Well, well...I took some time out to browse through the Pantheon forum at the Watch - specifically the thread concerned with comments/suggestions for the 3rd version of the game (The Third Age?) - and it was quite a revealing read. I understand now that there was a controversy in the 2nd version of the game in which one of the players quit the game because all the other players had apparently formed a secret alliance against this lone player, resulting in some sort of humiliating defeat for said player.
However, I play games to relieve stress, not to live through more of it. To be fair, I'm sure that for those who play the Pantheon, the intense creativity involved is indeed therapeutic. But, hey, my idea of therapy is running around in a first person shooter blowing stuff up. Different strokes for different folks!
If there was any remaining doubt, I'm afraid the sort of incident I described above confirms that I was right not to get myself involved in the Pantheon.
(Duchess, methinks you were right to avoid it, too.)