You do conveniently forget to mention CCP removed spawns from 3 down to 1 at this time. But I will let it slide 
EVE server load imo is actually not that bad for a 20-year-old game that got neglected for half a decade and is now in the middle of its off-season. Fanfest this year will make or break if eve shrinks more or grows again. but is reasonable to say eve is not going anywhere. its just a question of how bright are the next few years gonna be
Yup, people conveniently forget that there is now competition for the sites, so you have to minmax to make any money
I wish you and others against skill injectors would agree honestly because what I said is true for newer players. The higher tier ships and the sheer amount you often need to compete all add up with their training times and take you alot of time to get to the same level as someone who has trained them. As well, the level 5 various buffs from skills also add up over time and their buffs absolutely make or break builds in a lot of cases. Actually incursions is a good example of ships where lvl 5 skills allow you to fly certain needed builds for those or block you from doing so.
Iāve had so many conversations with people wanting to try the game but are worried theyāll never be able to catch up or compete with long term players. Telling them they can catch up via skill injectors gets them around that blocker. That blocker will only get worse the longer eve exists as well and more skills are added over time.
All the ācontemporary gamersā you quoted were just whiny people who gave up too easily. Most of us have been ganked at some point. Itās a pain in the proverbial, but what it ought to do is inspire a sense of ā Iāll show youā¦ā and a desire to progress. The āI want to make easy ISK while watching Netflixā people are likely never going to progress to battle hardened PvPers anyway. I think some join the gameā¦realise it is a long hard slogā¦and seek some face saving way out like āpsychopathic gankersā or whatever.
Iām sure weāve all had āscrew thisā moments in Eveā¦but then that is precisely why surviving and flourishing can give a sense of pride. Thousands fell by the wayside, and one is among the survivors.
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We must also include the niche element that Eve Online sustains as perhaps many donāt grasp that when first trying out this game.
Well, thatās 99% of the gaming demographic these days.
Itās great that you want EVE to be a difficult game, but what is a for-profit business supposed to do about it? PvP toggles and gacha loot boxes make billions. How is CCP supposed to keep EVE alive without turning it into a terrible product?
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I donāt think thereās any shortage of potential players. What I do think is that somehow the new player process leads to people ending up becoming āminersāā¦who were actually attracted by a PvP game in the first instanceā¦and leaving out of boredom because they trained a bunch of mining skills and now they canāt be bothered to wait for the skill training for PvP. There you goā¦CCPā¦that is the problem.
This is one of the biggest NPE problems in my opinion. Iāve gone through the NPE process recently, and have also spoken to quite a few fresh players, and itās super-obvious that the game steers new players to become miners. It does this so blatantly, that I actually got angry 
when I finished the tutorials. And all of the third-party guides online arenāt helping the matter, with most of them coaxing new players toward hitting the belts in their gifted Ventures for āeasy ISK.ā
In my opinion, mining should be hidden from new players entirely until theyāve played for a week or two. Let them make that choice after theyāve trained some combat skills and got into L2/L3 missions and combat anomalies, instead of waving the low-hanging fruit in front of their impressionable faces, and expecting them to go for anything else after theyāve had a taste.
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Itās exactly what happened with my Cilla Cybin accountā¦my very first character. I spent two or three months skilling up for little but mining. What a waste of time. When I did finally decide to move to PvP, the skills queue was such a mess that thatās the entire reason I created Altaraā¦and effectively started from scratch. In fact only nowā¦18 months laterā¦do I have the skills queue back on Cilla Cybin who is now training up for PvP quite nicely. But I have to sayā¦there was a point 3 or 4 months into the game where I came close to giving up, especially when they nerfed the Procurer. Iām just glad I effectively started over againā¦but many might not be so patient.
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Donāt feel mad about this but mining generates pvp.
Iāll add my observations to yours:
L3 mission payouts are the first occasion that any player will start to feel heās getting somewhere at last, and all vets know that that is still a very modest early income. But the grind to get to L3ās is very long, NOT because of grinding standings, BUT because of the current price of ships. Itās mainly a question of ISK. A fairly low skilled (in terms of SP) new player will have to try to make do with an SoCT ship (gnosis for L3), as these are quite forgiving to fit, very low on sp demands, and a cheap option. A fitted one will still push you upwards of 50M at the very least. Try scraping that together by running L2 missions - even with all your social/payout skills maxed outā¦ If a new player opts for a racial BC instead, it only gets worse, as these hulls cost even more. Even with looting (oh glorious L2 drops ā¦) and salvaging (yellow salvage prices are low compared to even 4 years ago) it will take ages.
