Short background:
Loke is the alone creator of the famous assistant manager application HAM. It was first released as a freeware program but was after release 3.0 changed into a shareware application. More than 2000 people has found their way into the HT-Federation for HAM. He is also owner of one of the best teams in Denmark, Loke GF. Please note that Ione.se is the official swedish mirrorsite for HAM, we can report that HAM only for october has been downloaded more than 2500 times, only from Ione.se that is. Get the magnitude of it all?

Latest press announcement:
2004-10-03 Victory!
Another season in the best series is secured. Next season we aim to stay well above the relegation positions.

Last three games:
2004-10-13 (Cup): Homers Helte - Loke GF 0 - 8
2004-10-17 (Serie): ZGF - Loke GF 0 - 3
2004-10-20 (Cup): Kuch FC - Loke GF 1 - 6

Upcoming game:
2004-10-24 (Serie): Loke GF - Skou United

Club history:
09/26/2004 Loke GF finished as number 6 in Superligaen season 23
08/25/2004 The team was kicked out of the Cup at round 10 season 23
06/09/2004 The team was kicked out of the Cup at round 15 season 22
06/06/2004 Loke GF finished as number 5 in Superligaen season 22
02/15/2004 Loke GF became League Champions season 21
02/15/2004 Loke GF finished as number 1 in Superligaen season 21
01/14/2004 The team was kicked out of the Cup at round 10 season 21
10/26/2003 Loke GF finished as number 6 in Superligaen season 20
10/15/2003 The team was kicked out of the Cup at round 13 season 20
07/06/2003 Loke GF finished as number 2 in Superligaen season 19
06/11/2003 The team was kicked out of the Cup at round 11 season 19
03/16/2003 Loke GF finished as number 2 in Superligaen season 18
01/15/2003 The team was kicked out of the Cup at round 6 season 18
11/24/2002 Loke GF finished as number 1 in Superligaen season 17
11/24/2002 Loke GF became League Champions season 17
11/13/2002 The team was kicked out of the Cup at round 13 season 17
08/03/2002 Loke GF finished as number 1 in II.2 season 16
07/24/2002 The team was kicked out of the Cup at round 13 season 16
04/13/2002 Loke GF finished as number 1 in III.5 season 15
02/27/2002 The team was kicked out of the Cup at round 8 season 15
12/29/2001 Loke’s Team was renamed to Loke GF
12/23/2001 Loke GF finished as number 1 in IV.1 season 14
11/14/2001 Loke’s Team under the ownership of LokeUtgaard became Cup Champions season 14
09/23/2001 The club changed owner as LokeUtgaard took control and renamed it Loke’s Team
09/02/2001 Viborg Amt finished as number 8 in III.5 season 13
05/30/2001 The team was kicked out of the Cup at round 1 season 13

—

Hey Loke! Please tell us a bit about yourself for the people that doesn’t know you.
I’m 36 years old. I Live in Aarhus, Denmark with my wife and two children. When I’m not occupied by the famliy, work or Hattrick, I like to go to rock concerts and drink beer. Actually I also like drinking beer when not at rock concerts, come to think of it…

Your team Loke GF (previously Loke’s Team) has been in the highest division in Denmark (Superligaen) since HT-season 17. You actually won the first year that you played in the highest division, please tell us about that and about your team in general.
I stumbled upon Hattrick pretty early in its Danish development. There were about 100-200 players active in Denmark at the time, so I was playing a lot of bot teams on my way to the Superliga. I succeeded in persuading a few of my friends to join Hattrick at the same time as myself, so we managed to reach the II. divisions pretty simultaneously. That was a lot of fun. So was the first championship. I celebrated hard after that one. 16 full weeks of bragging rights over your friends is not something to be taken lightly.

Did you “expect” to win the first season in the highest division?
I believed that I had the best team at the time. Of course a few of the competitors disagreed with that. But I knew that I had a good chance. Actually, I still think that I have the best team in Denmark, so that kind of puts my rationality in perspective
You also won season 21, but have also had a couple of failures, if you can call being sixth place in the highest division a failure that is, why do you think it has been kind of a rollercoaster for you?
Well, success is a result of superior management - failure is the result of bad luck. The season 21 championship was one of the achievements that I am most happy about with my team. The competition was fierce and even though that I admit that the scales tipped the right way for me in a few crucial games, I still won with a good margin. I’ve never taken the time before to make a real re-organisation of my team, and for some seasons that left me behind those who managed their team better than I did. I did reorganise for the last two seasons, and now I feel ready to re-enter the championship contest this season.

What’s the plan for this season? You’ve won the cup once, exactly ten seasons ago, time to repeat that achievement this season perhaps?
I prioritise the league vastly higher than the cup trophy. But in order to gain success in the league, it is necessary to at least do well in the cup. The goal for this season is to reclaim the Championship. If I can get to the quarter finals or perhaps even the semis in the cup, I’ll be happy.

