Well, as someone whose played the game for 3+ years straight now you can probably guess where I come down on this. Eve is a very different game from WoW or pretty much every other MMO out there. Most of those are based on the old MUD model; find some monsters, kill them, get better stuff, etc. That's fine and hey, I liked those games too.
Eve is not a MUD though -- it's more like the old BBS door game TradeWars. And if you join up in Eve with the intention of playing it like WoW or looking for that sort of experience....you aren't going to be happy, and that's perfectly fine. Eve is a very group-oriented game; yes, you can be a solo pirate. You could be a solo miner or just run missions by yourself all day. But most of the game's complexity is not really going to come out at that level, and I'll be the first to admit that Eve's PvE content is pretty lacking at the moment.
However, once you're in a corporation -- a good one anyway -- everything changes. I've been with the same corporation for just over three years now, with the same basic core group of people most of that time. We have come a long way from our humble beginnings and have a lot of stories to tell about epic battles and cooperative struggles. All of that has brought us closer together and given us a unique story no one else can have -- in WoW, if you go on a raid and kill some big monster, someone else has already done that (or will shortly). In Eve, when my corporation fought in the Mito Conflict, we had a unique narrative that even other corporations in the same fight didn't have. That's a big reason I stick with Eve after this long.
As far as "no depth" and that combat is just biggest wins -- well, maybe 1 on 1 or 400 on 400 that's true. But there's a lot of wiggle room in the middle where player skill -- not just character skill -- makes a huge difference. My corporation has beaten fleets twice our size because we're blessed with some of the best fleet commanders in the game (especially for a small corp our size -- around 50 people). I've personally been part of a four ship fleet -- an EW ship, an assault frig, and a pair of interceptors -- that ripped apart cruisers, recon ships, and more right under the nose of reinforcements in many cases, just by using better tactics. This isn't just on a tactical level -- strategically and logistically this all comes into play as well. If you don't think this is true, check out the video from the last couple alliance tournaments (or the one that's coming up), where a lot of the teams have similar setups and yet sometimes there's just a runaway winner. Or where teams come with "unbeatable" setups and get the crap kicked out of them by ships a newbie could fly within a couple months.
Yes, the vast majority of players will never fly a titan, or hell a carrier for that matter. But as someone else said above, in a few days from starting your character you could be participating in a big fleet battle and making a valuable contribution if you want -- you just have to seek it out. Eve's learning curve is steep though, and it can be hard to find a good corporation (and many will be reluctant to take someone just out of the academy), so I certainly have sympathy. You're basically thrown in the deep end and told "have fun!" It's hard to have fun if you're trying to keep from drowning. Once you learn to swim though, it's a blast.
If you want to get involved in fights early on, your best bet may be to join one of the FW corps and try it out. It's not the same as being in a player corporation really, but if you start flying with FW fleets you'll start to get a feeling of what might be possible. Find a friend to join up with and get to know people in the game -- ask around for a corporation doing something you might like, whether it's manufacturing or PvP or exploration or RP or all of it put together. Eve is not a game that is particularly well suited to solo or casual play -- that's the biggest barrier for it, I think.
PS - if you think the CCP trailers are all pre-rendered bullshots, to steal from Penny Arcade, check out some of the fan-made movies.
