This game is not like other MMO's (World of Warcraft, LoTRO, Everquest). This is a sandbox and, thus, requires some serious research to get the most out of the game.
"Quests" are available in the form of missions from agents, but after the initial tutorials, you are thrown into the big-wide world with no other guidance on what to do.
Skills are trained based on time, rather than doing things in the game. For example, the "mining" skill will take around 5 and a half days to learn, regardless of if you spend 24 hours a day mining. This makes it difficult for new players to catch up with "veterans" who have spent a lot of years learning skills, but, and its been told over and over, a new pilot who has a well equipped ship who knows what he/she is doing can take down a veteran who has a badly equipped ship.
This game is the best example of an MMO. Its an absolutely horrible boring grind trying to solo the game. Once you find the role you want to play in the game (Combat Pilot, Miner, Industrialist) and join a corporation, the game starts to blossom from that point onwards.
Don't expect to reap rewards from the offset (the way that WoW gave you things from the start), and be prepared to sink a lot of time into the game.
This is not an easy game, so its not a game for everyone. But I enjoy it, so I can recommend it.