Swedish politician plays Hearthstone to get in touch with “the people”

Politicians are always looking for new ways of reaching out and connecting with the people. So, a Swedish one decided to combine his passion for games with connecting with the public at the same time.

The man in question is Rickard Nordin, a represent of the liberal-agrarian party "Centerpartiet" and a member of the Swedish House of Parliment. Instead of causing headline for going to strip clubs and buying overpriced alcohol with a government supported Union or using taxpayer dime to buy Toblerone and other expensive things, or going to strip clubs in Brussels when you're supposed to be in EU meetings and then blame it on fog which made it impossible to notice that it was a strip club he spent hours in (yes, this happened), Nording is making headlines for streaming Hearthstone.

Anyone who is remotely interesting in the online world knows of this little streaming platform called Twitch, a place where people stream games, talk to people and build fan bases. That is exactly what Nordin does every week when he sits back and plays his Beast druid deck and talks Swedish politics, he uses it as a way to communicate with his viewer, potential voters, and fellow politicians. He also uses it as a way to promote eSports in Sweden, to give it the same treatment as regular sports.

In an interview with Glixel he explained why he had started connecting with people like this and explained that some go to supermarkets to talk about issues there, he goes online to talk about what is close to his heart, showing that gaming isn't the worst people can do.

" I just want to level the playing field so that eSports is treated the same way as other sports.[…] I also want to promote all the good things about eSports. Team spirit, learning the English language, quick decision making, thinking strategically and logically and so on. There are so many prejudices – about people sitting at their computers instead of playing outside and meeting their friends – to fight that I guess I will have plenty of work to do before it's fully accepted in society."

He does indeed have quite a bit of work ahead of him if he wants to help place eSports on the same level as regular sports, but you have to start somewhere and win over the right people, or as Nordin said: "You can't win them all, but I aim to win enough."

Nordin plans on streaming Tuesdays 19.00-20.00 CET until at least summer, and though his stream is mostly in Swedish he has promised to try and answer some of the questions asked in English.