why did you start playing KSP?

[Francois424]

I was very, very bored (gaming wise) and I was chatting on the old "Star Citizen Chatroom" around 23h00 on Friday night.
Some guy called "Dr. Hawk"  posted a blind invitation with a link to check his stream.

Sure, why not and I click on it.  He's flying what looks like a very small craft around what looks like the moon, and asking chat where he should land.
Everyone thinking they are smart (myself included) ask him to lad on the dark side.  Well, he does it on the second try and had packed some pretty impressing array of lights to help him.
He plants a flag (this was before science in 0.23), then lift off, and return/land on "Earth" complaining that his nuke would have rendered the neighborhood inhabitable for the next 50 years.

Looked like a good pastime game... I asked him what the name was... he said : "Kerbal Space Program".
So I looked it up, pretty cheap at 20$... bought it and went to bed.  Started playing the very next day, non-stop for at least until 0.25.
Pretty awesome game !  Still taking an extended break right now (Hearts of Iron 4, World of Warships, Baldurs Gate I-II playthrus), but looking forward to coming back later.

As to actually *WHY* I am playing KSP ?  I combines a lot of factors I learned to appreciate since I started gaming back in 1982.
 - KSP is slow (Or as slow as you want to make it).  I once let my ship fly to the Mün with little acceleration so it would take 4 hours to get there.  Why?  because I could.  And I was doing something IRL at the same time.
 - KSP can be a "Hands-off" type of game... in the same category than above.  Yes there are intense twitching moments, but overall you give orders, make a burn, and relax for a while. I love games like this !
 - KSP is a pure synonym of Customization, and not talking Mods here.  You want to make your lander a quad-engine lander ?  you make it work and it's yours. you want a 1500 parts mothership?  sure.
 - KSP has a lot of exploration, and more available with Outer Planets Mods and other mods out there.  Since I love roving around (again... because I can !  efficiency be damned), it makes for long stretched-goals.
 - KSP allows for everything.   As opposed to "On-Rails" games, you can build a rocket, launch it, turn it around, and crash it into the Space center.  How many games allow to mess around like this ???  it's fun !
 - KSP has good enough graphics (Well, with clouds/volumetric clouds... makes all the difference).  No need for super realistic 3D with a Gazillion polygons.

Old games like Carrier Command (AtariST version), MidWinter, StarBlade, Sundog: Frozen Legacy, TradeWars 2002 (BBS game), to name only these ones Most on Amiga/AtariST where all favorite games of mine and are represented somehow into what KSP (at it's core) is.  A slow game with epic moment, allowing for any style of play at any pace of play, without penalties.  You can go anywhere, anywhen and do anything once there.

 

I hate new games that are all a huge railroad and you cannot even explore anymore.  You *have* to go to A then B then C -- BOSSFIGHT -- then D... and so on.  Heck the old D&D inspired games I played from 1985-1991 let you explore and immerse yourself in their worlds...  KSP reproduces that feeling, and grab me by the Balls like a hot woman...  "That's OK honey I'm fine with you not letting go !" 

[lodger]

4 minutes ago, Francois424 said:

Old games like Carrier Command (AtariST version), MidWinter, StarBlade, Sundog: Frozen Legacy, TradeWars 2002 (BBS game), to name only these ones Most on Amiga/AtariST where all favorite games of mine and are represented somehow into what KSP (at it's core) is.  A slow game with epic moment, allowing for any style of play at any pace of play, without penalties.  You can go anywhere, anywhen and do anything once there.

Full ACK to that, man! Midwinter and Carrier Command - played those on my 520ST for hours and hours. And Elite: Frontier on an Amiga 500 a few years later. Those were the days!

[JoeNapalm]

 

For the ladies, of course!

 

-Jn-

[spacebrick3]

My little brother gave it to me for Christmas, and I came back to it after about 6 months and loved it.

[Drelam]

I was actively looking for a space exploration game for years (being a great Starflight I fan). The frustrating part of this was that almost all games that are set in space are almost soley about killing stuff, without doing anything else. KSP is (almost) exactly what i was looking for, at least it represents the beginning of the game i was looking for decades.

I love building stuff, especially since it is not just for aesthetics, but also for functionality. I just hope that KSP will expand its horizon and becomes interstellar some day.

 

[JedTech]

I searched forever for game to simulate orbital mechanics. After much frustration I finally stumbled across SimpleRockets!

SimpleRockets was the best thing since the N64.

But then it happened. Within the SimpleRockets app I tapped on a link recommending "Kerbal Space Program", and my world was changed forever.

[softweir]

I saw a thread about it on the Egosoft forums back in July 2011 and was tempted. I think it was This Clip which attracted my attention - the fact that very, very silly mistakes had genuine meaning.

Back then it was a free download (o.9 iirc), so I went and grabbed it. I bought it when it went commercial, and bought it again when it came out on Steam.

I'm taking a rest from it at the moment. I feel I "did" Sandbox mode and Science mode, but am not yet drawn to Career mode. I may revisit it in a version or two if there is a bit more to see and go to.

