Who plays Kerbal Space Program?

[John FX]

I`m a child of the space race, just old enough to remember the later moon landings on TV so for me it is the game that lets me be in charge of NASA. I didn`t realise it at the time but I had a lot of spacecraft I wanted to fly and I wanted to build apollo from scratch.

Now the great driving urge to build spacecraft has reduced to a relatively mild enjoyment.

[TheSoundOfTrees]

New player too.

For me, KSP interests me for two things : first , it's SPACE - not Sci-Fi space, but our space, or near enough. Second, it satisfies my "open strategic planning" tastes : I can imagine a project - and then build it, stage it, accomplish it or fail to. I have no fondness for piloting. I am not especially interested in engineering. What I like is to choose the obstacles I want and then find a way to surmount them.

I am very new to the game, but already know that I WILL install a lot of "diffculty mods" like life support and remote tech - just because I'll have to plan around them to reach my goals. I already have ScanSat because it gives me a good reason to launch satellites everywhere.

That's what I seek in video games nowadays, and why I also play Dwarf Fortress, for instance. Though KSP took DF's place on the "can't stop playing" list.

Edit : as for who I am. Currently jobless. Former psychology student and game designer.

Edited July 8, 2015 by TheSoundOfTrees

[oversoul]

well, I grew up playing with lego...and then I became a programmer. I find KSP to be quite similar to both lego and programming, it has the creativity of lego (and coding, just without the stress of work) and a lot of the trial and error, experimentation and discovery of new techniques feels very akin to programming (but without the annoying customers/bosses!).

Pretty much what this fella said.

- it's like LEGO rockets

- it's sand-box; you can start a career or you can go to the sandbox and make anything, and take it anywhere

- it's simple-ish; this was one of Squad's genius moves, to shrink down the size of the system so it wouldn't be so physically big and daunting, yet at even at the scale you get a healthy respect for real world moon, and planetary transfers.

- this game has one of the best, if not THE BEST, mod communities and developers receptive to that mod making and using community. It's incredible... I am trying to think of another that comes close and can only come up with Desert Combat mod for BF1942 which later became DICE/Battlefield. Even so that was only one mod and doesn't approach the scale of the KSP mod "biosphere" I guess is a good word.

- I love sci-fi books and I tinker with astronomy when clouds permit

- I was born in 1980, so I clearly remember the excitement of the Shuttle, Hubble, ISS, and the national misery of CHALLENGER and COLUMBIA

- I have a computer science degree with a minor in math, even though I haven't used this in my professional life (yet). I really enjoyed the stepwise problem solving of CS and later math courses. I was on a submarine as a nuke, which is somewhat technical, and had a teacher-imposed and reality-imposed reason for knowing what a part did, why it did, and what would happen when it failed. Then I drove surface ships. Would you believe there is a lot of vector math in shiphandling?

Thanks for starting this convo; rep++

Edited July 7, 2015 by oversoul

[11of10]

Well... Where to begin, hm.

Ever since I know of myself, I was curious about technology. Being a child of two SF fans, from a family of engineers, it was interesting how all my curious questions about world around me were answered in detail.

Which pretty much led me to being what I am, space happy, tech happy junior sysadmin/night guard (the company has some strange ideas about saving money o.O)

I didn't yet finish my higher education, with only my final test left, and me procrastinating doing the thing for 8 months now (I'm 32, born in '82).

I have no idea anymore how I stumbled upon KSP. I remember a friend telling me about it a long long time ago, but his description was bad, and since I was in the middle of trying out Orbiter, I easily dismissed the game about little green men trying to go to space as something not serious enough.

Fortunately, in 2013 I got a chance to amend that mistake, and here I am, now, with just too much time spent playing the game.

My newest ingame passion is winged aerospace craft & FAR, courtesy of Fengist's Elcano ground circumnavigation challenge (I'm still trying to make a transporter for my big huge autonomous lab/rover/mobile base) to deliver it to places...

[PsychSpec]

Your intervention definitely has the features of game studies. I know a few researchers who use the same method to glean their data (and I'm not totally innocent myself).

Anyway, if a statistic is coming out of this, I would be greatly interested in seeing it. : )

It's really funny that you mentioned this. I do work with games and learning, and that's one of the reasons that I initially got attracted to KSP. It has the potential to be educationally relevant. More importantly, to hear the enthusiasm everyone has for math and science, and that KSP is an outlet for that enthusiasm, makes me really happy.

That said, I am NOT collecting any data here (though I can see why you think I would be). I have friends and colleagues who do use similar methodologies, but I don't do it personally. It just doesn't suit my research questions typically. However, if people in this community would be curious to hear some statistics, I would happy to run the numbers.

