Would you have bought kerbal space program if it didn't have any kerbals in it?

[vixr]

I like them...They were already in place when I bought my game last November. I worry about them and try to keep em safe. I also rotate them out of the stations and send them down in landers so they dont get bored.

Edited February 17, 2015 by vixr
removed dumb content

[timsfitz]

The Kerbals turned me off at first. I bought the game after seeing some footage and playing the demo.

[r_rolo1]

When I bought the game for the first time ( long story short, I bought the game far in the boonies time ( 0.13-0.14? ), lost the keys for it and re bought it far later ( 0.23 IIRC )), the kerbals were not much more than animated gifs in the lower right screen that screamed as hell at anything I did and that offered some light comedy relief, but nothing more ( in fact the only time you saw kerbals out of the char windows in flight were in the loading screens ). In other words, the game at that time could really pass well without them ... and I bought the game anyway So yeah, i would had bought the game without kerbals ...

[justidutch]

Yes, I still would have bought the game if there were no kerbals in it. But one of the reasons I bought the game was because it looked like the developers had a sense of humour, in the way they portrayed the characters in the promotional videos. As soon as I started playing I was briefly disappointed in the fact that the characters actually had no impact on the game whatsoever, but then quickly got distracted by all the explosions and never thought about it again.

[regex]

Could have been anything, even people, I still would have bought the game.

[Starhawk]

As somebody else mentioned, I tried the game because of the xkcd cartoon 'Orbital Mechanics'. One of the things that I liked right away was that the game had a humourous feel. The image of a smiling Kerbal set next to the image of the crashed Mun lander really helped set that tone for me. It definitely made it fun to fail (well, that and the explosions.), and I bought the game after only a short time trying the demo.

Who knows? If it hadn't been for that Kerbal, I may have been put off by the learning curve and decided not to purchase the game (although I kind of doubt it).

Anyway, Kerbals definitely help set that humourous tone which adds a lot of enjoyment to the game for me.

[Moon Goddess]

Would I have bought the game without any astronauts for EVAs? No probably not.

Do they have to be Kerbals, No, they were never a turn off, but weren't a selling factor for me.

I personally feel the game, (No, really the community) takes the humor/explosions way too far for my taste now, but I do think that without some of the humor it would be too much like Orbiter and I wouldn't have bought it.

[JAD_Interplanetary]

I'm another one who bought that game due to XKCD, specifically Six Words. I would definitely have bought it without Kerbals, but I probably wouldn't have kept playing for as long, or invested nearly as much time and effort as I have without them in there and the background flavor they provide, and the opportunities to add your own narratives to your missions.

[Flixxbeatz]

The kerbals themselves, while being an important part of the gameplay as it currently stands, are not integral in essence to what KSP really is.

They could be replace by purple skinned oval-headed doofus but as long as the gameplay itself (IVA/EVA/etc.) didn't change, KSP would pretty much be the same.

Back in the days, we didn't even have kerbals! We built rockets out of plywood and had to push the crafts to the launchpad by hand.

P.P.P.S. I bought the game because SPAAAACE. Kerbals are a bonus.

What this guy said.

Pic related:

[Nathair]

The Kerbals put me off buying KSP for quite a while, they made the game look quite cute and silly. I would have bought the game much sooner without them... my mistake, of course, now I really enjoy the goofy little guys.

[Drethon]

No I would not have bought KSP without the Kerbals. If I knew what the game was like I wouldn't have cared but the Kerbals drew me in because it made KSP look like a game more focused on fun and didn't take itself too seriously. Come to find out it takes itself very seriously but in a fun way.

[FlyingPete]

The Kerbals are good fun, add some humour and set the 'realistic enough without taking itself too seriously' tone of the game nicely. However, I was attracted to the game by the notion of being able to build rockets much more easily than you can in Orbiter. Of course, this was back in the 0.13 demo, and all you saw of the Kerbals was the classic trio via IVA cameras. They've become a much more integral part of the game since then.

[Peder]

Kerbals or human-astronauts is the same to me.

But having kerbals might be good for the simulator that do not minic 100% real life rockets and constructions.

I think kerbals make the developers make it more "eat able" that a rocket do not have to look like a Nasa rocket and make the player feel like he is in a "non real" fictional world. It also allow the developers to "imagine" and be creative with the game than if it had been a "real simulator" of real life things.

However I would like to see a "huge" mod in the future with real life solar system and real life rockets ect. I think that would be interesting ( after v 1.0 )

[Flixxbeatz]

However I would like to see a "huge" mod in the future with real life solar system and real life rockets ect. I think that would be interesting ( after v 1.0 )

There's the Real Solar System plugin and there's countless modpacks to build real life rocket replicas.

[comham]

The kerbal design is an instant classic, they are so recognisable, people are going to be including them in Video Game Character Mashup art for years to come.

It's kind of hard to say how they affected the sales without going to alternate realities where squad chose chibi anime characters or robots or furries or something instead. But something funny definitely takes the pain away from orbital mechanics and physics, if it didn't have that defused the playerbase would just be be german concrete technicians.

[Roderik]

if there wasn't a replacement for them then probably not because only flying rockets is boring

[Gerandar]

Kerbals are not needed for what the game really is there just a nice bonus, they could be cinderblocks wearing spacesuits and it wouldnt change anything for me.

[Guest]

[something]

Edited April 5, 2015 by Jack Wolfe

[r4pt0r]

The kerbals were what interested me at first, then I loved the exploration part. They are the games character.

EDIT: Yes they are the games character, but they are the games CHARACTER. You follow my meaning?

Edited February 17, 2015 by r4pt0r

[Greenfire32]

When I started playing KSP there weren't any Kerbals. Only the portraits. So....yeah I'd still play KSP if there weren't any Kerbals

[Renegrade]

It doesn't help the that the past few Steam banners have the Kerbals front and center with nary a rocket to be seen. (Actually, in the 0.90 banner, you can see a tiny smoke trail in the background, which the uninitiated might assume is a rocket...or missile.)

Ouch, really (I barely look at the Steam end of things, I usually use the storebought one)? They really gotta work on their marketing then. You'd think they'd be good at the marketing ends of things. :/

The kerbal design is an instant classic, they are so recognisable, people are going to be including them in Video Game Character Mashup art for years to come.

That they are.

[Skorpychan]

Yes; I bought it for the 'design and build your own rockets' bit. Always wanted to assemble stuff on-orbit.

[RobotsAndSpaceships]

Definitely, probably sooner as a matter of fact. If I could redo KSPs development I would have done away with the tiny solar system entirely.

[problemecium]

A, I think I would indeed have still bought it, but the Kerbals did definitely give me extra motivation to do so.

B, I agree with the above posters that surely by now someone would have made an EVA mod and quite possibly it would have been assimilated into stock, so in a way the Kerbals were inevitable and the "if there were no Kerbals" case is pointless to consider ;P

[Red Iron Crown]

I agree with the above posters that surely by now someone would have made an EVA mod and quite possibly it would have been assimilated into stock, so in a way the Kerbals were inevitable and the "if there were no Kerbals" case is pointless to consider ;P

But would they have been little green men? I think a mod would more likely have added more human-like astronauts.