How good is Loke GF compared to the best teams around in Hattrick?
I once ran a ranking list of all top league teams in Hattrick, and on that list I was usually in the 30-50 spots. But the list didn’t take the very strong Swedish I. divisions into account. I do think that I am getting closer to the top, though. I am beginning to see my HatStats ratings pass the 300 mark on a semi-regular basis, and that’s pretty good I think. Not Inter Sthlm good - but still pretty good :-).

How good would you say that the Superligaen is compared to - say - the Swedish top division Allsvenskan?
It still has some way to go. The Danish league is very competitive, and I think that is keeping us at a reasonably high level. We are beginning to see wages in the same levels as Allsvenskan in Superligaen, but you have to remember that our Swedes are getting 20% higher wage than their Swedes. I think that the major difference between Allsvenskan and Superligaen (and most other top leagues) is the level of the substitutes. In Superligaen we practically don’t have subs. In order to stay competitive, we can’t afford to have our values on the bench. In Allsvenskan, they can’t afford not to have a bench. But we’re getting closer all the time.

How big would you consider the Danish “HT-scene” to be? Tell us about the general activity.
The community in Denmark is very active, fortunately. I’m proud to say that I take part in a lot of it myself. We have a HT IRL organization that organise meetings and there are a lot of spontaneous meetings around the country often. As I know a few of the other managers in Superligaen, we made it a tradition to meet between the Superliga managers regularly, about once a season. Usually half the managers show up. It’s a lot of fun to be face to face with the managers you beat. The next big event in Denmark is the “X-mas lunch” in Copenhagen 4-5. dec. I’m really looking forward to that.

Is any player in Loke GF a key player like no one else? Someone you’d most likely end up losing without?
As I mentioned earlier, subs are not something we have in abundance, to say the least, so I am particularly vulnerable to midfield injuries. But if I should mention two players, it would be my 40 year old striker (at least he used to be a striker) Börje ‘Brågarn’ Andreasson, who was key to Loke GF’s early success. And former striker Igor Strauss-Kahn, who had a magical ability to score hattricks in important matches. Not so much because these were key players in a traditional HT-match-engine sense. But because they developed a personality in my mind. At that is a big part of what Hattrick is about. I used to get bids on ‘Brågarn’ - but he will never leave Loke GF. He’s used as a consultant these days.

Who would you consider the best manager of the game?
While I have a lot of respect for the results of DrDDD’s Inter Sthlm, I think that staying on top for a very long time is even more impressive. Swedish managers like Geddan and Livergarden has made results consistently for so long that there can not be any questions about their abilities as Hattrick managers. In Denmark we have had the “Dalum era”, with manager Knudsen who was extremely successful. But generally I hold the highest respect for any manager who contributes to the development of the Hattrick community in a possitive way.

Why do you think Hattrick has grown to be what it is today?
That’s a very complicated question. But simplified a lot, I would say good game play strategy by the HT’s, a near genius business strategy by ExtraLives, the community and luck. Not necessarily in that order.

A lot of people talk about the simplicity in Hattrick, for instance that it isn’t too many tactical choices, that it doesn’t have to be as time consuming etc, do you think this is the biggest factor?
It’s definitely a factor. But there is a certain level of deepness to it also. It’s a bit like chess. The rules are simple, but the game is not. But what’s keeping my interest in Hattrick is not so much the game itself as it is the community. I really *really* wish to win against my opponents this season, so that I can gloat the next time I see them. When I won the championship in season 21, whenever I could see that it was one of my HT mates that called me on the phone, I would answer “Danish Champion speaking”. It annoyed the hell out of them - especially after 15 weeks of it. It also made them want to beat me real bad. I feel the same way about them.

What nation do you think will be the leading nation in two years?
I think Sweden will. The other nations will gradually close the gap on Sweden, but it will take a long time before we have the same amount of top players available as the Swedes do. I see no problem in this though.

There is always a live conversation and discussion about a Champions League in Hattrick. Do you think this would work? The big issue as I see it has always been the training, but recently I saw a solution that the top teams that are in the Champions League would play Champions League on Wednesdays, when the nationcup is played - only to enter the nationscup at a later stages. Being direct qualified to - say, the quarterfinal. (GLundblad of the AdertonFederation, don’t know if he’s the alone creator of this suggestion)
If by Champions League you mean a cup between the champions of each nation alone, I’m not too keen about it. I am very much in favour of international leagues and competitions on club level, but I think that it should involve more than just the very top teams in each nation. We now how national cups of 32.000 teams. It would be possible to include many more teams into international cups. I hope that the HT’s will focus new developments on the mass instead of the elite.

Obviously it’s great that Hattrick is free of charge. The HT-team has said that the game never will cost anything, at least it doesn’t have to. Do you think Hattrick could be runned as a paid-to-play project?
Not as we know it today. You could probably run something along the lines of Hattrick with a subscription based plan, but I don’t think it would be nearly as successful. Neither in terms of users nor financial income.

