Ground Control to Major Tom...

So, I've been playing a lot of Kerbal Space Program, ever since it became available on steam. For those of us who aren't perpetually geeking out over physics and space stuff, Kerbal is a space ship simulator, where you have to design, build and fly your own space ships, from launch to wherever you choose to set your destination. For science geek's like me, its nothing short of an excellent game, and highly addictive.

Look! I made a pretty space ship!

Before I put you off for life however, I would say that, whilst difficult, Kerbal is in no way impossible if you don't have the advantage of studying an engineering degree.

The reason I bring Kerbal up is because it's a prime example of what I wanted to chat about today. Does technology interfere with gaming. On the surface of it yes, it does! Gaming is already being taken up as a world wide sport, with leagues in many countries and on many games, and in that situation the answer is a resounding and total affirmative, as unbalanced technology removes the human factor and eliminates skill as a variable (in non-science talk we say cheating). However, I think non competitive games like Kerbal make an excellent exception to this rule.



The Kerbal Space Station, after having just crashed my
pretty space ship into it.

On the picture of my pretty space ship (actually its a module on route to the space station I'm building) you can see a task panel on the right hand side of the screen. This is a non standard ad-on. Before all the beautiful, and sadly non-existent, gamer girls all start swooning in the street at my insolence, I would point out that getting two craft to dock in Kerbal is extremely difficult, and not worth the effort required, even if you do have an engineering degree. So, its very simple, I'm using a non-standard piece of technology, software in this case, to enable me to do things that I would usually find difficult or impossible, but I wouldn't consider it cheating.

There are many reasons I wouldn't consider this cheating, mainly in this case it's because I haven't harmed anyone. Kerbal is a game based on using technology to achieve self set goals. In this case, the goal I've set myself is neigh on impossible, and I have to repeat it many times, as you cant just balance a space station on top of a rocket (and before you say it, no you cant, I've Kerbaled it, it doesn't work).

With technology advancing at such an amazing speed, we do have to turn around for a few minutes, as an industry and say to ourselves "do we really want 3D goggles with self-righting gyroscopes and movement sensors, or can we do without it". Ok, that was a little over the top but you see where I'm going with this. Technology is amazing, it helps us do many things, however, it removes the human element, which means we have to be careful in its implementation.

As always folks I'm eager to hear your thoughts and opinions on the matter, and to be honest I'm starting to think my comment bar isn't working, so start commenting!

Matt.

(P.S. Space is Awesome
)