KSP as a full fledged hobby!!

[kBob]

15 hours ago, Majorjim said:

I have thought of it as a hobby for years now. My advice is to have a second hobby that produces 'solid' real world objects too. For the life balance. Plus you cannot beat holding something you made in your hand with the promise of having it with you all of your life. And no I don't count 3D printed crafts.

Well I count craft files and ancillary programs after all they can be printed out and are tangible.  I've been the DIY route and can't say making something or improving on something is any more or less satisfying that producing something digitally  .

[regex]

Yes, playing video games is a hobby of mine, and KSP rekindled an interest in space.  I also garden, do somewhat crude carpentry and masonry to improve my house, ride and work on motorcycles, etc...

[eddiew]

4 hours ago, klesh said:

There you go with that real world again, Jim.  You probably want them to go outside too, huh?

Only to catch pokémon.

[timmers_uk]

9 hours ago, autumnalequinox said:

This sounds so awesome I am jealous.  I live down the street from one of Aerojet's research facilities (they do development not testing there, meh, but it's literally 5 mins away) and have been looking into doing a tour.  I want to ask if there's a "hardcore nerd" version of the tour.

I'll try and write up some notes from the conference in the Science subforum - I'm interested to see the progress update from Reaction Engines on their Sabre engine prototyping - I heard yesterday that they made an announcement at Farnborough about getting started on the next test phase, and it'd be nice to see something that indicated the whole thing isn't just a pipe dream.

[Lunar Sea]

On 7/12/2016 at 1:36 AM, Wolfdog said:

I can't take any other space game seriously anymore. No man's sky might be good, but I will prpbably we frustrated with being able to simply fly towards planets  

This! I've only been kerbaling a few months now, but I can't abide games or tv shows and tv shows that do this now. 

Star Wars is ruined for me, and that's ok. 

[SorryDave]

Space science has always been a hobby of mine since I was young.

I just didn't know I was actually interested in space science because some day I was going to be hooked on KSP.

[mrclucks]

On 7/12/2016 at 9:01 PM, klgraham1013 said:

If you've been playing the same game for 4 years, I'd start calling it a hobby.

People tell me that after nearly 2 years of playing need professional help and no, they don't mean have astronauts assist me

[cubinator]

11 minutes ago, mrclucks said:

People tell me that after nearly 2 years of playing need professional help and no, they don't mean have astronauts assist me

No, what you need is to apply for a job at your local space agency.

[Curveball Anders]

3 hours ago, mrclucks said:

People tell me that after nearly 2 years of playing need professional help and no, they don't mean have astronauts assist me

Ouch, I wonder what they'd say about my 7 1/2 years in that other space game ...

 

[Wiseman]

I managed to miss the Shuttle program, despite growing up in the late 80's. KSP has essentially done what the Shuttle program didn't do - turn me into an 8-year old completely in love with everything space and consuming every space-related media available to me, right down to the SLS decorations on my 30th birthday cake. I've attended astronomy lectures, bought piles of books, keep up with every rocket launch I can, and have a hiking/camping trip during the Perseid meteor showers next month to a dark sky site with my new 130mm telescope. 

So... Yeah, it's been quite the transformative little game that I picked up on a fine Steam Summer Sale.

[Raptor9]

8 hours ago, mrclucks said:

People tell me that after nearly 2 years of playing need professional help and no, they don't mean have astronauts assist me

They say that admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery...well I'm not ready yet.  Tomorrow doesn't look to be the day either.

[autumnalequinox]

16 hours ago, timmers_uk said:

I'll try and write up some notes from the conference in the Science subforum - I'm interested to see the progress update from Reaction Engines on their Sabre engine prototyping - I heard yesterday that they made an announcement at Farnborough about getting started on the next test phase, and it'd be nice to see something that indicated the whole thing isn't just a pipe dream.

Oooo that's something I've been following with interest.  It would change everything if they can pull it off.  I am very very cautiously optimistic, at least compared to other "revolutionary" engines/systems on the horizon.  It may really bring back the viability of space-planes (although I swear the American obsession with them doomed us for 20+ years), or some kind of hybrid space-plane/launcher system.

 

8 hours ago, Wiseman said:

I managed to miss the Shuttle program, despite growing up in the late 80's. KSP has essentially done what the Shuttle program didn't do - turn me into an 8-year old completely in love with everything space and consuming every space-related media available to me, right down to the SLS decorations on my 30th birthday cake. I've attended astronomy lectures, bought piles of books, keep up with every rocket launch I can, and have a hiking/camping trip during the Perseid meteor showers next month to a dark sky site with my new 130mm telescope. 

So... Yeah, it's been quite the transformative little game that I picked up on a fine Steam Summer Sale.

I grew up around the same time, but my interest then was limited to having a tiny toy space shuttle that my grandparents had (that I borrowed permanently).  It was cool and had a little detachable spacelab.  I had no idea what it was about and played with it like an airplane (ha).  Then came the movie Space Camp (remember that terrible thing??  i still loved it as a kid) and I obsessed about going to space camp for soo long.  I used to just dreamily read about it in magazines and how fun it seemed.  But otherwise I do feel like I missed something great back then.  Luckily Sally Ride had flown into space a bit after I was born so luckily nobody told me I would never go into space or it was weird I had a childhood obsession (that's a plus!!)

