Meta about Idle play

So, I am playing my second game (Some how I have a third game that I must have played once, lost in the mysts of time, but I don't know what that was about, it's just on my record.) My first game went okay. Got invaded, invader mega stacked, and hid in my mountains, I went and took his wo ... er ... cities, and then noticed all of my neighbors were inactive. Ever one to seize an opportunity, I attacked ... and they all woke up and curb stomped me.

Started my second game, joined a coalition , sent out messages, got ignored. One of my coalition is playing idle until some attacked him, and then he kicked the attacker out of his territory, but still isn't playing. My eastern neighbor has done nothing, too. I've spent gold and spies to see what can be seen, and some factories have been built. But, that's basically it. So, what is the meta here? Will they wake up and crush me? Are they just farming operation points?