I’ve played it for like a year or so, racking up around 1k hrs during that time. For me the best part, as you might expect from an MMO, is the people I’ve meet during that time. And this is coming from a pretty introverted person.

Our corporation (guild) at the time was a small tight knit group of about a dozen trying to build and live in wormhole space. For game mechanics reasons I won’t get in to rn this required relative close communication between all members and even I, a newbie, contributed to the survival of our group. Due to timezone differences, and many persistent timers for in game things that kept ticking even while you’re not logged in, we also kept frequent communications out the game which really added to the experience.

This is just one play style out of many in the game. Though most play styles involve you being part of a larger operation to help advance your alliance’s goals. As a common saying in EvE, the best ship in the game is friendship.

Also at the time the developers were very good at player engagements. They had an in-house band that would release game related music, and had weekly (iirc) in-universe news about the changes to the game universe.

The intricacy of the game mechanics kind of ensure a similar-ish kind of people would keep playing the game I feel. All in all the sense of community was very strong.I understand it’s not a game for everyone but I’ve had a great time.