Chances of KSP becoming a "forever game"

[AviatorBJP]

Most of the games that I love the most, I cannot play anymore, because they stay the same and technology moves forward without too much concern for backwards compatibility. I could foresee KSP (and games that use similar business strategies) overcoming this tragic cycle of love and loss. What do you think will be the end of KSP, or do you think it will continue development until we all have space cars and find this game mundane? What are your thoughts?

[cardgame]

Nothing is forever.

[um3k]

I don't expect Squad to maintain and update it forever, but I do hope they have the foresight to open source it when they're finished with it (after a grace period, of course).

[Richy teh space man]

All games have a life span.. some more then others

I can see this game having a long life due to its originality

[Tim_Barrett]

I don't know, it seems like modern technology is pretty good now since all of the major changes have been implemented about say, a decade ago? More universal updates will come sooner or later, but mainly for making our computers more powerful, not really making everything else defective.

Not to mention when already had passed the point where pretty much every computer to date can do simple things, such as use Word for example. I can see in the future where a normal computer can play any kind of game as itself, but that's not as much a priority.

[sal_vager]

Hardware and OS's move on, but it's possible we'll be able to play KSP decades from now with WindowsXP or Win7 emulators, and it works in Wine on Linux and Wine still supports Windows 3.1, so I think we'll always be able to go back and play it again.

No game lasts forever, but the old classics are still remembered like Doom and Wolfenstein3D, System Shock and Command & Conquer, maybe KSP will be like them?

Something I do hope for though, is that KSP sparks off more games like this, science based games not necessarily about the space race, Spacechem is another science based game so maybe the tide will turn to more cerebral games?

None of us here seem able to put KSP down, it has that "Just one more go" quality and the difficulty missing from many games these days, Squad couldn't have come up with a better idea I think, KSP rocks

[TheProdigy]

I think it will last for a long time and continue to update as time goes on.

Look at the mmo EVE online (space ship game). 10 years ago the graphics wern't that great. But neither were other games graphics. Now 10 years later their graphics are amazing! and they just keep adding more and more stuff to it each year.

[AlternNocturn]

I have a game from 1998 called "Unreal". That game (as well as its sequel from 1999, "Unreal Tournament") has run on every version of Windows I've tried so far, including Windows 8. Most games from that time period don't work on the newest OS versions any more. But something about that game has kept it running on every version of Windows so far. There's still a small community behind the game, updating it with their own fan patch and modding and mapping for the few that remain. I'm hoping KSP does the same thing eventually, being kept alive through countless mods and fan patches.

[Ascensiam]

Hey, how many do you think play Rome Total war, Homeworld, Half-Life and the like? Those games are nearing a decade in age, some simply get stuck on our brains, KSP is, by my opinion, one such game, it has that ''returning playability'' feel.

[EndlessWaves]

I don't know, it seems like modern technology is pretty good now since all of the major changes have been implemented about say, a decade ago? More universal updates will come sooner or later, but mainly for making our computers more powerful, not really making everything else defective.

640 gig ought to be enough for anyone?

Technology moves on and as computers get more powerful people will find new thing to do with them and better ways of doing existing things and there are only so many things operating system makers can support at once.

[Spoot Knight]

I find it extremely silly that this is even a concern when the game has yet to shift into the next development phase.

From nearly 22 years of gaming, the obvious games that quit working in my experience are games from Commodore 64, Amiga, and most games that would run on Windows 3.1 or 95/98.

Digital distributors like GoG.com and Steam provide a library of games that are likely to not work by conventional means (Running from the disk) at this point. For other games like those that run on DOS, or PC-9801 in the case of older Touhou titles, there's emulators.

In other words, these are games that are of a similar age as most people on this forum, assuming that I remember that poll correctly having people of high school age as the majority, that I can still play.

Even if KSP is to have reduced or no support in the future (That is, when some time has passed with the finished game), this game already has a large modding base to continue providing additional parts and functions for players.

Edited September 14, 2012 by Spoot Knight

[opticalshadow]

i think games can indeed last forever. im still playing games from dacades ago, i know alot of my friends do aswell. i think their mainstream appeal will die, i think even most cult fans will wash away. but some games will be played forever and ever.

the key to it is, the devs. games have a commercial life span, after a point, unless teh devs never leave the game alone and update it forever and more, there needs to be a space where the devs know the game isnt making them money, they release it to the fans, let the fans make the game into something more. there are games still played today because of this open source mindset, there are some older games that are hacked, and teh devs just let it go, because their not making money off a game from the 80's, but the fans keep it alive.

KSP can do this, and squad can do alot to plan for it. open source helps when the time comes where teh game stops making money and theres nothing left to achomplish. that time could be years, it could be decades. but KSP doesnt have any real genre compition, it has the ability to set a standard. if it can become a commercial sucess (akin to minecraft) it will always be known as the game that started it all (even if it didnt) and that will help preserve it.

