When we had Noah Ward from CCP out a couple of weeks back, he showed us a version of the game that had menus that were easier to navigate, and a lot of the stuff he talked about made it sound like the game would be easier to get into for new players. The new boxed release, EVE Online: Special Edition, is also built with that in mind, allowing players to start with a bit of a faction bonus and some other "quick start" items.
Ward sold us pretty hard on Iceland, which sounds like a fun place to visit. We also got our podcast on.
After seeing the upcoming update in action, it seemed silly to even create a character before today, so now that the game has been properly apocryphied, I'm going to give it a shot in the very near future. Hopefully that new epic mission arc will give me some much-needed direction at the beginning of my space-life.