Wow - damn, I actually missed out on some conversation here about eRep! Well I've been busy in the game, and haven't checked in here for quite some time.
As pesgores has said, the community aspect of the game is unmatched. Especially as a leader or member of a government, you meet people from all over the world.
I'll keep this short but I'll say the country I helped rebuild (Australia) be politically taken over by Indonesia... that is, Indonesia cheated the citizenship (Congress approves or disapproves people wishing to join a nation) rule by having it's new players register under the Australian flag. At the time, of course, Australia actually thought it was under a legitimate "baby boom". To then see Indonesians appear and manage enough votes to outgun us and take over our in-game government completely, is really disheartening. It's one thing to attack a country, but a 4-month PTO frustrates the average player who ends up quitting, mostly. The eAussie population is literally no more, with only the diehard players still going. Quite a shame!
That all said, I'm back here at civfanatics now (and really only 2-clicking on eRepublik), looking very forward to Civ V
I'm currently promoting the heck out of Civ V among my network of friends in eRepublik, so hopefully I can bring many over and convert them to Civfanatics