Atrocities,
I believe you have to edit a line in settings.txt that says something like MEE=True and set it to False.
Or just up the points limit from 500 to 800 or so. Note however that with default settings you do not automatically become MEE at 500, in my current game I am at 650 and still have alliances with several AI players. This is because in addition to passing the 500 level your score must also be (I think
175 % of the 2nd ranked player...and in my game I am barely in first place.
Woohoo! I finally posted something useful in stead of bugging people here with questions !