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Gameplay Magazine - Featured Personality: Hakketomat
Our guest today, is one of NS's finest vampires, 
Hakketomat who is a former member of the XKI Council of 9 and is currently a member of TITO Command. XKI is a region that I have loved ever since playing games on the forums and hanging out with the eclectic mix of players on their Discord.
How did you learn about NationStates? How long have you been playing NS?
I learned about NationStates when I was bored and looking for some kind of game in which I could be in charge of a nation or something. Something political. After a Google-search, this game popped up on the list of results. I started playing in March 2015, thus I’ve been playing for about three and a half years.
What is the significance or story behind your nation's name and flag?
Oh dear… my name… It really doesn’t mean anything if I’m gonna be straight forward. I came up with it when I was thirteen or something and I was playing a different online text-based game. I just thought of something (in Norwegian) that was gonna be slang or a shortened version of “(I) don’t have (a) tomato”. In Norwegian, it means “(Jeg) har ikke (en) tomat”. The words “har” (have) and “ikke” (don’t) are often put together as “ha’kke”. Thus, it became “Hakketomat”. It was completely random to say the least. It has often been the case that when I’m creating a character in various games, I just come up with something and this would be one of those cases. My name has often been misinterpreted as “hacking/slashing tomatoes” and I don’t blame people for that. Now, my name has absolutely no meaning except that it is my name.
The game Vampire: Masquerade - Bloodlines is popular among NSers and has an in-depth lore attached. My personal favorites are the Ventrue and the Toreador clans.
My flag is basically two symbols that I got from a role playing game. I played the videogame called Vampire: Masquerade - Bloodlines. In that world, there is a vampire organization called “Camarilla” which is represented by the symbol on the left side of my flag. It’s basically an organization that tries to govern vampires and creates laws of which the believe vampires should live by. Those laws are mostly in place to keep vampires secret and to protect vampires. Thus, you could probably say that I am doing vampires a great disfavor by putting that symbol on my flag… The symbol on the right side of my flag, represents one of the vampire clans called “Tremere”. Those vampire are a nice bunch who specialize in Blood Magic.
Tell us about your early career in NationStates and the significant things you did to lead you to where you are today?
In the beginning, I was trying to establish reasons for why I should continue playing the game. I was approaching the 10000 Islands forum carefully because the people seemed rather scary and the spam section didn’t make much sense to me. Today, those scary people are my closest friends in the game and I happily log on to chat/spam with them.
TITO seemed like an organization that I didn’t want to be a part of at first. I have experience with other browser games in which guilds require you to be online for about 24/7 and I had no interest in that. I thought TITO was another organization like that. But then,a few months after I had started playing, TITO needed people for a mission. I felt that maybe I could lend a hand. And so I joined TITO after all. It turned out to not be one of those guilds that I feared it would be.
One of the more significant things I’ve done while in TITO is looking up to Louisistan who sometime after I joined, was the Executive Officer and keeper of paperwork. It was because of my admiration of him and his position, that I got the position later on while I also was serving as Senator on the Council of 9; the government of 10000 Islands. This was back in July 2017 and that means that I’ve been in that position very long. Maybe far too long, as some voices inside my head are suggesting…
But that is all pretty much just inside 10000 Islands and TITO. It wasn’t until a year ago that my name was… uhm… sort of becoming known outside my region… Recently, I’ve taken an interest in other regions’ Discord servers, although a very limited interest. I am basically just playing WereWolf on TRR’s server. I’ve taken part in some of TRR’s PopMasters and RejectVisions… I’ve not done a whole lot of significant things. Instead, it’s been babysteps from my first days until today.
10000 Islands is one of those small UCR communities that has continued to keep it's unique blend of innocence and fun spirits intact. What other regions are you currently a part of? What do you like best about these regions?
I am a member of 10000 Islands, The Rejected Realms, and The South Pacific. I don’t think I need to talk too much about 10000 Islands since I’ve already mentioned some things. I do love the Spam section (Taco Island) of their forum. It’s pretty much where I live.
