Earth lost?

Some students and I have been playing a browser game called Earth Lost. It’s fun to build up some planets, dig for resources, and do some trading. But the possibility to attack other players of course seems to have its disadvantages. It takes rather long to build up your planets and your forces so that you could actually defend yourself against an attacker. So my guess is that many people will lose interest in this concept even after a short period of time. Once they lose resources or a planet the fun is over. Maybe the authors of the game ought to re-think their strategy. A game like this only makes sense if every participant has more or less the same possibilities to attack and defend themselves. Else newbies will always only get the short end of it.