EVE Online and the Power of Personal Influence

When I first played EVE Online, I (reasonably) did not trust the praise my comrades gave to the game. ;A two hour tutorial? ;What in the name of gratuitous interstellar explosions could justify such a thing? ;There are spaceships, sure, and that sort of thing can get complicated, I'm told, but two hours? ;Can't I watch a movie and then learn it on the fly? ;Can't I just substitute my ignorance by making pew pew noises over the microphone? ;My comrades would have none of this. ;Two hours later, I realized that the tutorial was actually worthwhile. ;A month later, I realized I was playing a game unlike almost any other MMORPG.