You see this truly is a real time role-play game. It provides the rules for you to work in, creates the world, and you place your character in this world. What you get out of it is what you put in. No time for freeloaders here. Power players (in the classic stat seeking sense) will probably get no more enjoyment out of it than the person that plays it for a normal amount of time. The reason being that the edge is in how you interact with players and your standing with corporations and empires - the highest stat doesn't always win. This is a 100% PvP game, but this doesn't make it a fighting game. In fact fighting is something I personally don't do so much. The player versus player aspect is everywhere in daily life. You are competing at every turn.

Of course people are going to want to fight, and the great thing about Eve is that it is so flexible. Pirates, the good ones, will be very fun to play. The skill it takes to be able to take down a battleship in a frigate should provide one of the most satisfying combat experiences anyone has had.