Why is this game so addictive?!

[Palamedes]

So I was starting up KSP this morning and I noticed that Steam says I have over 600 hours playing it.. This stunned me..

I checked my other games and nothing else comes even remotely close.. Usually once I get a couple hundred hours in, I'm kinda done..

Not so with KSP.. I'm still actively playing and I don't see myself slowing at all any time soon..

In your mind, what is it about KSP that makes it so fun? I'm trying to distill that to some tangible bullet points that other games should implement..

Thoughts?

[Franklin]

Sandbox games typically have higher playtimes because the only limitation to replay is the player's patience and curiosity. KSP gives players a lot to fill their curiosity, assuming they have the patience.

Plus it's a casual game. You can play while eating a sandwich. No pressure at all. So a deep well of curiosity + no pressure to do anything = lots of leisurely dawdling.

[Franklin]

A similarly addictive game is Bad Piggies. It's a meaningless game, but I've probably spent more time in that game's sandbox than any other mobile game. I just keep building vehicles to see how they work, very similar to KSP.

[Voculus]

It taps into your creativity like very little else. Well, for me, anyway! It helps that the end result of our efforts are space-bound rockets and planes, which are some of the most powerful and complex machines ever created by mankind, so that cool factor definitely plays into it. It's a perfect union.

Edited July 25, 2014 by Voculus

[Jon Tash]

"Why is this game so addictive?"

I can answer that with two words.

Because SPACE!

But seriously, like Voculus said above, it taps into your creativity, imagination and mostly dream. Everyone in their life said one day, "I want to be an astronaut" or something related to that. I did when I was a kid, that's why I play this game. But also because I love building things, I spend most of my time in the VAB or the SPH, not because I'm a perfectionist (I'm not) but because I like to try new things, shapes, there is so many possibilities with the stock game and even more with mods. Imagination is a big part of it.

For me if a game doesn't let you be creative or imaginative in some way it won't be fun in the long run.

[Cerberus738]

Yeah... I have 1600 hours logged on steam.... and the 1 year anniversary of purchase is tomorrow.... aaah i'm such a loser

a lot of those 1600 hours are from leaving the game running while i'm at work or... where ever. It takes to long to load......

[TrooperCooper]

Almost 1000 hours in 2.5 month according to steam here... addictive? naaaaah

Good thing, most of that is the game just running in the background, keeping the steam counter busy.

[Rithsom]

I don't have the Steam version so I don't know how many hours I've currently played, but I had the game since January, and I still play it everyday for a few hours.

The reasons I play it so much?

1. It's sandbox, so there is no end to the game. I can play for an infinite amount of hours and still not finish it.

2. There is always a new update every couple of months to look forward to and play once it comes out.

3. Rockets, Kerbals, space, and explosions are all awesome!

Edited July 26, 2014 by Rthsom

[Hodo]

It is like Legos, no one knows why they are so popular but they are.

[RSF77]

Yea if I had all the time and money I ever spent on meaningless ........ back, I would buy you all.

no j/k, its addictive because... well... it caters to a wide audience.

One of the few games that can turn an ADD person into an OCD person. Draws you in with explosions and fire and whatnot, then captures you with exploration. Before you know it youre making ungodly looking creations to efficiently apply as much centrifugal force as possible while plunging little oddly shaped men into the sun without accidentally sending them off on an escape velocity from solar orbit.

Edited July 26, 2014 by RSF77

[Linear]

Almost 1000 hours in 2.5 month according to steam here... addictive? naaaaah

Good thing, most of that is the game just running in the background, keeping the steam counter busy.

You have KSP played/idling for 13 hours a day!?

[ansaman]

What I find most interesting and compelling is learning new techniques and trying to do each task more effectively and efficiently. It is amazing the different variations on design for any particular mission although I have noticed that Munar Landers tend to cluster around a couple of effective designs. Having said that, someone showed a design I hadn't seen today and I was quick to implement the design ideas in a variant of my own.

[Clockwork_werewolf]

If you want to get people to be excited about a game, you spend millions on advertising, you spend millions on modeling and artists so that every gun and military man is accurate down to the nose hair. You base it off of last years game and then sell it to people that don't know that £60 for 50 hours game-play (at best) is not a good deal.

If you want people to actually keep playing a game other things are important. I'm using Minecraft and KSP as the guides here because I suspect they have both eaten hundreds of hours of my time. KSP is at 896 hours on steam for me.

