Numbers are slowly dropping so it’s time for a short statement as a veteran player. 
I’ve been playing EVE almost daily for 16 years and it’s extremely hard to summarize the game in short words. The basic toxic attitude that keeps players away from this wonderful game lies in the nature of the concept of a closed industrial, trade, and war system.
All three areas are interdependent and PvP is the toxic part at the core, but PvP is extremely important to making industry and trade work. And vice versa. However, once you have had a chance to look behind the scenes of various groups, you find that most players are relaxed, friendly, and cool people with or without families. Especially the bad pirates. Believe it or not.
Everyone wants to have fun in the game, but it’s just not easy. EVE is a fleet-based game. In a group, you get ahead quickly. Solo, you need a lot of patience, and a lot of experience through trial and error, learn and adapt, never giving up no matter how hard it hurts until you get to a point where the game expands the possibilities that you can use effectively.
You can compare the game with cave diving. I start confidently and have to fight my way through endless narrow passages. There are dangerous spots where I can get stuck, starve, die of thirst or drown. But at some point deep under the mountain, a huge grotto full of wondrous things opens up. And each passage leads into unknown territory with equal dangers.
I’ve been playing with three accounts since 2008 because I mostly had to and wanted to play solo. Despite the long experience and many strategic routines, the game remains a formidable challenge. It is a pity to see that the veterans are slowly leaving EVE and there is no fresh blood left that had to fight their way through a tough skill system as we did, thus the game gained a certain idealistic value and also a professional seriousness that is needed for larger corporations or alliances.
CCP took a big risk here because it is precisely because the game is close to the reality of work that it is very special. But the current development is understandable but also deadly for the soul of the game. The monetization of EVE and the quick access to skill points seem like a last desperate act to squeeze something out of the lemon. It simply lacks a concept to make the game attractive to a new generation and to keep the games in the game despite the hard hurdles.
EVE is dying. EVE is dead. Long live EVE!
o7
Presidente Gallente
