To be fair, the most memorable times I've played in games have nearly never been about the graphics or presentation, and nearly always about what something __me

To be fair, the most memorable times I've played in games have nearly never been about the graphics or presentation, and nearly always about what something __means__, whether to me personally or to me as a player. In MMOs, I remember the hard things I did solo, the hard things I organized a team for, and the personal milestones. The zones might be ugly or beautitul. The task might simply be to kite some big demon through a wintry landscape, or it might just be doing something in a new role for the first time. (First time tanking, early raid leading successes.) In the brief (trial!) time I played EVE, there was a lot I had to learn, and never mastered... but I could see the appeal. While a lot of the success comes down to planning (ship loadout, where you quest/farm/etc), at some visceral level I was still hunting pirates, and trying to solo hard fights that I could not quite beat. It's a rush, even if it doesn't look as cinematic as Homeworld or action movies. This is likely the same reason people can get amazed or excited about chess or poker. :-)