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Changing of the Guard | Community Team Update

Hello there, my name is Erik Jakobsson, but most of you know me as “Katten” and ” I’ve had the pleasure of being your Community Manager for these past few years.

As you can see in the title of this post and the video embedded below, I will be leaving Hearts of Iron and moving on, alongside my colleague Alex Dunk, or as you know him, “Midgeman,” who has been one of your Community Ambassadors for more than four years.


Before I hand things over to the new Community Manager, I want to take a moment to reflect on all the fun things we’ve done over the years. It’s been incredible to be a part of creating the War Effort updates, building the Frontlines multiplayer support event structure, starting our very own YouTube channel, and to have had the chance to talk to all of you every day across our community platforms. It’s wild to think this journey started with me hosting Friday night multiplayer games on my Discord, Hearts of Iron IV Community. From there, I went on to work as a freelance Community Ambassador for Paradox, eventually stepping into the role of Community Manager and helping to reshape how we work together with the player base. It has truly been an amazing experience.

To all the modders I’ve had the chance to collaborate with on Day 1 updates and beyond, to the YouTubers and streamers I’ve worked with on videos and projects, and of course, to all the players I’ve talked to and worked with—thank you for making this community truly special! <3

Now, to answer the big question: where am I going? I’ve recently taken over the Europa Universalis brand and will be dedicating my full attention to it as we move into 2025. And yes, I’m “kidnapping” Alex “Midgeman” too! So, wish us luck!

I guess that's my queue to chip in here - Hello! I'm Alex / Midgeman and like Erik said, I too am sadly being redeployed to the Europa Universalis team. I had the pleasure of interviewing and then joining the Hearts of Iron community over four years ago now, in the height of the pandemic. Like many, the pandemic was a massively diverging time for me and joining the HOI team was the start of a pathway I never thought I'd be heading down. Over the years i've been blessed with opportunity after opportunity to represent Paradox and HOI in so many events and situations, from conventions to lans to livestreams - its been one hell of a ride! I doubt this will be the last time I do *something* HOI related, the community is a wild and wonderful place but for now, thank you all so much for joining me during this journey; I'll never forget this awesome portion of my life - Besides, I'll see you over on Europa!

Before I go, I leave you in the capable hands of my new colleague and your new Community Manager, @PDX_Per .

And that looks like my queue to say hi. Well, some of you will have seen me (my posts or comments) around. Although I do enjoy the shadows, I'll pop up every once in a while.
Going to miss Erik and Alex, but we have a great team so we will...soldier on... so to speak.
 
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It's been a pleasure and honour working with you, Katten! Looking forward to see what you guys are preparing for us with Paradox Tinto :)
Best of luck!
 
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Thanks for what you have done and good luck for next one!
 
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Have fun there, Katten and Midgeman!

And warm welcome for @PDX_Per, so that's why he's stepping up more lately.
 
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Best of luck everybody :)
 
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Such a huge blow to HOI4. You guys have been amazing these past years. Have been playing since the game came out and have been very familiar seeing your faces over the years. Will honestly be very interested in the Europa community now knowing you guys are a part of it.
 
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Best of luck to both of you in your new roles. Sorry to see you go, but it is good to change things up now and then too.
As far as this user is concerned, you both are welcome back to HOI IV (or V) any time.

Also, welcome to @PDX_Per, hope you know what you are getting into, lol.
 
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Good luck!!
 
Good luck!
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And yet, we still don't know where podcat went, or what he's cooking...
Podcat is in hiding after falling to deliver national dogs dlc and horse armor.

(But probably he's working on either a cold war/information era game or very early work on hoi5, or I suppose an outside chance of Stellaris 2)
 
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Podcat is in hiding after falling to deliver national dogs dlc and horse armor.

(But probably he's working on either a cold war/information era game or very early work on hoi5, or I suppose an outside chance of Stellaris 2)
My money's on the Cold War/Info Era game. Paradox tried it once before, but they've learned and developed a lot in that time. Plus the last few updates have been adding post-war content to HOI4, with NATO and the EU.

Just think: a grand campaign from CK3 through the Cold War!
 
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My money's on the Cold War/Info Era game. Paradox tried it once before, but they've learned and developed a lot in that time. Plus the last few updates have been adding post-war content to HOI4, with NATO and the EU.

Just think: a grand campaign from CK3 through the Cold War!
That would be epic.

I wouldn't be surprised if people have hung on to old HOI4 saves just in case they can continue those GCs into the modern era.
 
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My money's on the Cold War/Info Era game. Paradox tried it once before, but they've learned and developed a lot in that time. Plus the last few updates have been adding post-war content to HOI4, with NATO and the EU.

Just think: a grand campaign from CK3 through the Cold War!
If I had to bet it would be on hoi5, iirc project ceaser has been in development for quite a while already and eu4 only stopped getting updates recently.
 
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If I had to bet it would be on hoi5, iirc project ceaser has been in development for quite a while already and eu4 only stopped getting updates recently.
Would be a bit odd though, given his reasons for leaving HOI4? Then again, I know next to nothing about game development, so it could be perfectly normal.