Interview of a JetPunker #37 - MasterRocket

On a cold day of late September...

Hi Rocket!

Would you be interested in answering a few questions from me one of these days?

Sure! What about?

Your JetPunk adventure, the origin of your username, the JPD, the "Greek section",... Things like that. 👀

Oh yeah sure!

It's not anymore the honour it used to be since the series is quite dead but I'm sure that you would be a good interviewee to launch it back.

Personally it's my favorite blog series

I'm glad to read it. Well, I'll try to work on the questions soon.

On a colder day of late October...

Let’s start this interview! First, could you present yourself on JetPunk quickly for our readers who don’t know you?

Hi! I'm MasterRocket from Greece, I've been using JetPunk for around 5 years now and have had an account since April 2023.

I love both taking and making quizzes, along with participating in JetPunk's other more niche sections.
If you know me it's most likely from the Discord, as I've been a moderator there for close to a year now. 

You are forgetting an important thing: with Gademots, you are known as one of the figures of the “Greek section”. Why have you spent that much time in a part of the site with such a low level of activity? Do you have ongoing projects for this section?

Well, the obvious reason for why I've made quizzes for the Greek section is cause I am Greek and know Greek, but honestly before I met Gade through the Message Board around September 2024, I only had 1-2 Greek quizzes made, it was the fact I now had someone to work with and share with that gave me motivation to work actively on the Greek section.

We were really active in late 2024 till early 2025, trying to make this the best year yet for the section (which we probably accomplished), however after a bit I, (and maybe Gade aswell), lost some motivation and slowed down our work there. I don't have any current projects relating to quizzes in Greek but it might be near the time to restart work on expanding our little corner of JetPunk!

We are getting close to the end of the year: who will win the Greek-Telugu war?

Haha, I totally forgot about that, I haven't kept up with the Telugu section but I think it's pretty close, they have a larger community while Greek is largely just me and Gade active, however Greek performs better and we did get a few blogs from Gade earlier in the year, I'd give the edge to Greek. No bias at all ;)

Sure, not at all. Neo, if you have anything to say about this, the comments section is open for you.

From what we know, you are not a cosmonaut (yet?), so why such a username?

My username wasn't particularly thought out well, soon after making my JetPunk account I decided that I wanted a name I hadn't used before.

I knew I wanted "Rocket" to be part of it since an avatar I used was a pixelated rocket. 

It just so happened that as I was deciding my name my brothers were playing Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends, basically a Smash Bros. clone for Kung Fu Panda, and in that game a lot of the characters are called Master (Animal), ex. Master Boar, which gave me the idea to make my name MasterRocket, keeping it one word since I think that looks better.

I might not be an astronaut (or cosmonaut) but I deeply love space and definitely wouldn't turn down the opportunity to visit it someday.

Interesting. I had no idea that you were that interested in space... and that such a fighting game existed! Surely at least as good as Garfield Kart: Furious Racing.

Your JetPunk account is a bit more than two years old but one of your quizzes was first published in 2016. Could you tell us a bit more about that?

So... the quiz you are talking about is the Greek Countries of the World Quiz, this was originally made in June 2016 by ca3naki. During September 2024 I played this quiz and was pretty dissatisfied with how bad the type-ins were for the Greek sections premier quiz, so I asked Stewart if I could get a copy of the quiz, just to see what type-ins it used and so that it could be a bit easier for me to make my own improved version.

However Stewart thought that having 2 Countries of the World quizzes would get confusing, especially since one was already really popular, and since ca3naki seemingly hadn't been active on JetPunk for many years, he decided just transfering the quiz to my account for me to fix was the right solution. At first I didn't really like that idea, seeing that now >90% of my accounts takes were not my own, but over time that amount has grown much smaller, and I'm pretty happy with the changes I made.

The CotW quiz having proper standards allowed me and Gade to quickly make more quizzes and to help familiarize people with what would be accepted.

As a quizmaker, you have also been important to the MCCQ project. Now it’s over, could you tell more about what pushed you to publish quizzes of this format and more give your overall opinion about these quizzes, the decision of making some of them appearing on FP daily…?

Well it all started on March 2nd, 2025 when QM released Multiple Choice City Quiz – Tokyo, I didn't think much of this quiz "genre" you might say until I saw you upload a few quizzes yourself in that style. I believe this one about Perpignan was first, which in turn led me, and eventually a whole ton of other people to release their own quizzes about all kinds of places; from megacities to people's local areas, to this...

