The Beginnings and Rising Popularity of Simulation Games

thegamer.com:

Orbital mechanics is, according to internet wisdom, the (deep breath) “application of ballistics and celestial mechanics to the practical problems concerning the motion of rockets and other spacecraft”. It’s clearly a concept loaded with complex principles and formulas no amount of words can fully encapsulate. Even XKCD cartoonist, Randall Munroe, could not fully grasp it in his years of study in school and university, or as a contract programmer and roboticist at NASA. But the one thing that upended his understanding of this theory and the basics of space flight? Kerbal Space Program.

First launched in 2011, Kerbal Space Program has become one of the most critically acclaimed space flight simulators. Like others of this genre, there is no grand narrative to follow, just a central quest: send the alien race, the Kerbals, to glorious space by building a functioning spacecraft. Eventually, the game was so popularly received, as well as lauded for its realistic physics simulation, that it was given the stamp of approval by the astrophysicists, engineers, and astronauts from NASA—with the developers soon collaborating with the space agency to produce updates based on real-life NASA initiatives.

Related: 10 Best Simulation Games

For all its authenticity, however, hurling a massive, metallic object towards the vast expanse of space still remains challenging—a testament to the difficulty of catapulting a spacecraft into orbit in real life. Having played Kerbal Space Program for a couple of hours myself, my rockets were quickly decimated by the dozens, mowed down by their sheer ineptitude to soar towards the sky. But it’s such realistic elements that also saw simulation games being utilised for training across various