make money only if people are being entertained. Being killed off in the first 10 days is certainly not entertaining.

If this sort of attitude is allowed to run rampant, then soon the game will be nothing but sharks, and the life-blood of any game is actually the little fish.

I no longer play s2 because of an incident 2 days ago, in which I sent a friendly 'hi neighbor' mail to several of my neighbors, and one of them responded with an immediate wave of attacks and a demand that I launch an all-out attack on another of my neighbors within 10 minute's time. I refused, partly because I couldn't comply (my main army was already out plundering an inactive 45 minutes out) and partly because I don't attack simply because someone demands it with no explanation. So, I teleported my 3 cities to random locations...and this player then had his alliance declare war on mine. To protect them, I quit the alliance and also the game, as I was told clearly in both game mail and outside IM's that my account will be 'annihilated' and that I will be hunted down and destroyed no matter where I go. I wasn't even 10 days old, and all of this because I was just trying to be cordial.

Definitely not the kind of atmosphere I'm going to recommend my friends play in...too bad, since I have a core group of about 20 gamer friends, and we tend to join the same games.