Settlers Online - Don't join this game

Do not join this game
Or at least, don't join their US servers.
The game itself is the *worst* tamagotchi I've seen so far - search, building and other waiting times are set up such that in order to really use your resources efficiently, you basically gotta be online 24 hours. Mines collapse everytime they are being depleted and need to be searched for again, again and again - every day the same sisyphus task. Given that the fighting system just flat sucks, with the troops set up the way that you're just bound to waste a maximum amount of them when you fight AI, this makes for a pretty frustrating and annoying gaming experience just from the game setup.

Given that there was no PvP when I was playing, this translated into lots of bored players in the global and trade chat rooms, and that turned toxic quite fast, since mods hardly online and players with too much unproductive energy to spend. Harassment, personal attacks and insults were so rampant on Ares that there were constantly forum threads dealing with the issue. And the interesting point is that it was actually the most senior players who created this kind of atmosphere and kept the "discussions" on that level, not the occasional trolls that were showing up too. And given that the senior players are the ones who are spending the money, nothing was being done about it ever unless in one particular case - your reports to admins were just being ignored.

And should you ever have the bad idea of trying to point out these things in the chat rooms, you are immediately the new target, being harassed, viciously attacked and mocked upon. (Happened to me in the help chat when I tried to rein in a senior player who was openly trolling and insulting new players seeking advice.)
I don't know about servers in other countries, they might be more civilized and respectful over there.

Third reason not to join: the game is still extremely buggy, servers crashing regularly, etc.

But besides there being better building games of the same genre available online, do NOT join the US servers - toxic atmosphere, harassments and constant bickering absolutely guaranteed. (Unless new PvP mode changed something about it, but I would not count on it.)

Very bad gaming experience, do not join this game.