So, what advice should be given then ? Go huff gas (sorry, you need 30M for the skill book first, so back to square 1). Go do some exploration and hope you get extremely lucky on the drops (wonāt happen in hisec unless indeed extremely lucky). Go run some DED plexes (you need at least a half decent ship and again luck on the drops). Try to run anomalies and get some escalations going (most end in lowsec, we know how that will work usually for a new player). Try to mine in lowsec and get as much isogen as you can (we know how that will end).
I donāt know anymore. Iām happy I started back in 2011, when it was FAR easier to get into the next hull ā¦ And that is worrying ! It screams that the economy is not where it should be, and the new players are the first to experience it.
āHow to get ISK fast in this gameā is no longer a Rookie Help question from new players trying to cut some corners. Itās a symptom of economic stuff gone very wrong.
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In all the advertising it says more about mining/exploring/industry than it does about pvp, which gets a very small side note.
In the new player handbook you get around 13 pages in before thereās any mention of pvp. So stop making out itās a pvp game, that is not what CCP advertise it at, and donāt come back with market pvp etc, itās a load of baloney.
Iāll bet the massive majority of new players start the game after seeing those adverts because CCP had never advertised undock get killed.
Then they get the reality of losing their ship to an āelite lolā pvpāer and think sod this for a game because they never get the chance to get going properly.
My advice to a new player would be to get a long way away from the new starter systems in a nice quiet part of HS and just slowly build some knowledge and isk, whether thatās by mining or level 1 missions it doesnāt matter.
But players like you who use the term āminerā in a derogatory way are the biggest problem new players face, youāre a blight on the community and the game as a whole.
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Back in the good olā days, we used to call them diggers. But they told us we canāt use that term anymore. Itās not politically-correct or something.
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Iām going to suggest that they start with bootlegging tobacco between NPC stations while running Missions to deliver goods to NPC missions.
/ even garage can turn a small profit
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A real new player handbook would have one word on its cover: Survival
Regardless of how the current team of marketers wishes to present the game in ads, or how well the dev team did its brainstorm and concept building sessions to approach the NPE - and apparently broke the NPE down into 4 tracks - the simple first task in EvE is how to Survive.
And I agree with any- and everyone else in this thread who says that Combat skills and knowledge are extremely essential. Even if you only need to defend, going from fighting back to avoiding fights, every player will need to have that basic level of understanding. That doesnāt mean that combat action should be the first choice of any player. It does mean that sooner rather than later the player will get involved in armed encounters.
You can either believe what is presented to you, or you can look at the reality: this sandbox is competitive down to its smallest element, and that also includes trading. No one lives in a vacuum in New Eden. You donāt need to go look for trouble. Trouble roams around and will find anyone. Even some NPCās are trouble makers, lol.
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You seem quite comfortable with generalizations. Your age is showing through your posts. I wouldnāt normally have reacted but you old folks have some pretty screwed up notions about the young gamers today.
First of all, the young Gs are just as competitive as you old folks and maybe even more.
Second, we value playstyles more than you do, thatās why Fortnite is such a success.
And third, we also appreciate the odd gems of the industry. A game doesnāt need to be AAA to reel us in. It just has to be well made with mechanics that make sense.
I have a tribe of friends in my neighborhood and not one wanted to play EVE with me after watching a few videos. Why? A few arenāt into sci-fi but mostly they said something to the effect of: āThe ships are weak, the weapons are useless and combat is underwhelming.ā
One of them said " Iām not waiting 3 months to play in a ship I want."
I donāt blame them. I play EVE because I like sci-fi and I think the game is worth my time.
The stereotypes about younger players are really tiresome and insulting. Weāre not all WOKE and millenial flakes. If you old people want a bit of respect from us, itās time you start thinking before writing nonsense about young people.
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Right ā¦ thatās quite a collection you have there.
I couldnāt have said it better, to a young player. You do see the irony, donāt you ?
especially the rage videos on YT
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Iāve said it before, and Iāll say it again: most of the people Iāve observed rage over the game in person (as in over VoIP and on streams) were boomers and older Gen Xers. Whereas younger players tended to have much more tolerant reactions toward loss and adversity. This is fairly indicative that this game isnāt āreally for older peopleā as is being claimed, since it appears that they arenāt emotionally equipped to deal with its underlying principles to the same degree that younger generations are. It makes sense to me, because these older generations have possessed a disproportionately higher degree of privilege over their lives, whereas younger people have less, and feel like they have less to lose in general.
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The only irony I see is one old man jumping on the person who points out the generalizations of another old man.
I apologize for offending you, old man.