How Did KSP Change Your Life

[NASAFanboy]

I saw this thread going around on how KSP changed the OP's life, so, I decided to create a thread were people will share how they came into KSP and how it has affected their life. So, as the creator of this thread, I will put in my story.

Before I played KSP, I was a huge Minecraft fan. I did not really have many interests, and floated around music and programming and Minecraft and warships, paying a blind eye to what was going on in space. One day, as I was watching a Minecraft video made by ChickenKeeper, I spotted a video about KSP, and I watched it. I thought it was an rather amusing concept, but did not think of it to be much, so I moved on with my life.

Flash forward three months. Then, I have developed a fledging interest in space. I am introduced to KSP at a party by one of my friends. I play it, and think "Not bad". So, I went on the internet, and found the torrent for 0.15. I get hooked, and play it day after day, night after night. My entire winter break was spent playing KSP, and I soon began to grasp the basics of orbiting and Kerbin-Moon transfers. I download the torrents of 0.16 and 0.17, before downloading the torrent for 0.18. My gameplay begins to show blossoming. Inter-plantery travel is realized, probes are sent to Eve, and Spacetstations are orbited while bases are put on the mun. So, I decide to buy it. After purchasing the game, most of my guilt for pirating it went away, and I began to devote myself to the game, and space.

I learned through trial and error, and soon had greatly increased my general knowledge of spaceflight to the point I began could easily hold in a conversation with my science teachers on the subject. Soon, I began to memorize terms such as apogee, and perigee, memorizing charts of a plasma engine, while holding long discussions with my science teachers on space.

Before I find this game, I wanted to be a programmer. Now, I want to be a Aerospace Engineer, and am a member of the Plantery and Mars Societies, and volunteer for many pro-space orginizations in my state. I have just recently sent a application for a internship to NASA and SpaceX, hope I get accepted. KSP has gotten me hooked to space, and might as well have gotten me a career.

Thanks, Squad. I still feel guilt about pirating the early stages, despite the fact they were outdated.

What is your story?

[Stealth2668]

Pretty much have lower grades

[NASAFanboy]

Pretty much have lower grades

[BobTheYoungFish]

I discovered it from one of kurtjmac's videos. Before that I only had a slight interest in space. Now I have a much larger interest in what is going on outside of our little planet.

[lobsterbark]

You need to buy the game, not pirate it. I will murder you in your sleep if you do not purchase the game.

[Deadpangod3]

I'm scared... ^^

[Curs0r]

It's caused an alienation of half or more of my friends because I won't shut up about aerospace engineering and I keep sending them screenshots that don't interest them.

[NASAFanboy]

You need to buy the game, not pirate it. I will murder you in your sleep if you do not purchase the game.

I bought it, twice.

[AmpsterMan]

It's caused an alienation of half or more of my friends because I won't shut up about aerospace engineering and I keep sending them screenshots that don't interest them.

Yeah, that happened to me too .

[Immortalis Vexx]

I discovered this game a few weeks ago and I am insanely hooked. I discuss it with friends at work quite frequently (the nerds anyway) and I think I will cause a few more people to buy and play the game. lol. KSP is a rare gem in games these days in that it is an ACTUAL CHALLENGE. +2 points dev team.

Vexx

[lobsterbark]

Yeah, that happened to me too .

And me. I would say something that would be amazing, and awesome to a ksp person, but my friends are just like. "ok."

[lobsterbark]

I bought it, twice.

Good. You are now off of my murder list.

[Trux]

Pretty much find myself staying up later to play

But I sometimes find myself analyzing things more in day to day life, finding new approaches to things. It is one of those games that has given me so much value for my money and Squad deserves every penny. Somehow feel guilty about not paying loads for it...

[goldenpeach]

KSP made me be really interested in space/rocket/rocket science.

Before KSP,I never thought about going on wikipedia to see what is the isp(i didn't knew it existed!).

We can say that KSP made me learn a lot of things!

[legodragonxp]

I have dug out all my old space books I had as a kid in the 70s and 80s. I watch old footage of space launches, remembering watching some of them live. I've been looking up all the old space programs that never went anywhere and I just dumped $60 on a copy of the Liftoff! board game. I'm having a blast, for more than building aircraft in X-plane.

-Lego

[Warscribe]

As i was already interested in basically, all of the science (except geology) and as an Engineer (note: not the american 'engineer' title, i mean the european academic title. i think its equivalent to a Bachelor in science and engineering or something along the lines.), i was already fond with most of the workings of propulsion/orbiting/athmospheres.

I stumbled over KSP while searching for simulation programs (actually i searched for civilization-type sims) on steam. lo and behold; this was the real deal for me. I won't say KSP changed my life, but it certainly adds a fine spice to the mix.

[TheDarkStar]

I went from knowing almost nothing about the specifics of space to knowing how to fly rockets to anywhere, along with things like dV and launch window. I'd say that's a pretty big change.

