my question: is player -killing any player who has not knowingly been declared an enemy and for no other reason because he/she is weaker than you and unable to defend themselves because of basic errors in the game in any way fair?

This is a massively multiplayer online real time based strategy game set with a medieval theme. Indeed, on the beginner tutorial, it states that Evony is highly popular because it is a persistent world. It also points out very clearly that the game is for you to control your kingdom and manage its affairs through building, gathering, researching and laboring while you're away as well as complete quests, attack NPC's and rival players, create alliances, etc. It is very clear that this is a war strategy game and we point out during your Beginner's Protection period that you are protected from player attacks, however you yourself cannot attack them either until this period is expired.

Players are able to defend themselves through various means such as strong alliances, high defensives and armies within their cities. Because this is a persistent world, the game operates 24 hours; this allows your research/building/military recruitment to happen while you're away from the computer and yes, players can attack your city while you're away.

So yes, to your question, a higher ranked player attacking a lower ranked player is not against the terms of use as it is not exploiting anything in design or bugs, nor a competitive advantage over other players as all players have the ability to progress in the game as well as collaborative play in the form of alliances and friendly players.

To answer your points:

1. Everyone is given a seven day protection period to build build build and learn. It's also during this time that forming an alliance or joining one is a task that everyone should be doing.

2. We do investigate multiple accounts, and deal with them accordingly. Under 9.3.3, we have stated very plainly that multiple accounts are against the spirit of the game.

3. Please see #2 above.

4. This is a persistent world that is known as a massively multiplayer online real time strategy game. As it is real time, there will be times when you yourself cannot be at your computer while other players are. This is part of game play and encourages alliances to be formed for protection and better game play.

5. Yes, that is a strategy some can employ. It is a war game. And yes, you incorporate strategy as you build/research/recruit. You choose how your kingdom will evolve and respond to ingame politics, battles, resource demand and market prices. Again, good alliances help here with their players.

6. It is not bullying behaviour to attack weaker opponents. That is game play in a war strategy game. The game does not award bullies and cheats, and in fact take steps to protect our players from those who desire to do this.

You seem quite upset on the fact that higher ranking players can attack lower ranking players. While I can understand that it is upsetting to have your city attacked while you're offline or by a higher player, I do point out that alliances are a key item within Evony that should be used for collaborative game play.

Please do not confuse actual breaches such as multiple accounts/abuse with game play such as warring with a lower level player and attacking while they are offline.