I have been playing for a couple of days now. Killing chit, mining chit, and buying chit off the market. I still don't understand the objective of the game unless it is: Amass an army, get rich, blow up the galactic trade center.

Also I have a message in my top left that says "Aggression Countdown: 5 minutes" then when I hover over "Your Crimes: Serpentis: 4m 5s" Am I going to blow up

This post was edited by cssa on May 13 2012 03:24am

Tbh the goal of the game is to get rich so you can lose it all in a fire.... And its worth it.

it's not in a few days that you will find YOUR objectives, yes, YOURS. The game has no objective itself, you'll fix yourself some soon!
just enjoy your "noob time" it's fun

^ agree with those.

eventually you'll get into a corp -- corps have objectives....

but... there is no LINEAR objective in the game -- like kill baal or something like that
or reach lvl 80 or something like that

Your objectives are completely what you decide. You control your destiny in the EVE universe.

Currently I appear to mindlessly be doing these quests, are there just constant quests to no end or should I be doing something else more entertaining

Questing is certainly one way to spend your time in EVE, I've found it gives a decent amount of ISK and other rewards. From what I have seen so far there are a LOT of quests to do, im sure it would take you years to complete them all.

I also recently started playing EVE and one of the more 'fun' things I have found is to go around hunting pirate hideouts, killing the pirates, looting and scavenging their ships. A friend of mine who also recently started has been having more fun wandering around the asteroid fields and mining the asteroids for ore to refine or sell.

There are many different things you can do in EVE, it just depends on what you 'want' to do.

Blow up other people's space ships with your corp mates. It's so addicting.

Basically, what everyone is saying, is true. The only objectives in the game, are your own. If you want to be the best industrial pilot in EVE, then by all means; likewise, if twisted metal and frozen corpses is more your speed, maybe PVP is for you.
Some people choose to do the Epic Arc missions, to follow some of the story line and history of EVE, and new Eden, and the rewards from said Arc lines, makes it very tempting to do so!
To answer your question about the agression countdown, there are essentially three types of agression countdowns: one for NPCs, meaning you attacked a faction (namely pirates) and for that countdown, any NPC of that faction, will engage you on sight.
The second, is the standard PVP agression countdown timer, where you will be denied access to dock at a station for approximately 60 seconds. And ofcourse, for the duration of that countdown, the person you engaged, or stole from, can engage you without CONCORD interference. The third Countdown, refers to Global Security Status, where you are considered a Criminal to all of new Eden, and will be engaged by police, and gate guns/station guns on sight. I hope that answers your question.