After reading the responses in thread, i've found many of them interesting and its allowed me to interpret what type of game "The West" is and the direction it may possibly go.
This blackmail attempt by this other town is seen by some as this horrid thing that should never be done. While some others say its something to be expected in online games.
I just wonder how many of the people posting here have played games like Eve Online, World of Warcraft, Ragnarok Online and et cetera. Where guild/group politics ending in these types of situations was not just something uncommon but expected at times.
I'll admit when I did play World of Warcraft, I was part of a guild that when we felt another guild on the opposite faction insulted us or slighted our name we would research/spy to find their raiding times and then camp their guild members during them to lower morale in addition to group camping any members we found on an individual basis and about three guilds who chose to defy us disbanded through this attrition method.
And that is mild compared to Eve Online, there are whole corporations that only purpose is to undermine the work of other groups who "think" they are safe.
However from what I have seen here and encountered in my own little town in world 7 it seems that people have sort of lean toward a non-competitive philosophy with others for the most part. There may be the occasional duel here or there but there isn't as much group targeting/conflict as such as there is in the larger MMORPGS.
To any of you other people here who have played heavy PVP based MMORPGS i'd love to hear your thoughts as well. Personally, I believe having played this games has given me a bias that does not carry the expectations of a certain code of conduct as some who may have not played those games do.