But yes now I'm back into that childhood mode but with the focus of a 30-something myself.  I wish I had my old telescope again.  I wish I still had access to my uncle's model rockets (because now I would totally *get* them).  I've watched Earth to the Moon a thousand times (gods so many young hot actors and so many that made it big later).  Oh and the reading and reading and reading.  It does bring me back to my childhood, even if there is a twinge of regret associated with it now.   I really hope kids are getting these feelings from the game today with plenty of time to realize them.

[Monsterlunch]

Some of my friends say "that nerdy space game" made me study aerospace engineering, which prevents me from playing this game nowadays... Stupid me.

 

Lifestyle it is.

 

[Rath]

On 7/11/2016 at 11:36 PM, Wolfdog said:

EDIT: Also, browsing the forums is an addiction of mine.

So much this.

 

Guys... I think I need an intervention.

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

I am currently trying to get a helium balloon into the stratosphere and going for a degree in engerineering starting this wnter

Never would have thought about all of this without KSP

[NeoMorph]

I love playing video games but it just goes to show how addictive KSP is when I routinely ignore AAA titles I buy (they sit on the shelf waiting for me) while I go and try out a new build of KSP...

The moment I realised how an real navball works was the best eureka moment I have experienced... all because of KSP.

[Blaarkies]

On 7/12/2016 at 8:09 AM, StainX said:

Yup, now not only spacy stuff fills my mind, but also a lot of technical.

Ideas like building a Hydrogen Generator and replace the propane in an gas barbeque grill, so no more dry stakes!

Or like building a low cost mini gas turbine...

But yeah, i also started to watch a lot of science and space videos, the geeky kind of stuff... 

 

The stakes are set really high to keep that meat "Hydr-ated"   ...

....i'll show myself out now 

[StainX]

hehe stakes on steaks, ohhhh me 

[John FX]

I find it handy to have a real world hobby that produces a physical item as well but only so other people don`t berate me for wasting my time `doing nothing`

[autumnalequinox]

19 hours ago, NeoMorph said:

I love playing video games but it just goes to show how addictive KSP is when I routinely ignore AAA titles I buy (they sit on the shelf waiting for me) while I go and try out a new build of KSP...

The moment I realised how an real navball works was the best eureka moment I have experienced... all because of KSP.

Watching either Earth to the Moon or Apollo 13 I got that feeling when I knew exactly what that navball was doing.  

15 hours ago, John FX said:

I find it handy to have a real world hobby that produces a physical item as well but only so other people don`t berate me for wasting my time `doing nothing`

This one I get!  It's almost a dirty secret...like a dirty magazine in a school textbook.  Put up an instance of Microsoft Visual Studio behind it or something  

[Ten Key]

23 hours ago, autumnalequinox said:

Then came the movie Space Camp (remember that terrible thing??  i still loved it as a kid)

"Max won't live that long. . ."

Oh good, I'm not the only one.  

[rodion_herrera]

Funny that no one mentioned anything about this, but to me, a visual indication that someone has taken KSP into the "full-fledged" hobby level, is if he or she has built these things...

Edited July 15, 2016 by rodion_herrera

[Bev7787]

I broke through the youtube barrier, the filmmaking barrier, the social barrier, the draw-and-design-before-launching barrier and the constantly-watching-SpaceX barrier.

[suicidejunkie]

On Wednesday, July 13, 2016 at 3:17 AM, eddiew said:

On Tuesday, July 12, 2016 at 10:18 PM, klesh said:

There you go with that real world again, Jim.  You probably want them to go outside too, huh?

Only to catch pokémon.

That is a prime career overhaul idea:

What better way to find a few more cheap parts by the side of the road to assemble into a rocket!

[dilznick5]

Another vote for KSP re-awakening a long dormant love of space exploration. I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid. I even chose my career path to support this; degree in engineering, application to the armed forces for pilot training. Unfortunitly at the time the Canadian Forces would not take pilots who had corrective eye surgery. I thought that was a sign to keep my eyes on the ground.

And then came Kerbal Space Program.

Ive been playing for 2 years now, not as much as I would like, real life and all that. But what it did do was remind my how much I wanted to be involved in space exploration. Low and behold the Canadian Space Agency is now recruiting for 2 new astronaut positions. And best of all eye surgery is no longer a disqualifier.  

So I applied. And for every section of the application where it asked what my experience was with various aspects of space (navigation, aeronautics, propulsion...) I answered with whatever real life experience I could reference and... Kerbal Space Program.

I have no idea if I will make the cut for the second round. But if I do I am looking forward to giving examples of mission planning, orbital rendezvous, ship design and so forth acquired through hours of playing video games. 

People give video games a hard time, honestly most of the time I do too. But I dont look at KSP as a game, I look at it as a training simulator that just happens to be really fun.

Keep playing everyone.