But wouldn’t that separate the men from the boys? so to speak.
Probably - and that would be a bad thing in my book. The only advantage I could see was in cheat prevention. But we have a large and excellent GM crew to take care of that now.

You’re the creator of the biggest help program (CHPP) for Hattrick, how did you get the idea to create HAM (Hattrick Assistant Manager)?
When I started playing Hattrick, I found that a few things were a bit hard to come by. The rules were worse than they are today. I tried getting two of the available tools to work without luck, so I decided to create my own little tool to help myself with some of the aspects. A few of my friends noticed and asked if they could get a copy as well. Soon the rumour spread, and the rest, as they say, is history
HAM is not the biggest program in terms of users though. At least while it was freeware, HT-Buddy had more users than HAM.

Are you the alone developer of HAM?
Yes.

When was the idea first brought to life?
Very soon after I began playing Hattrick. I needed the tool for my own team.

Why do you think it has been such a popular program?
Apart from being such an excellent program you mean? Seriously, I think it is because it was made for all the right reasons. It was made by a Hattrick manager to help with his own team. Naturally, that situation is the same as many managers are in. I am very devoted to keeping HAM working in the changing world of Hattrick and to develop new functionality. I am also rather good at supporting the users who experience problems with the program. That has probably been a factor too. Another very important factor is the dedicated and skilled users, that help each other, suggest new functionality, helps with testing and translation etc. The importance of clever users can not be overestimated.

Approximately how many managers out there are using HAM today?
More than I ever dreamt about when I made the program available for a few friends almost 3 years ago.

Where do you get all the ideas for the new functions? I reckon’ that many of them comes from feedback from the users?
Yes they do. But I do come up with quite a bit myself also :-).

Is there any other CHPP that you use and/or look upon while creating new functions?
No, I don’t. But the suggestions I get from users are often inspired by other applications. So there is some degree of “copy-cat’ing” in the development of CHPP applications, I guess.

What other “assistant”-program would you consider that you get your top competition from?
HT-Buddy is the largest application measured in users. We’ll see how it turns out now that DirectorsCut has decided to make it a shareware application also. There are other great applications out there and the level of competition is very healthy for the Hattrick application environment. I think that Hattrick managers have access to a lot of really good tools to assist them in managing their teams and get ranking information and so forth. I also think that this is really helpful to the community in Hattrick. It makes it a bit easier to enter Hattrick as a newbie - and that was actually the original purpose of HAM. It has evolved a bit since then, but I still think it is a very helpful tool for new players.

What can we hope to see in the future?
I have made it policy not to make any promises of new functionality. But I do have a long to-do list. So there’s plenty to come.

What do you think of XML vs. the old HRF? Why was it changed? What will this mean in the long-run?
I think that it is a vast improvement. First of all, it is an acknowledgment by the HT’s of the important role 3rd part. applications play in the Hattrick community. With the CHPP programme, the HT’s have committed themselves to support the future development of these applications. I think that we will see even better and surprising things from the CHPP developers in the future. I am particularly looking foward to the XML’ifing of the Hattrick forums…

Do you think we will ever see an option of backing up the HAM data online? And/or Using HAM online in someway? Do you think this would be possible?
Without making any promises: Yes.

The HAM federation/alliance is one of the biggest and fastest growing in the game, what kind of discussions can we expect to find in there?
There’s a lot of HAM discussion, naturally. Suggestions for new features, improvements, etc. It’s also here I get help with testing new functionality and where it is first announced. All in all it’s a very helpful federation.

I read on the HAM site that HAM actually was freeware until version 3.0, since then it has been a shareware application, do you live of this creation?
Not exactly. HAM was a factor when I took a decision to quit my job and work as a freelance consultant this spring though. This step has enabled me to work with the things I like most and at the same time given me more time to develop HAM. The income from HAM alone is not nearly enough to feed my family - it would be nice if it was :-). It does provide a much needed financial help to my “beer and rock music” hobby though.

How much time per day do you spend bug fixing, implementing new ideas, developing the new versions and so on?
It varies a lot. I normally spend 1-2 hours a day with general support (e-mail, forums, registrations etc.). Sometimes I work a lot with implementing new features - sometimes not so much. The busiest time is usually around major Hattrick changes.

How much time do you spend managing your team? Obviously you must spend a lot of time connected to Hattrick.
That also varies a lot. Hattrick addiction comes and goes in waves, in my experience. When it is high, I can use hours each day, scanning transfer lists, analysing opponents, etc. Right now, I am out of money and ready for season 24, so I don’t spend that much time on team management. I usually use quite a lot of time in the forum each day - both HAM related and general Hattrick related stuff.

Anyone in particular that you would like to send a “thank you” to?
I would like to thank all HAM users for being such a great bunch. Always coming up with suggestions and helping with testing. Also thanks to the Hattrick community in general. Community is what makes this game great rather than just good!

Thanks for the chat! Good luck in the future with Loke GF and HAM!
Thank you.