Btw, given how hardcore DF is, it is only logical that MMOG of our choice should be EVE!
Talking about learning curve of EVE (and it applied to DF, too
):
Btw, incidentally, I've subscribed just a day ago, after completing trial.
Things seem to have changed for the better lately - you start out pretty powerful, PVE is bountful if you are agent-running (kill - questing) and can easily bring you pretty good profits, all the while training your (player, not character, heh) skills.
Btw, if you take your time to train a few cruicial skills (like propulsion disruption and high-speed manuevering), you can be welcomed in any high-profile gang as a 'tackler' - fast frigate that is supposed to close on an enemy heavy ship, webify it (greatly slowing down movement), warp-scramble (so it will not warp away to safety), and just orbit around it. Using MWDs or afterburners, you can have have so fast orbit speed that it's guns will not be able to get a lock on (turrets get slower and slower the higher caliber they get), especially on your tiny ship. (Here is a tracking guide, btw:
http://www.eve-online.com/guide/en/g61_5.asp Talking about realism and detail!)
Therefore, you'll not be able to do much damage (if any, cause you'll need energy drainer equipped to supply you with energy for afterburner/webber/scrambler), but will be invalueable to 'root' enemy ship in place while your teammates pick it apart with long-range weaponry... and you are pretty much safe, too - unless he also has teammates, but things get more and more complex from there
.
And btw, if you DO get shot down, usually a set of decent equipment that is required for that job is so comparatively cheap that you'll get refunded in a blink, provided you died fighting a good fight, not due to your own stupidity.
That's that I'm planning to do, eventially. There is a 'Noob fight club' corp that does all that... They usually hunt pirates in low-sec and 0.0 regions. It's Russian, though, so not sure if this knowledge will be of any use to you.
Anyway, PVP is what MMRPGs is all about. PVE is much better done in single-player RPGs, and besides - they don't have a monthly fee
... but have a good story, characters, etc (provided it's a good RPG, not an other Diablo rip-off).