[Slick]

Everyone has real life issues from time to time. It is considered good form to make RL issues known to other players ASAP so that they are not frustrated by late turns. The player should also attempt to get a temporary or replacement player so as not to hold up the game.

If game rules were stated ahead of time, even gentlemen's rules, and they were broken, the game admin should take action for fairness of other players who did follow the rules. If this was done unintentionally, it's a learning experience. If it was done intentionally, or carelessly not not reading the game rules - which is also intentional, then this can damage a player's reputation. In games that use role playing, it should be expected that the "evil, backstabbing" empire will be evil and backstab - that's not a black mark on the player's name for role playing in-character.

As you stated, since SEIV takes a long time to play multiplayer and people do invest a lot of time in a game, they want to have fun. I even enjoy my own buttkikkins and take them as learning experiences. This community is very mature and pretty accomodating, but be aware that a player's in-game reputation does cause others to evaluate participating in a game. I personally give all players the maximum benefit of the doubt of being a good sport right off the bat - unless proven otherwise in-game; in which case I don't make a big deal out of it, but just don't play in games with poor sports.

Just my 1x10^-2 dollars.