While it was awesome experience but man, it ate huge chunk of my time.
So much this. I spent so many hours between 2010-2014ish in fleets and on jabber/irc/vent but I just can't devote that much time to a game these days. Tons of great memories and no regrets.
2010-2014 really was the heyday of EVE, it feels like. Maybe I just say that because that's when I was most active, too. I quit 2016 I believe.
Sometimes it wasn't even fleets, just sitting with cloaked spy alts on two monitors keeping an eye on your local chokepoints near your home base and keeping your corp updated while you're reading a book IRL.
It's an insane game but I'm glad for the experiences I had with it.
I used to know a guy who worked oil rigs I think six months of the year, earned a ton, then spent his off six months playing EVE Constantly. I think that might be close to the optimal way to play tbh.
I've always loved it but I had to find ways to limit myself in it. Cheap ship fits and a few friends roaming null just for the thrill of it, letting my nestegg slowly dwindle with each outing. Loved going out with like 10 or so mining frigates loaded for bear and surprising a small gank fleet looking for easy pickings.
I have no idea about the current state of the game. I haven't logged in for almost half a decade at this point. But i have no hope at all that gameplay is any better than it was when I left. Between the massive push for RMT skill training making the time investment worthless and a (at the time) new owner changing a bunch of little things it just wasn't the game I enjoyed playing anymore.
I'm in the exact same boat. Even having consigned myself to the fact that the game will never be what it was, I still get pangs of longing sometimes and have to remind myself.
It's such a strange and unique game, there really hasn't been anything like it before or since.
There's a fun game in there somewhere, but man... The combination of it being a subscription model and the way that you train skills by running out an IRL clock just never sat right with me.
The latter part is really what pushed me away. I didn't even hear about the game until it had been out for a year or two, and I was interested in the PvP scene; it just feels like unless you were playing from launch, you're always gonna be behind.
The subscription would have, but the idea of being able to pay for that by just playing the game was neat, and even doable from their free trial if you joined a decent guild (or corp or whatever).
A truely horrible game built entirely to encourage griefing people. It should be recognised as the most antisocial game of all time. Nothing else. Let it die.
I tried EVE way back when because the logistics bit interested me. Lasted maybe two weeks—yes, not enough time, but the time sink required was ridiculous.
I point all those interested in EVE Online to ProsperousUniverse. No P2W. No auto-recurring sub. Slow paced and doesn’t penalize you for not being online all the time.
I got a week's free trial to EVE Online way back in the day. I played through the tutorial bit where it shows you how to click on an asteroid to shoot it, I got into the game proper, encountered another human character, asked what the game was about, and he said "Anything you want." And I logged off and never looked back.
I really wanted to like EVE and tried to get into it several times because two friends were deep into it but the game is boring af and feels like watching a screensaver even during combat. Ditched it after 1-2 weeks every time.