Setting. I did think of putting sandbox first but actually there are sandbox games that don't last that long. If you base a game in a city or a war then even if the player has a very large area to explore it all kind of looks the same after a while. Kerbal has all the land areas of earth at an insane scale to any other game (apart from Minecraft which is infinite). Then it adds all the other planets and moons with different gravities and such. Minecraft has biomes to add to player. Setting alone would never keep a game interesting.

Sandbox. You don't have to do anything/ you can do anything whenever. People like stories but we get a lot of plots in games and mostly they are the same. Someone is bad, someone killed someone you care about. Someone is trying to take over the world blah blah blah. How about "here is a space program, have fun". Freedom to go anywhere and see anything you like makes people spend much more time on games. Skyrim actually had this problem, after getting level 50 I realized I should probably do more of the main quest but just the bits that were on my path anyway. I saw reviews that said one problem (tongue in cheek) was there wasn't enough to keep you on the main quest. I've clocked up over 200 hours on Skyrim but it doesn't have...

Building. House, base, space station, spaceship. Am I talking about KSP or mine craft? With enough imagination and a bit of skill you can make anything. Anything. Imagination is almost endless when not crushed by society. Designing things and then making them takes time but it is also a very basic human skill and very enjoyable. We love to build and get such a warm glow when we do, this is why engineers are the happiest profession in the world. Even though they are defiantly not the best payed they are still the happiest in absolute terms not just adjusting for pay.

Rules. You might think a game without rules would be fun but without some difficulty's it just becomes painting and painting with only the games parts. Some struggle helps give us the feeling the end product is real and an achievement. I got very board of mine craft creative because of this I think I only spent an hour or two with it. The struggle of figuring out the rules and why to get round them is very satisfying. Even in sandbox KSP unless you turn on most alt-f12 cheats you will have to figure out how to get stuff into space and not explode/run out of fuel/go haywire. Learning is actually fun when it's not just data you have to assimilate.

Mods. They had to be in this list. I stopped playing Minecraft until I found mods like Tekkit and Hexxen. When I found these they probably added hundreds of hours to my play time again. I may not use many mods in KSP but I have tried a fair few (most of the usual suspects) and I understand that they add new challenges, new abilities new styles and new parts that greatly increase peoples interest in the game.

[Motokid600]

I was a Kinex addict when I was a kid so that probably explains my addiction to this game.

[Rainbowtrout]

It's addictive because of mankind's urge to punch through the clouds with a metal fist, and stick your head out of the airlock, and say "Wow, this is a really nice place!" amid the screaming of your co-pilot, your biological processes going haywire, and an angry person at mission control telling you to close it.

[Red Iron Crown]

There's a lot of things going on that make it addictive:

- The only limit is your imagination. There's not a single best way to play KSP, you are totally free to experiment with unusual play styles without much in the way of penalty. Want an all SRB space program? Go ahead. Want to make planes and just fly around Kerbin? Fill your boots. Start a colony on Laythe? Have fun with it. Build replicas of real life rockets? You can do that, too.

- There's always more to learn. I've played for about 2-1/2 years now, and I still learn things all the time that make me better at KSP, as often as not from some new poster here who's been playing for a month. I don't know that any other than a very elite few can say they are fully expert at all aspects of KSP with nothing left to learn.

- It's different. As the investment to create games gets higher and higher, companies are less and less likely to take chances on game genres that aren't already established. So we get Shoot People in a Slightly Different Way 5, Drive Really Fast in Photorealistic Cars 4, and Endorsement-filled Professional Sports Game 2014. KSP is fresh, and engages parts of the gamer mind that the repetitive other genres do not.

- It's SPACE. I've loved space exploration since I was in grade school, a game that lets me be the rocket scientist, mission controller and the astronaut is incredibly appealing.

- It's cerebral. KSP appeals to the intellect in a way most games do not. There is a delay of gratification that makes your accomplishments more satisfying. It takes smarts to do well in KSP, not just the quick reflexes and relentless practice that most other games reward. It doesn't dumb down difficult concepts to make them easier, it challenges you to figure out those difficult things.

- It's customizable. Don't like some aspect of KSP's gameplay or wish there was a certain part in the game? I'd give long odds that some modder has felt the same way and made a mod for it, likely thinking of things you didn't. Want more data for design and flight? Mods. Want hyper-realism and greater difficulty? Mods. More eye candy? Mods. Beautifully crafted replicas of real rockets? Mods. ISRU or theoretical propulsion systems? Mods. Your mix of mods can make the game just about perfect for you.

- It keeps getting better. Each new release adds more features and bugfixes, and mods keep getting more refined and capable. I took a break from KSP for a few months in late 2012, when I came back to it the game had changed considerably for the better.