[willneu97]

I fell in love with space. I will randomly find myself on wikipedia on some nights just looking at articles about space just because it's so interesting.

[Whirligig Girl]

I have gotten a real understanding of orbital mechanics and newton's laws.

[EndOfTheEarth]

It's sort of a personal thing for me.

Growing up I desperately wanted to become a NASA mission controller, because to me that was cutting-edge action; historic moments, risky business, creative problem solving and all that. Gene Kranz was my childhood hero, and thinking of Astronaut Mike Collins alone on the far side of the moon during Apollo 11 got me through a hard summer experience. It was a goal I was dead-set on from kindergarten all the way through eleventh grade.

And then, the year before I graduated high school, I took physics. Not only was it the most dispassionate thing I'd ever done in my academic career, it marked the worst grades that I'd ever gotten in a science class. In an awful moment that spring, I realized that I'd spent the past ten years of my life confusing the concept of space travel with the reality of space travel, and that I was not, in fact, ever going to go into astrophysics. I think I spent the next week a crumpled and depressed mess, and managed to pass physics with a low B. From there I spent two years confused and adrift before I settled on a combination of English and Information Tech.

And then, I ran across a mention of KSP on a NASA news site that I follow. I thought it cute at first, but having tried and failed at Orbiter, and being a mediocre Cessna pilot on MS Flight Simulator '03, I was hesitant to mess with another simulator game. A few weeks after that, the first video for it showed up on Kurt's channel (I was following Kurt for his astronomy commentary) and after watching him get into Munar orbit for the first time, and the fact that trying and failing with quick results was a fundamental part of KSP, I began to consider buying it.

And then the news got to me that they were adding lander legs to the next update, and in an instant, that childhood dream of being part of the team that landed something on the moon flashed before my eyes again. I bought KSP full-price the same night and attacked the game in every spare minute I had, determined that not only would I manage it, but that I would manage it so quickly, that I would beat Kurt in getting there. I spent the better part of a few weeks forcing larger and more powerful rockets into Munar orbit and, eventually, I pulled off that first landing. I've never had a video game move me to tears before that point; a few got close, but that moment of seeing an old, discarded dream realized in some way hit me deep.

I'm still invested in KSP, perhaps not as much as I was before, but I'm still managing good things, and still getting to satisfy my inner kid with historic moments, risky business, and creative problem solving.

And yes, I'm still ahead of Kurt.

[flyin_ruski]

I have gotten a real understanding of orbital mechanics and newton's laws.

Same here. It has brought back a childhood interest in space flight for me. Got me back into building scale rocket models to.

[M5000]

It's caused an alienation of half or more of my friends because I won't shut up about aerospace engineering and I keep sending them screenshots that don't interest them.

Really? Because I found a girlfriend who gets excited for me when I tell her I just finished my last rendezvous with my Mun station.

[AmpsterMan]

Really? Because I found a girlfriend who gets excited for me when I tell her I just finished my last rendezvous with my Mun station.

Marry her. NAO!!!

On a more serious note, I love how KSP has been scratching that itch that we have all had but didn't know we had for the longest time. For us older folk this game might be more of a fun thing that allows us to escape for some time. But I can imagine the 11-12 year olds who play this game. I can imagine them being soo affected by the discussions on these forums, on the happenings in this game, that 20-30 years from now we are going to see an interview with the director of NASA saying "Well when I was a kid, there was this Awesome space game I used to play... that's what got me into it" or some such.

That is why we need to welcome the younger ones amongst us with open arms

[Curs0r]

Really? Because I found a girlfriend who gets excited for me when I tell her I just finished my last rendezvous with my Mun station.

Well I did say 'half'. Some of my friends dig it too. My girlfriend does not but I think I'd give her up before this game

[chainedlupine]

It's caused an alienation of half or more of my friends because I won't shut up about aerospace engineering and I keep sending them screenshots that don't interest them.

A friend of mine got me into KSP. We both watched Thor's Insane Rockets Division on YouTube and that inspired me to buy the game.

I built some rockets and sent screenshots to my friend. He was further excited about KSP and so he purchased the game.

But our skill level quickly diverged.

While he was struggling to get a rocket into orbit, I had quickly graduated from LKO to the Mun/Minmus, and then to the other planets. I was building space stations and exploratory landing vehicles, and he was barely able to land an unmanned tiny probe on the Mun.

I stopped sending him pictures of my accomplishments when I could tell he was getting frustrated at his own failures. The difference between us? I played a lot of Orbiter simulator and so I am familiar with basic orbital mechanics. My friend was not, and he balked at learning. I tried to teach him, but he had the view that KSP was more of a game, and therefore it should perform these functions such as orbital circularizing or insertions for you.

(I showed him MechJeb, and he was happy for a while, but MJ2 completely ruined it for him. He never learned how to use the maneuver node system properly, and since MJ2 uses it nearly exclusively, he did not like it and felt it was too complicated.)

Today? KSP isn't exactly a verboten topic, but I usually don't bring it up unless my friend mentions it first.