Andrew Groen in an interview with Robinson Meyer of The Atlantic about his new book Empires of Eve:

Something that I found formed very early on in EVE was the understanding among certain leaders was that people will follow you, even if they don’t believe in what you believe in, simply because you’re giving them something to believe in. You’re giving them a reason to play this game. You’re giving them a narrative to unite behind, and that’s fun. It’s far more fun to crusade against the evil empire than it is to show up and shoot lasers at spaceships.

One of the things that I think was being fought over in the Great War was the ability to form narratives like this.