As for the other two regions… TRR is a great place to relax. They have fun events such as the PopMaster and RejectVision. TSP on the other hand… it has some dedicated people. Very interesting politics that is a big contrast to what I am used to from 10000 Islands.
Both of TRR and TSP, my activity is mainly limited to their Discord servers. Their forums don’t have an awesome spam section such as 10000 Islands’ Taco Island.
What are your thoughts on the various gameplay venues (forums, Discord, gameside\RMB)?
Forums need to learn from 10000 Islands’ spam section… Too many forums are limited to games such as “guess next person to post”, “last person to post wins”, “spam points”, or threads in which the next post has to be a word that starts with the letter that the last post’s word ended with… Taco Island has some of those threads as well, but only the “Last person to post” is the successful one. Other than that, it’s all pretty much random stories and scenarios that could resemble some form of Role-Play. Of course, I don’t know about role playing that takes place on different forums. I am not a role-player myself.
Discord is great for chatting and it enables more live activity and games. It is also a place where I have met more people from outside 10000 Islands. That’s great. It can get a tad bit messy with all the memes that I feel like I’m too old to understand or laugh at…
The RMB is where I pay the least amount of attention to. It’s pretty much the thing that makes me think “oh yeah… forgot about that… there are people using this thing…”.
What has been your favorite historical moment in NS?
Yikes… things happen outside 10000 Islands? Difficult question… I guess my favorite moment is when I joined :P
If you were Max Barry for a day, what would you do?
Write a book about Hakketomat (don’t need much more than one day for that…). I’d also make Hakketomat’s card Legendary. Another great idea would be to require all other players to write a telegram to Hakketoma in which they would express their admiration for him on a monthly basis. Giving Hakketomat a special inbox for this would be essential.
What do you do for fun when you're not on Nation States?
There is fun outside NationStates…? Well, I do play on my beloved PlayStation as well as watching Netflix on it.
What is your favorite movie and\or TV and\or anime show(s)?
Ai ai ai… My favorite movies would be Harry Potter although I like the books more (obviously). My favorite TV show is Mad Men. Great show taking place in the 60’s when doctors smoked while seeing their patients...
Hakketomat has an old soul and Mad Men captures a bygone era...]
Favorite book(s)?
That would be Harry Potter. Although the law books that I’ve been reading are great as well since they help me get some sleep if counting sheep proves futile.
Favorite music\songs?
Oh boy… I think a few people out there know this one… 
Pink Floyd! And Syd Barrett as well but he was a member of Pink Floyd in the beginning. As for the songs… oh dear… I do like listening to Atom Heart Mother Suite but it’s quite long. See Emily Play is one of my favorites along with Empty Spaces+Young Lust, Astronomy Domine, Saucerful of Secrets, Jugband Blues, and Time.
Pink Floyd - is that guyliner we see <3
What is a game (outside of NS) that everyone should play?
Oh dear… I’m an Assassin’s Creed fan myself but I do think everyone should give Vampire: Masquerade - Bloodlines a go even though it needs patches in order to be playable.
So you wake up one morning and receive the delegacy of any region you choose. Which would you choose? And what would you do as delegate?
I would like to be delegate of The Pacific. The first thing I would do then would be to announce to everyone that I am a part of the Cabal. The I would leave the post and get back to 10000 Islands.
What is one change you would make to NationStates to help improve the game experience?
Well it’s a game that consists of a players with all kinds of backgrounds. That we all have different political views is one thing, but that there are predators here is something entirely different. A lot of players are young and/or vulnerable and moderation of the game needs to take into account the various off-site platforms. If it can be proven beyond reasonable doubt that a player is harassing someone on an off-site platform (especially a platform that is associated with a region/organization within the game itself), then that player should simply be banned. The attitude that activities on off-site platforms can’t be used as evidence is giving too much leeway to predators.
Thanks for the interview, Hakketomat!
