For me Eve-Online is a toolbox allowing multiple different gameplay styles to meddle around with.
As a creative person that enjoys role-playing Eve-Online is also a wonderful toolbox for worldbuilding in various different ways. Imagine Eve-Online being like a D&D Dungeon Master’s guide and Monster Manual at the same time. For me the whole point of this game is to create stories, events, relationships and memories = content.
Personally i believe that this is what the game was intended/designed for and thus best enjoyed. It is MMO(RPG) after all and a sand box at it.
I’d like to argue that players who approach Eve-Online as just ‘another video game’ are the ones that end up burning out and quitting. As the old community saying goes “Eve is played in the long run.” which i find true. To play or approach Eve-Online only as PvE game, there isn’t much to offer and it turns the game to another single player that you’ll complete, grind for some achievements and uninstall. This leads to:
Bold statement. For criminal ganker and long lived player this bash, grab and sell is much deeper than you’ve could imagine. It’s doing research on targets, finding names and alts, manipulating others, setting up buy and sell orders for personal gain or information, forming allies for the said bash, preventing other parties allies from defending the said bash using politics as a weapon. List goes on.
The only limit to any of this is how far your imagination, effort and cunningness goes.
You are right that many miners aren’t lazy.
There are very good organized mining groups out there doing mining-pvp’ing. With proper protection fleets. With proper goals working for the bigger picture while at the same time delivering actual content to all of us to enjoy.
There are, however lazy miners. Without any understanding for any of this. Who mine purely for ISK and very often selling their ore directly to some wise market traders buy order with bad price. Or even worse, selling directly to his corporation leadership who’s only agenda most of the time is to just fill hes own wallet. Manipulated to do so with some prefabricated lie of either ‘being part of something’ or ‘we’re building something here’
Most of the big actual content delivering corporations and alliances have their own industrial backbone and aren’t even bothered with the whole topic.
Just a friendly fyi, If anyone or you think pirates buy their ships from the public market with high prices? You’re wrong. It’s hundreds of ships at bulk, cheap and privately. Mined by someone just to build them for pirates. Just for pirates to go and shoot all these other miners so they’re business can bloom. And pirates can have fun. Many pirates even mining and manufacturing with alts when not shooting at other miners.
If i may ask; what are you doing with your industrial efforts?
I’m not assuming anything here.