Hey! I spent half of yesterday discovering and reading about this game.
I had been looking at EVE, but wished there was a way to get in on the ground floor. This sounds like ti might be a better option for me. The only sandbox I've played is SW: Galaxies, but I loved it, especially early on. I'm a big RPG fan and have enjoyed some MMOs (SWG, Vanguard, SW:TOR, etc.) I always had this daydream about how I would set up a MMO and this sounds a lot like it, so I'm pretty excited.
Anyway, looking forward to contributing to the discussion.