MOST IMPORTANT PART: You must find yourself a player corporation that you enjoy, without that eve is simply not worth playing (like most MMOs).

Another hint: as mentioned in some other posts the cheapest way to get started is to get someone to refer you. This will give you a 21 day trial. Then convince them to give you ~300m isk to buy a PLEX card (30d ingame GTC type deal) on the market (30 days game time). This really won't be a loss for them, since when you activate the PLEX they will get 30 days free with the refer a buddy (may have to petition a GM if it doesn't get credited, sometimes it bugs). Now you have a fully functional account with 51 days to play and no one has spent a dime.

Background: I've played eve on and off since release, my top char has nearly 100m sp with several alts above 80. I've participated in most aspects of the game: alliance warfare, empire wars, mission running, mining, station spinning (where most of my time was spent).

PVP: while it is possible to run a multiboxed gank squad the logistics of it are somewhat frustrating. All targeting is done with the mouse on each client - no real way to assist (unless you solely use drones, then you are stuck static camping). With mouse broadcasting and fielding similar ships with similar sensor strengths you might be able to get around this - however any target disruption done by the enemy will greatly hurt you here. In practice with large ships (and large buffers so you have time to react) you can field 3, possibly 4 accounts before your ability to pilot becomes greatly diminished. Soloing has become less and less viable over the years - it is just too easy for most people to escape from a solo pvper - recently CCP have undone some of the changes that make it easier to get away, solo is still pretty frustrating though.


When you are first starting out in EVE that is really the best and most fun time to pvp. Your skills will be lacking compared to nearly everyone else you are fighting but setups will be dirt cheap, clones dirt cheap and very little consequence to dying other than a bruised ego. As of late there has been a resurgence of 'bad' players fielding expensive setups and losing them in humorous ways - if you could find one of these people and loot them it would go a long way toward sustaining your pvp adventures (and possibly paying for your accounts depending on how dumb they are) for months to come.

RL cash market: you can 'buy' ISK legally by buying GTCs and selling them to players through CCP sanctioned means. To act strictly within the EULA this would be a one way trip only, as CCP no longer allows 'reselling' of GTC codes. 'Ghost training' on inactive accounts was grossly nerfed a few months ago, now your training will lapse 3 days after your account expires. If you have the patience and some seed money playing the market is a very viable way to make ISK - I never had the patience for it though. A month of game time costs around 300m ISK. Mining with a nicely trained character (with current prices) you can make 10m/hr in high security space. Mission running at a higher level can pull between 10(common values 10-30) to 50-60m/hr. If I get a good run of missions dual accounting I can pull 100m/hr - probably somewhat misleading though as I'll cherry pick only the high paying missions and logoff if I don't have any luck getting them.

Lasting Appeal: As a bitter jaded vet I still keep my accounts going for some reason, although I don't log in very much anymore. I find myself less and less willing to pvp on my high sp 'epeen' alts as to not lose training time (by jumping out of +5 implants) - If I do pvp it's generally on a 45m alt these days.
The great appeal of eve is that you don't need to play to advance your character (other than generating currency to buy ships with - many corps will pay for ship hulls though, especially at a lower level).

I'm sure some people will disagree with my take on EVE, but let me say again. BITTER JADED VET, I know lots of people who love eve (although not too many that played from 03-05 or so) and lots of people who love to hate it. This is just my take on it. If you want any more info from me feel free to ask.

edit: bitter vet footnote, my oldest char turned 6 years old today.