There are 2 main reasons that set EVE apart from all other games I play that for me are enough to have me still playing after nearly 5 years.

1. When you lose a ship you lose it - no respawn in a graveyard with all your stuff intact. This means you don't rush headlong into a hopeless battle because it doesn't really matter if you lose - this is the main reason why the average age of an EVE player is much higher than with WoW for example, the younger players tend to find this hard to accept.

2. There is nothing that dictates to me or steers me in a certain direction - its a big sandbox and you can do in it as you wish (pretty much), even kick over other players sandcastles if that is what floats your boat.

• What does EVE Online bring to the table that is new? As others have said, it is a single shard so everyone who is online is there and it makes it much more interesting. Also the fact of skill training while you are both on and off line is totally new and unavailable in any other game.
• Why do people find EVE online Addicting? Because you write your own story. No matter what you want to do in this game, it pretty much can be done.
• Why do you play EVE Online? I started when EVE-Online invited all the Earth and Beyond players for a 30 day free trial. There are still some things they haven't gotten done like walking in stations but I love the ability to mine, refine, build, fight and so much more. I have played for 23 of 24 hours when I have a day off to do so.
• What do you find refreshing about EVE Online? As of today, CCP has announced the 14th free upgrade/release for EVE-Online, called Incursus, coming out in November. As long as you pay the monthly fee, or six months or year, all the upgrades are free! Most other games have subscription fees and you have to pay for the upgrades! This is one of my favorite things about EVE-Online!

It should for it's huge complexity and that you can nearly do anything you want from mining in high sec to production or killing rats to pvp. also you can do things like spying on other corps thus taking pvp to a whole other level. this list can be continued for a long time ^^ It shouldn't for the lag issue which makes huge fleet fights nearly impossible. Also because customer support really needs improvement since it takes forever for a petition to be answered.