Anyways, I'm glad to know that despite the diversity of the community here, I am in good company (and that I'm only a little bit of a weirdo).

[kmMango]

Venn Diagram incoming

[Tw1]

I've always had an interest in space, and liked exploring. I still follow astronomical events and new discoveries in space. I also made spacecraft out of lego when younger, and drew blueprints of starwars based starships for my friends.

I haven't worked in aerospace, but I've definitely got quite a science and design bent.

[justidutch]

I was always a lego kid growing up. Then, although I was always somewhat interested in maths and physics and could do what needed to be done in high school with some degree of success, (and biology classes, chemistry, etc), those avenues were never my main focus. Not knowing which direction to take out of high school, I decided, until I knew what to do for sure, to go to university for music. I loved the theory aspect of it, figuring out the rules, how to bend and break them, finding the lines and then painting outside of them. Worked in the music industry for about a decade but really got tired of having the utilities cut off and occasionally living out of the band's van. Went travelling, then came back and re-educated myself to be a programmer. Currently working self-employed as a web-programmer. Newest goal in life is very and completely unrelated to anything else I've ever done: to become an Olympian in a sport that is thankfully not age-dependant. So far this journey is going well, 2 years into the 7 year plan.

KSP for me, other than that last part, has been able to tie the related bits and pieces of my interests from the various stages of my life - I suppose it can be viewed as a summation of my interests (so far, at least). It is technical, it requires good analytical skills, it can require maths if you choose to do it that way, you can travel and explore places, and it can certainly be an outlet for creativity and artistry.

And there's explosions.

Edited July 8, 2015 by justidutch

[klesh]

I'm a university-educated musician who never got past Algebra II in mathematics. You don't need to be an engineer or math nerd to dig this game, but it helps to find space interesting and fascinating.

I like KSP because it lets my imagination run wild and lets me challenge myself to do things that no one, including myself, would expect.

[Signo]

I am an IT sales guy, I started playing videogames more or less 35 years ago with the coin ops (M-79 Ambush anyone?). I've been attracted by many different kind of games (I gave my best to qrg fighting games like Tekken - I won my PS2 in a T5 tournament), ranging from the classical sportslike (NBA 2k, PES, GT), to JRPG (FF series, Zeldas). I love TBS and I like RTS too.

I almost played 'em all from the very first beginning but I never found a solo game like this. Fascinating concept, freedom, the excitement of the first Munar landing or even the first orbit is something difficult to replicate in any other solo game.

"Larry, you only told me one lie. You said there will be another Larry Bird. Larry, there will never, ever be another Larry Bird."

â€â€Magic Johnson, as quoted at Bird's retirement party

Edited July 8, 2015 by Signo

[Insanitic]

I'm not an engineer, comp sci, physicist, or mathematician. But I love space! I'm a biochemist and I'm addicted to KSP . It shows that KSP can pretty much appeal to anyone who just loves space in general.

[HoloYolo]

I am a kid going into 7th grade, great at math and science, I don't have a girlfriend (go figure), and wishes to be the first man on Mars, and I play this.

[flyboy67109]

I work as a web developer in a university, am a private pilot, and 48 yrs. old and play it. I also brew my own beer. KSP is for everyone!

[GoSlash27]

^ I post this as a proud nerd

Best,
-Slashy

[match]

I didn't put the time in to get letters after my name, but neither have I done any time to get numbers in place of my name. Been working for the "Evil Empire" (as my friends like to call it) since, well... tfl. If you have recently been disconnected during a phone call, sorry about that! Probably me paying more attention to Jeb's folks than to what I should be doing.

Started with stretching copper and fusing fiber, traded in boots and belts for suits and ties... sometimes I miss putting in an honest day's work... sometimes.

[rdwulfe]

Yeah, wow. Amazingly diverse backgrounds here, folks. I love this community.

I am currently a cheesemonger. I've worked in various retail positions for a long time, and stumbled a bit before that because of various life issues I've mostly managed to resolve. Before that, I was an (unhappy) Unix Systems Admin and programmer, and before that, I worked in the machine shop at a small aerospace tool & dye company (with contracts with G.E. and other companies). ... And before that, when I was in highschool, I built computers for a small company and designed coursework so my boss could teach 3D Max (from Autodesk) and other software... because apparently, the stuffy business men wouldn't want to sit and listen to a 15 year old kid teach them how to use computers. Heh.

