When is a good time to get back into Eve Online?

With the SOV revamp(devblog1, devblog2)  dropping in mid July you will see a lot of commenters questions and forum posters asking if now is a good time to get back into Eve Online?

The development of Eve Online is a lot like maintaining a large website content changes and updates come from a small group of developers slowly over time in a constant effort of refinement. So consequently there isn’t going to be a sweet spot to get started back in game. If you want to play the game as it stands today get back in. If you don’t enjoy playing the game as it stands don’t. An important point to note it's who you play with that matters not what you play.

Development Cycle

The current release cycle of pushing out updates every six weeks allows for continued development of large features over time. As of July the second tier of the null sec revamp will get started. The total release cycle of null sec revamps will take over a year. The revamp of player owned stations will like wise take a year. So the “sweet spot” of when to get back in game is hard to define.

The Sweet Spot

A game like “World of Warcraft” tends to lend itself more to a sweet spot mentality it's really just a marketing term called an “expansion.” Eve Online has shied away from that model in favor of the constant release cycle. The “expansion” sweet spot days are over, for now, for Eve Online. I’m glad I’m not in CCP's marketing team. The sandbox nature of Eve lends itself more to a constant development life cycle allowing players time to react and absorb changes as they occur over patch cycles.

The Game as it Stands

The entertainment value you gain from playing a video game will be much the same today as it will be tomorrow. Despite any feature release or redesign. If you enjoyed playing Eve Online in the past chances are you will enjoy it today. If you stopped playing for a particular reason chances are that reason is still intact and may not change anytime soon. For example I have observed many people take breaks from Eve because life gets busy. It has nothing to do with any sort of feature released in-game.

Alright this post is starting to get way to meta for me. In conclusion:

Its who you play with not what you play that matters.

Gameplay aside I think the psychological impact of social encounters in the game is what gives MMO's their most lasting impression. If you're asking yourself if you should get back into Eve Online based on some feature change maybe a better question is are your friends, buddies, comrades still in game or planning on getting back in-game?