Hearthstone Draws Interest From Swedish Politician, Who Starts Livestream

Twitch is a great way to get to 'where the people are,' Rickard Nordin said.

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If you want to meet fellow gamers, Twitch is a great place to go. If you want to connect with them even more, you start to livestream. It turns out a Swedish politician has done just that, starting a Hearthstone stream that has drawn a good bit of interest.

"In one way this is just being where the people are. Some politicians stand outside the supermarket discussing food prices. I'm on Twitch discussing eSports," Rickard Nordin, a member of Sweden's House of Parliament, told Glixel. He said he wants to have conversations with gamers and other politicians about stigmas in gaming. "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 also said the eSports are growing in popularity and he wants it to start getting the same due as other sports, and even took to Reddit to push the notion"I just want to level the playing field so that eSports is treated the same way as other sport," he said. "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."

Sweden is known for some prominent dev houses, such as DICE, Starbreeze, and Paradox. "I'm so amazed with all the great games that Sweden has produced over the years," Nordin said. "We're good at building strong teams that work towards a common goal and together with a country that's open to new technologies, I guess that's a great foundation for building game development studios."

As for his streaming, it has turned out to be popular and he will continue doing it. "This is not a one time thing. My plan is to stream every Tuesday 19-20 (CET) at least until the summer," he said. "But after this great start, with lots of viewers and so much positive feedback, I might make it permanent. I'm also available on Twitter and even if I will mostly stream in Swedish I've promised to try and answer some English questions as well."


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