If you are paying for a subscription and get full access to the progression system, then stuff starts becoming available reasonably quickly. Within a year or so, I was a capable ABC miner as part of a crew in a wormhole system, making enough ISK each month to pay for my monthly subscription through PLEX and have half of it left over.
Eve Online is the finest, most intricate MMO ever created, and I absolutely hate it.
It’s… boring. Especially early on. And without paying for skips.
If you are paying for a subscription and get full access to the progression system, then stuff starts becoming available reasonably quickly. Within a year or so, I was a capable ABC miner as part of a crew in a wormhole system, making enough ISK each month to pay for my monthly subscription through PLEX and have half of it left over.