[MDZhB]

For whatever reason, I was looking up SSTV signals on youtube, and I got to a video of someone looking for the Duna easter egg. He was flying around in some insane contraption, but it piqued my interest. I downloaded the demo a little later, and finally bought the game almost exactly as 0.24 came out, about a year or so later.

[JetJaguar]

My kids like to watch gameplay videos on YouTube, and they showed me a funny video from someone launching these ridiculously huge rockets and blowing things up.  It looked interesting (A rocket building sandbox game with realistic orbital mechanics?  Sign me up!), so I did some Googling to figure out what game it was and downloaded the demo.  After about an hour or so of play I bought the full version on Steam.  This was 0.90, only two or three days before the release of 1.0.

[Ozymandias_the_Goat]

For that!

 

[Zer0Winds]

1. Obsessed With Space

2. Saw my favorite YouTuber play it

3. Downloaded demo

4. Got it (Early Access) for my birthday.

Now I have this as my second most favorite game... ever.

[FyunchClick]

XKCD for me as well, in addition to some funny and/or bewildering gifs and clips. At some point it just wore down my 'no early access' rule (around 0.23ish I guess) and I haven't regretted it since.

[SpaceplaneAddict]

I always like science, back then it was aircraft for me, and when i started reading about rocketry, i started looking if i could have a bit of.... fun with them. As it turns out, I was browsing Steam one day, and voila. KSP 0.90. I started pestering my parents for it, and didn't get it 'till 1.0

*Determination.

[Cunjo Carl]

A bit of an embarrassing one. Some of the kindly people over at berrytube.tv were highly praising it, inbetween the normal topics of ponies friends and booze. I've always found physics simulators frustratingly simple or boringly realistic, so I ignored it for a good while until a steam sale. It was a while ago, long before career mode. I bought it, designed a monstrous rocket, made a heart-pounding trip to the Mun back without realizing how to save, and have been hooked on it since. It really does strike an excellent chord between simplified and realistic.

[Znath]

I played a bit of orbiter, but it was pretty restricted.  The only way to do anything interesting was to basically cheat.  And if you're gonna cheat a little, might as well cheat a lot.

 

I can't really remember where I heard about it though.  I downloaded the demo and tried it for a bit.  Managed to land on the moon in the demo, which was really really hard.  No stabilization or landing gear so I saw some trick using decouplers to make landing gear out of tail fins.   The craft was so barely able to land that to make it back, you had to jettison the fins to make it back with the 1 fuel can and the tiny lander.  Then I saw the other parts on the main game and since it was still early beta it was super cheap... 

[Mastikator]

My brother showed it to me, I remember it like it was yesterday, palm trees and fake oceans, and then a moon was added! Now things got really interesting. Funny enough I did manage to land on the mun before I knew I could press m to get map view.

[Dafni]

I have always been a bit of a space nut, fell in love with the shuttle around 1986, and followed all the probes and rovers ever since (not an easy thing before the internet)

I gave up playing video games 20yrs ago... and then a friend from work shows me this game and I felt like it was made for me. Bought a better computer and here I am.

[Nathaniel411]

Same here, I was absolutely OBSESSED with space. Then I saw markiplier play the old version, then I saw jacksepticeye play it (Yes I know those guys never played it again). Then I started watching other videos of it, I eventually got to the forums then to the wiki. Then I just HAD to but it. I played so Gmod while waiting for the DL to finish then I found myself downloading like 10 mods for my 3rd time playing it.

[ProtoJeb21]

I happened to find some videos of KSP (some early versions, though) on YouTube back in July of 2014. I found the game to meet all of my major interests as I continued to find out more about it. I got KSP just a few weeks after 0.90's release...and 11 months before joining the forums!

[RedstoneWizard22]

Mine is pretty simple, my friend showed it to me, so I decided to to try the demo. I became really interested in it so I bought the full game. I have always really liked games that are open world and free building/creation (such as Gmod) and KSP is one of those.

Edited June 29, 2016 by RedstoneWizard22

[N_Danger]

 I've always been a space program fan and have always liked to see rockets take off since I was a kid. One day while looking at random gaming videos I saw one about KSP and down loaded the demo. As soon as it was on sale on Steam (.90) I picked it up because I wanted to watch rockets take off everyday.

And bonus points if they don't explode..... or not, I am easy to please.

[Hary R]

Well for one of my hobby (writing), i wanted to know how real spacecraft were handled. And I get interested in KSP after watching some youtubers playing it. But it's Scott Manley that decided me to play the game. Watched him since version 0.18 were out and thought: I need to try it for myself. And here I am, a gamer specialist of orbital mechanic that will never watch a space opera with the same suspicion of disbelieve. nevermore 

[Mjarf]

I like spaceships.

[Astrofox]

Sounds crazy, but it was the Soviets!

Seriously, I was trying to find videos/documentaries on the Soviet Lunar Program when I stumbled upon the KSP 0.19 (or .20) trailer.

I knew right then and there that I was to bug my parents for the game.

Seriously. That's what happened.

[Kevin Kyle]

I was born at the beginning of the space race and grew up wanting to be an astronaut. I loved Orbiter and when I discovered KSP , I couldnt stop myself. Been loving it since then.