I actually started with Paris, bro!

I only wanted to make a few about Greece initially but eventually expanded to cover a few cities in my favorite region of earth, the Eastern Mediterranean, and also made a New York and Chicago quiz, (the New York City one being the best performing MCCQ quiz 😎, although seems it's soon to be beaten by Paris).

Rocket was right: the Paris MCCQ is now ahead of the NYC one. Sorry not sorry. 

Soon before the explosion of quizzes you and I actually discussed about trying to coordinate this hype, and so I released 2 blogs, trying to create some guidelines and giving tips for making these quizzes, while also having a semi-functional reservation system so people didn't step on each others toes making quizzes on the same cities (which mostly worked).

You of course created and updated the playlist and map which were very helpful in organizing and being able to see our collective progress.

About them being featured and appearing daily as a series all summer, I believe it was a LuckyCat post talking about the project which got QM to feature 100 quizzes for the aforementioned daily series (which I know is something you had wanted to see return to the front page).

I'm pretty happy with QM's decision and in the end, while not everything went perfectly (be it communication, quiz quality, or the cities chosen to be featured) I think it was a big success and a great time for the community.

About the quizzes themselves, while I saw a lot of people unhappy with how many got featured and just in general not fans of them, I quite like them, they are short and sweet and if done well can teach you about a place and help it stick in your mind.

I think 10 is a perfect number as I wrote under the Multiple Choice City Quiz – Rome quiz: "I think 10 is a good amount, especially for the diversity in the cities, not everyone knows about everywhere, makes it abit easier."

I completely agree and as you said, I was really waiting for such a quiz series, as I asked in a MB post quite early and under which QM evoked this project (for the first time, I think?).

Let's move on. Beside quizmaking, you are also known as a blogger, and most of your blogs focus on JetPunk. Could you tell us why? Do you plan to also publish blogs about other topics?

Am I known as a blogger...? I only have around a dozen short blogs...

I never really cared too much for blogs honestly, but once I made a few, there is something much more rewarding about publishing a blog than a quiz, for me.

They mainly focus on JetPunk because I'm not really an expert on anything, and what I do know a lot about I don't think would be very interesting to others.

I just really like stats, and that's why you've seen that around half my blogs are just about stats (2 of them are more snapshots of the past than accurate stats though 🙃, I sorta regret spending so long on those 2).

I do however plan to expand my scope outside of just JetPunk related blogs, I've made and subsequently abandoned about a dozen blogs, mostly cause I find it really easy to overwhelm myself and get stuck trying to start writing, but hopefully I can bring myself to complete some of these.

The community also knows you as one of the current most active members of the JetPunk Discord server. What have you there as a JetPunker and more generally as a human being? Do you spend more time there or on the site itself?

Yes, for the last year I have been the most active person by a decent amount on the discord.

I didn't even know it existed until looking through some interesting facts pages, and saw a comment talking about an invite to the discord. 
I'm quite glad I happened to stumble upon it though, here I've met a ton of wonderful, amazing people, without here I doubt I'd use JetPunk anywhere near as much.

It's definitely not an understatement to say that my mind has been opened by the server, not to say I was bigoted or anything previously but definitely misinformed about all kinds of people's and topics, I'm much happier with the person I am now than a year ago.

I've learnt so much about the site through there that is kinda tough to know otherwise, many people are happy to help you with your problems and give you ideas and feedback.
It's a big motivator for taking quizzes and gaining levels as it's fun to be competitive with others.
I definitely spend more time on the discord but it's been a lot less than it used to be, as for the site it fluctuates quite a lot depending on if I'm grinding for levels or have a lot of inspiration for quizzes or not.

I do have a 700+ streak though so rest assured I've logged at least a quiz a day for near two years now, and I don't see that stopping soon!

More than one of its most active members, you are actually one of the moderators of the JPD. If a new election took place tomorrow, would you apply again? Why?

Indeed, I've been Junior Moderator for near a year now, since December 2024.

I do intend to run again whenever the next election is, I believe I've done an alright job but it's of course up to the server to decide that. 
I couldn't really tell you exactly why I want to, I guess I just like doing it, I like helping around.