I've done a ton of different jobs. I've always been a sci-fi/space geek, as well as majorly into natural sciences (I can tell you more about ants and the other social insects than you ever want to hear, trust me.) I had Legos and an erector set when I was a kid. I watched the Challenger explode while sitting in social studies, with tears in my eyes, knowing it would set NASA back majorly. I played Orbiter for a very long time, but finally got tired of it when it became too difficult to find mods that would allow me to put together my own rockets. I'd often place the Delta Glider IV (from Dan Steph) on top of a stack of boosters, or give it other drop tanks or a JATO booster to allow it to do more. I never got past Mars in Orbiter, but I enjoyed it while it lasted.

I discovered KSP at version .18 - and fell in love with it. I bought copies for 1/2 of my friends, though few play it very often, telling me it 'gives them a headache' to think about this stuff. I admit, I don't understand that. Orbital mechanics makes *sense* to me, even if I cannot exactly plot out the math of it. I understand the concepts of a Hohmann transfer, I can visualize what I need to do before I do it most of the time in KSP, though my time with Orbiter likely helped with that, since I understood more complex orbital maneuvers blind due to it. (Maneuver nodes? what are those?! I had to figure out when and where to do those on my own!)

KSP gives me a major outlet, since while I love what I do for a job, it's not exactly challenging mentally. I love dealing with people, I love selling things I enjoy. (Cheese? Cheese is awesome! Better than selling gas, or other junk at a gas station!) ... but this game is a lifeline for my intellectual side.

[Curveball Anders]

Just be careful of the Illuminati... there have been many confirmed sightings here.

Lies, all lies!

There's hasn't been any confirmed sightings of us here at all.

[GarrisonChisholm]

I am a 20-years too late classically trained bass-baritone (Christmas album available on Amazon!), who will always remember that 8-year-old wonder when Star Wars came out. This isn't Star Wars, but what could be cooler than flying something for a purpose which You Just Built? Plus, telemarketers and Illuminati alike would empty my wallet if they all sounded like Scott Manley, or Karen Gillan...

[A_name]

Lawyer here, so nothing to do with career choice. I've always been fascinated by space and have always enjoyed simulator games. KSP has the best of both!

[PsychSpec]

There's hasn't been any confirmed sightings of us here at all.

Damn it Bob. We need to have a talk after the next meeting.

I am a kid going into 7th grade, great at math and science, I don't have a girlfriend (go figure), and wishes to be the first man on Mars, and I play this.

I can confirm that the coolest people I have ever met, both guys and girls, are into math and science. Embrace it and you'll eventually be surrounded with people like yourself.

[Norcalplanner]

Long time geek into Star Wars, Star Trek, and a lot of other Sci Fi goodness. Old school Avalon Hill wargamer and RPGer back in the day. Degree in music, certification in urban planning. I love games which use the analytical part of the brain and allow you to customize things within the game system. KSP scratches so many itches so well that it has virtually monopolized my gaming time. Discovered KSP via XKCD around .23.5. And in my house, "Kerbal" is a verb - as in, "I'm going to go Kerbal for a while."

[Camaron]

Here we are, everyone's an engineer of some kind and then there's me.

Dropped college right out of high school, got into ebay reselling, made tons of money on computer parts. Lost it all and got banned from ebay (Extreme overreactions to basic novice mistakes), and went to medical school after quickly getting fed up with minimum wage at Sears, which was my first job at the age of 25.

[dr_jt]

Been playing since version .18 and just have fun building the rockets in sandbox mode and have yet to mess with space planes. Former pilot, doctorate in philosophy, currently unemployed, but have mostly worked the IT field. Won an award for an eCommerce system I designed and developed why back in the dark ages of the Internet. I started messing with Orbiter when it fist came out and ended up doing quite a few SciFi based add-ons. I did all the Rag Tag Fleet stuff including the Star Gates and Firefly. Then I saw KSP and dumped Orbiter for what I felt was a lot more fun.

[PB666]

KSP is for gamers that like to create things versus typical gamers that like combat or arena games. In kerbal when you create an Epic fail rocket, its something to snap and brag about, post pictues of the explosion on Imgur and share on this forum. Its for folks who don't mind to much putting their schooled brain into the game.

The premium game is in the addons and mods, at the highest game level when the player masters 3D graphics design, animation, and part configuration, so that any dream ship they have in their head becomes a virtual reality in the game.

[nadreck]

Long time space cadet(geek). Was president of my high school rocketry club. Watched Mercury through Apollo launches, in fact my mother was shocked when she found out my grade school didn't have us watching the launches and kept me home from school for every school day launch!

Ended up in IT in the late 70's (though devolved into IR in the energy industry 10 years ago), always looked for a good space game, Orbiter was a great simulator but lacked 'game', KSP fits all my space cadet escapist needs (I have Latin Dance for my social escapist needs )