[Kosmo-not]

I've put more hours and attention into KSP than several other games combined. KSP has given me value well beyond what I have paid for it.

Kerbal Space Program will be on my HD for a very long time.

[air805ronin]

I think the worst experience I've had with old games was the original Mechwarrior because enemy movement was tied to processor speed. Anyone who grew up from a 286 to a modern computer knows why that is a huge issue. You play it, unaltered, on a modern PC and the enemy blows you up in x30000000 fast forward. Emulators learned to essentially slow down processor speed.

If there is a call for a game to be playable 20 years from now, someone will know how to make it happen. I'm not too worried about KSP having issues with that.

And I love it immensely. If it goes as far as I hope it does, it will be a forever game for me.

[Randox]

Keep the operating system(s) that can run your favorite games. With each passing year, computers are stronger and storage gets bigger, so its not unfeesible for many computers to run virtual machines with an older OS installed. Essentially, you keep all the stuff you want, and then migrate your entire system (well, all the memory that describes it) into a virtual machine on your newer computer, to live on in that computers hard drive. For the more sentimental people, this also means your beloved system never has to die a cruel death to the march of progress that has made your love obsolete. It can live on forever (in a very literal sense) in your new rig.

Of course, if your going to do this, you should pay attention to your computer. More cores and RAM are useful for virtual machines (since you will still have to run your actual operating system at the same time). If your doing anything heavy with the virtual, 3 or 4 cores is a good idea. Also, some processors are built with features specifically designed to allow it to virtualize like this, so that the emulation process is not such a burden.

If computers reach their next technological milestones in our lifetime, they might not resemble the ones we use now at all. But computers are awesome at simulating things, so you should always be able to create a virtual machine for any operating system, no matter what advancements we might make.

[air805ronin]

As a guy who works with virtual machines all the time, and has certifications in virtualization, what Randox says is very true. If you hold onto your CD-ROMS for your favorite OS, or the floppy disks, you can create almost any virtual machine you need right now. Virtualization isn't going away, and will let you play KSP for the rest of your life because Squad has made the wise decision to let us do what we want with the game and made it ultra portable.

[GoodGuy]

Well, Charlie, sometimes forever means a long, long time.

just had to bring that up

[bsalis]

Why would you want it to be forever, when you can be playing Kerbal Space Program 2?

Hopefully it will be made. Hopefully it will have a purpose built game engine. I have not been impressed with what I have seen of Unity and PhysX.

[Grand Lander]

KSP will grow with these changes in technology.

[AD-Edge]

I still play the games I had back on my Commodore 64 (on my laptop), so Im not entirely sure what the concern is.

Im sure that well after Squad have finished with KSP, there will still be some hardcore modders left, who will continue to work on the game as with other popular games.

And yeh, KSP 2 is always a possibility too anyway, not to mention any other games Squad might work on into the future.

[HarvesteR]

I still sometimes play games that are too old to run on current hardware and OSes. Games like Full Throttle or Fragile Allegiance, they need to be run with emulators like ScummVM or DosBox.

Many years from now, it's not at all impossible that tech from today like the Unity player becomes too old to be supported by the hardware and OSes of the time, so you'd probably have to do the same thing we do now to play DOS games.

KSP has a somewhat greater-than-average chance of being playable on unsupportive systems in the future though, because it is a unity game, it's much more likely someone in the future will create a UnityPlayerVM or something, to run all unity games. If we were using a proprietary or obscure game engine, chances would be a lot worse.

Cheers

[Awaras]

Lol @ Fragile Allegiance. I thought I was the only one that still plays that.

[Houstonhasaproblem]

I still sometimes play games that are too old to run on current hardware and OSes. Games like Full Throttle or Fragile Allegiance, they need to be run with emulators like ScummVM or DosBox.

Many years from now, it's not at all impossible that tech from today like the Unity player becomes too old to be supported by the hardware and OSes of the time, so you'd probably have to do the same thing we do now to play DOS games.

KSP has a somewhat greater-than-average chance of being playable on unsupportive systems in the future though, because it is a unity game, it's much more likely someone in the future will create a UnityPlayerVM or something, to run all unity games. If we were using a proprietary or obscure game engine, chances would be a lot worse.

Cheers

I promise you, that I will play this game with my unborn children!

[sal_vager]

Houstonhasaproblem, I think you should stick to using a keyboard, mouse and joystick instead

Also, I'm looking forwards to the 2052 remake of the KSP series on modern sensovision systems

[um3k]

I dunno, the fiery deaths may be a bit unpleasant in sensovision. But, hey, impetus for better safety, I suppose.