- It's got a great community. For all that KSP is mostly a single player game, the level of interaction I've experienced in KSP's community is a well above any other game's community of which I've been a part. People are incredibly helpful when a player is trying to get over the initial hump of difficulty or otherwise struggling, they congratulate each other on their accomplishments, and there are tons of high quality tutorials, videos and other community-generated content out there.

So yeah, I'm addicted, and I don't see it changing any time soon.

[Thomas988]

I love KSP for so many reasons. First of all, I'm into astronomy and rockets. Right off the bat KSP is the perfect game for me. But the reason I still play is because its insanely huge universe to explore. Just Kerbin and its moons have so much to do in them. Setting massive goals, such as building a Munar space station or colony, and then achieving it is a fantastic feeling rarely felt in gaming. But finally, one of the most prominent reasons I play KSP is because of your guys, the community! Live streamers, YouTubers, forumers, Redditors, there's just so much communication with fellow KSP'ers there's always something new to talk and learn about.

I love KSP!

[SelectHalfling0]

The thing is there is so much to do (hey I went to jool! now lets go to EACH of its moons!) and it realistically takes a long time to do said things. Also, the modding community always has something new to try (alternate kerbol systems). I have logged almost 300 hours

[Voculus]

Steam tells me I've been at it for 1248 hours. Yikes! And yet, I've never landed on Bop or Pol, and have only barely landed a one-way ship on Moho one time. So much more to do...

[Mohole]

Yeah... I have 1600 hours logged on steam.... and the 1 year anniversary of purchase is tomorrow.... aaah i'm such a loser

a lot of those 1600 hours are from leaving the game running while i'm at work or... where ever. It takes to long to load......

My one year anniversary is November 30th I wish I discovered the forums earlier

[GDJ]

There's a lot of things going on that make it addictive:

- The only limit is your imagination. There's not a single best way to play KSP, you are totally free to experiment with unusual play styles without much in the way of penalty. Want an all SRB space program? Go ahead. Want to make planes and just fly around Kerbin? Fill your boots. Start a colony on Laythe? Have fun with it. Build replicas of real life rockets? You can do that, too.

- There's always more to learn. I've played for about 2-1/2 years now, and I still learn things all the time that make me better at KSP, as often as not from some new poster here who's been playing for a month. I don't know that any other than a very elite few can say they are fully expert at all aspects of KSP with nothing left to learn.

- It's different. As the investment to create games gets higher and higher, companies are less and less likely to take chances on game genres that aren't already established. So we get Shoot People in a Slightly Different Way 5, Drive Really Fast in Photorealistic Cars 4, and Endorsement-filled Professional Sports Game 2014. KSP is fresh, and engages parts of the gamer mind that the repetitive other genres do not.

- It's SPACE. I've loved space exploration since I was in grade school, a game that lets me be the rocket scientist, mission controller and the astronaut is incredibly appealing.

- It's cerebral. KSP appeals to the intellect in a way most games do not. There is a delay of gratification that makes your accomplishments more satisfying. It takes smarts to do well in KSP, not just the quick reflexes and relentless practice that most other games reward. It doesn't dumb down difficult concepts to make them easier, it challenges you to figure out those difficult things.

- It's customizable. Don't like some aspect of KSP's gameplay or wish there was a certain part in the game? I'd give long odds that some modder has felt the same way and made a mod for it, likely thinking of things you didn't. Want more data for design and flight? Mods. Want hyper-realism and greater difficulty? Mods. More eye candy? Mods. Beautifully crafted replicas of real rockets? Mods. ISRU or theoretical propulsion systems? Mods. Your mix of mods can make the game just about perfect for you.

- It keeps getting better. Each new release adds more features and bugfixes, and mods keep getting more refined and capable. I took a break from KSP for a few months in late 2012, when I came back to it the game had changed considerably for the better.

- It's got a great community. For all that KSP is mostly a single player game, the level of interaction I've experienced in KSP's community is a well above any other game's community of which I've been a part. People are incredibly helpful when a player is trying to get over the initial hump of difficulty or otherwise struggling, they congratulate each other on their accomplishments, and there are tons of high quality tutorials, videos and other community-generated content out there.

So yeah, I'm addicted, and I don't see it changing any time soon.

THIS is precisely why I like KSP.

[O-Doc]

I think it comes down to one thing. You tell your own story. There's so little background that you fill in most of the details yourself. Internalised story telling is pretty powerful stuff. Add to that real space physics and a very simple block building set, you've got a winner.