This is a more realistic version, IMO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmS9vcVNr5A
Parent: "I'll stick to solitaire"
The idea behind Eve is extremely appealing but damn if I'm not just done with people screaming into a microphone. I'll stick to reading the postmortems after interesting things happen
As such, things getting loud is always either extremely exceptional, or fitting and unsurprising to the context.
Both of these videos are accurate, and while the second one does happen, the former is the actual norm.
Aside from the huge time-sink that's involved in any MMO, I mostly don't want to have to have a part-time job playing politics. That's what kills it for me; I love that Eve Online exists, but I have zero interest whatsoever building a whole other parallel set of friendships, alliances, etc. outside of my current life. Even if they were the nicest antithesis of League of Legends chat, I just don't have the emotional energy to put into it.
yes, some people call EVE their life, and their irl is just something to get money. It's certainly not for everyone.
With one or two friends, I'd say one could have a blast pirating for a couple years. It's one of the higher doing_fun_things:total_time_playing ratios I've found in a multiplayer game.
The balance is really well done. Two specialized smaller ships > one general larger ship. And coordinating on voicecoms after you've got the normal sequence of actions down doesn't sound that different than a sci-fi series.
"Jumping. Two contacts. Found them on the belt 5. Miners, no escort. In position to warp disrupt. Popping bubble and web. Tackled. Jump, jump, jump." (Plan comes together, fireworks ensue)
And in general, most people keep it in perspective. Hence "it's just internet spaceships" jokes.
To be fair, not all corps are dysfunctional. I had some good times and no one was like that.