I started playing Eve at the tail end of 2004.
Got into a mining corp, did some missions and ended up quitting out of boredom after about 3 months. Came back a few months later and did mnothing but missions, lasted about a month before I quit again.
Came back again and this time decided to try something different. Joined a corp in 0.0, became part of an alliance and joined the fight for Detorid ( a region of space in 0.0).
That was about 6 or 7 months ago.
I'll be thefirst to admit this game can be boring as all hell, but joining the right corp is a world of difference.
Nothing like hearing the call that one of our pos's (player owned stations) is under attack by an enemy alliance and organizing a fleet of ships to go defend it.
The guys who make this game (CCP) also just upgraded their entire server farm to reduce lag. Its things like that and the regular free expansion packs, that are gonna keep me from quitting for some time.
Oh and check this out
Link
All these ships can be flown in the game. The 4 biggest have yet to be manufactured yet however. Those tiny specks are the frigates (the starting craft of eve)