An election is actually currently organised on the Discord server, and Rocket didn't lie in his answer: he is running for JM this time again.

What are the quizzes you are the proudest of?

I don't really have any crazy unique or amazing quizzes, I mostly just make quizzes I myself would want to play that don't exist.

I think I'm happiest with quizzes like Top 1000 JetPunk Quizmakers or the aforementioned Greek Countries of the World but my proudest is probably JetPunk Olympics Round 3 - A-Z Gauntlet (with help from Fuse and VerticalPi) from when me and VerticalPi hosted the JetPunk (Discord) Olympics.

Do you have big projects of quizzes or blogs in preparation?

Nothing really of quizzes, although I should update my Top 1000 JetPunkers one, (and the Interview of a JetPunker guests one).

Of blogs I do have a lot like mentioned previously that I just need to find motivation to make, on topics like alternate history, sports, music and video games.

But no nothing particularly big.

Haha! Let's hope that you will have to update the IOAJ guests one more often in 2026 than in 2025...

What is the most important event in your own life of JetPunker?

I'm gonna skip this one cause the answer is too personal.

Sure, absolutely no problem! Next question, then: if you had to recap your JetPunk adventure in one word, what would it be?

Fun! I think fun is perfectly appropriate, I've had so much fun on the site and on the discord, I hope that can continue in the future.

Would you change something to your JetPunk adventure, if it was possible?

Hmm... Well I'm pretty happy with how things are now, and since I did just see Back to the Future, I wouldn't want to mess with the space time continuum.

All jokes aside I probably should have made an account years earlier than I did, and also started contributing to the Greek section way earlier aswell.

If you had to choose just three JetPunkers for their quizzes, who would they be?

Just 3 is very tough, like many others I'll have to say Dekkie 1st however, her quizzes are the perfect mix of history and geography that I just love, not to mention all the work that goes into them.

Next 2 are quite tough, 

I really could say any of Stewart, Elboy, Overtired, Vicky and of course QM, but I think it'll be more interesting to mention less obvious ones.

So I've decided to go with UG, mostly for his music quizzes which I love, and Fuse, for his amazing crossword quizzes.

(You might notice a pattern that I've recently collaborated with those 2, but nothing helps you appreciate something more than when you have to do it yourself, so I'm sticking with my choices). 

And for their blogs?

Well this 1st one is also easy, considering this here series is my favorite, I'll have to start with Poirot.

Next 2 are a bit tricky, as I've only been following the RUB for a short while, but next I'll go with LuckyCat, who not only is continuing Astana's JetPunk Magazine series, but also has informative blogs like Useful Links or Jeppy Customization.

Lastly I'll go with Dictator Tal, classic case of quality over quantity, only 9 blogs but all worth reading, my favorite being My Favorite Album of All Time, which has now become one of my favorite albums ever.

I'm honoured, thanks! And original choices here. That's cool to get new answers to this question.

What are your other passions in life, outside of JetPunk?

Things come and go but I've never really had a consistent hobby or passion, I've not really had much opportunity to try things yet.

Only constant is my love for video games, primarily single player games.

I guess I could say my love for learning, particularly history, which ties in with why I love JetPunk.

What do you hope for JetPunk development in the next months?

I'm hoping for smaller, quality of life changes, (specifically for charts and fixing some bugs with non-latin scripts), I don't think much drastic needs to change.

I wouldn't mind another community event of sorts, similar to the MCCQ project, but that's a natural thing.

Do you have a message to pass to the whole JetPunk community (or at least to the few users reading these blogs…)?

Stop doing things others like and start doing things you like.

I see this constantly, with people wondering what they should do to increase takes, and making everything about that one number.

If you yourself aren't enjoying what you are doing, than what is the point? 
I have 100s of quizzes and most that I make I expect and know they will do poorly, and that's fine, I make quizzes I myself want to play, quizzes I search up and find out they don't exist, so I go ahead and fill that gap.

Basically, if your entire goal here is to see big number go higher, than you are doing it wrong, and probably won't stick around that long.

As you will have understood, it's on these wise words that this interview ends. Thank you very much for all your very detailed and interesting answers!

Thank you for choosing me, I really enjoyed this interview!

You're welcome. The blog should be published in the next few days.

On an even colder day of late November...

I really should work on this interview...

On a snowy day of December, just before Christmas...

Ok, this time, I finish it.