Funny you both should mention the Eve learning curve being ridiculously high. Here is a graph to illustrate:
I think had I not been a part of Goonwaffe I would have given up on the game as well. They take you in as a complete newbie, right into 0.0 space and give you mad ISK and pay you to throw frigate after frigate at the enemy. We also have our own awewsome forums, jabber channels and TS server for ops. Of course Goonwaffe has much stricter membership criteria than others, but they are awesome for supporting the newbs to this depressingly awful game.
I hear stories of pubbies and pubbie corps that slave away in high security space to make a few million. I can make 50+ million an hour ratting out NPC's in asteroid belts in our space. Very easy to get super rich and afford to throw more expensive ships at the enemy.