I've played the 14 day trial on about 3 different occasions. But I never converted to a full subscription. Not because I didn't like the game but because the monthly fee was more expensive than most and because it seemed to carry the risk of being an even bigger time sink than WoW. To really succeed in the game you need to join a corporation and build your reputation. This isn't like joining a guild in WoW and being an active member, you really have to work at it in EVE. It is fun to dabble with the trial, but you soon realise that to make any progress you need to decide what you want to achieve in the game and then work towards it. It's not one of those games where you can just pootle along picking up quests (the mission system soon becomes repetitve in EVE).
The skills system is time based, you start learning a skill and after X amount of time you gain it. Training continues even when logged out. You can also learn any skill in the game, given enough time. What this means is that veteran players have enormous amounts of skills which you as a new player can never catch up with. However, the way the game is structured you don't really need to *IF* you specialise into a certain role. That's the cruncher, you need to know what you want to specialise in and how to go about it. The advantage veteran players have is they have enough skills to switch roles as they choose, noobs need to focus on one role and master it.
There's a lot of depth to EVE, almost too much depth. It's a very challenging game both in terms of learning how to fly your craft and in terms of learning how to stay alive in the game world. You really can lose everything to pirates if you stray into un-policed space. The game is 100% safe if you stick to the high security systems, but the real rewards of course are to be found in less secure areas. There is insurance you can buy in-game which protects you to some degree, including replacement ships and body clones. But it is possible to mess up and lose everything. Last time I played I got very rich thanks to a lucky find on a dangerous mission, then blew it all on a posh ship I didn't understand how to use, took out the wrong level of insurance (due to being a noob) and then lost it all in a gunfight because I couldn't handle all the new weaponry I'd just slapped onto every available gunport. I had too many weapons, all my power drained and I couldn't fight or run ... a rather humiliating end (luckily it was to NPC pirates so hopefully no-one saw). Such is the harsh lessons of EVE.
The character generation system is a fun one, it's one of those games you can spend an age just designing how your avatar looks - well you can if you are me or eKo
It's one of those games I've always been interested in playing but never did for fear of becoming too immersed. It doesn't seem to be one of those games it is easy to dip in and out of. Anyway, it's certainly worth trying the trial and see what you think.