I'll reply w/ the same answer here as in the other threads
People do get pretty serious about certain aspects of the game. But at the same time, you'll find many people that are laid back as hell.
I've been playing Eve for almost 2 years now. the learning curve is HUGE (go Google "Eve Learning Curve" and you'll get an accurate picture of what I mean.)
It's a PVP based game, and you can literally die at any time. Some places are more secure then others, but not off limits to a griefer.
Instead of 'leveling up' like you do in most MMO's, the training que in eve runs 24/7. That being said, some skills can literally take a month to get. Right now I'm on an 18day skill training. This isn't a game you can play for a month and move on. But it's extremely in-depth and your career choices aren't limited to any one race/profession.
The main drive in Eve is getting wealthy. More ISK = more ships you can buy = more PEW PEW = more fun. But if you're the passive type, you can spend your time mining ore, refining it, and producing the ships and selling them to the PVP'rs. Eve has a 100% community based market. Nothing on the market got their by NPCs anymore. It's player driver, player controlled. It's market is truly supply and demand based. You have the ability to make your own professions. Anything goes, as long as it's profitable.
Throw all that together, and you get the kind of people that you meet in RL. You'll meet people that want nothing more then to kill you just for the LOLz. You'll meet corporations that want to recruit you, tax the hell out of you and get rich of your hard work. Remember, that semi-retarded guy yelling at you in local chat is not retarded, nor is he forgiving when he finds you.
If you can wade threw the long training que, the griefers, the learning curve, and the occasional WTF PWN...you'll find a very good, exciting, active, and easy to engage community. I've made some good friends on Eve, and some deadly enemies. I'm not gonna lie, there are a few people that (when we meet) we do battle without provocation.
One of the biggest things that sets eve part, is the community is directly involved in the games direction. The Developers will make changes, add new content, and adjust the game for the majority rule of the players. They are constantly sending out new updates, new content, new missions, new stuff to do. I'm not gonna lie, some aspect of the game are a little 'broken'...for example, the bounty system. Right now, you can put a bounty on someones head. The amount of the bounty will get claimed by the person who kills the guy w/ the bounty. However, this has lead to an exploit of peoples 'friends' killing them for their bounty and splitting the money. The Devs say they're working on it...it's not a huge issue, but there are a few small things like that in the game that can be annoying. But, like I said, not a game ender. This is a New type of MMO...the players have more influence over what happens then the Devs...I love it, it's a great game.
To sum up, eve is what you make it.
This post was edited by Ninjatator on May 13 2011 10:18am