The times they are a-changing
It is our pleasure using the words of the minstrel from Duluth (Bob Dylan) to announce that in the next few weeks you'll be seeing some changes around the Tavern.
We are rebranding The Gamer's Tavern in...
The Gamers' Tavern.
No, we're not insane, it looks like just a tiny apostrophe change but it carries a heavy load on its shoulder. Read the post to discover what will happen next.
First, a bit of history
Allow me to talk personally here, as Alex, as the innkeeper and give you a tour of the last few years, telling you what happened. Of course if you're not interested and just want to know what will happen in the next weeks jump at the end of the post.
The first tavern
The Gamer's Tavern was born in September '22, a few months after I closed my italian gaming e-zine (Voodoo Digitale). The reason for closing Voodoo Digitale was simple: I always felt something was missing in that project and felt always out of place in it, up to a point where it wasn't fun anymore.
My thoughts at the time were simple: I will enjoy playing games and live streaming, no more commitment to anything or anyone.
So The Gamer's Tavern was created with no intent from me to be a full time streamer or make money out of it, just having fun. And boy, did I have it!
Have the fist logo as a treat in case you weren't around by that time
(Yeah, it was bad. I know, I know, my bad!)
The second tavern and the fediverse
I was young (?!?) and naive, so of course the first tavern interacted mainly on Twitter, Facebook (did I say that I was young and naive already?) and Instagram (same here!), streaming on Twitch and YouTube (yeah you got the gist of it ;) ).
Somehow, even though I had fun playing and streaming, with the people who gathered around the channel I could never feel a deep connection. I wasn't just only one in a million (as you may have understood, I was fine with the concept) but it seemed so shallow that sometimes it hurt.
I was about to throw the towel again when I first heard about the fediverse. I created my first account in dragonscave.space and started using Mastodon. I was simply flabbergasted by the amount of deep interaction that I had in so little time and decided to make it the main home of the tavern.
I moved around different Mastodon instances and tried out different services, but nothing changed: the people who gathered around the channel were the best I've ever (digitally) met!
I don't believe there was a precise moment in time when I (and the actual staff, who first were Twitch moderators) decided to go full “eff it, we're going to host a fediverse service, for all the great folks out there”. And then another. And then another and so forth. It maybe was just about giving back what I received as the main “face” of the channel or something completely different, that I couldn't grasp at the time.
And when I talk about being the face of the channel, is because I literally had my face on it. Have our second logo iteration as another treat for reading!
The third tavern and the realization
Years passed and what I couldn't grasp before was clear. It wasn't about having fun and being a streamer. It was all about having meaning and great interactions with the people. Having fun playing videogames and making them laugh was just the cherry on top of those interactions.
It never was about me. It was about others.
It was just being there when they needed, laughing together, being sad together, going for a chat, playing a game or just you know, being silly together.
And that's exactly when I stopped live streaming. I talked about this with the staff and we decided to focus everything on the community. We expanded our services, we offered a safe and cosy place for everyone, we wanted the tavern to be a place where you could just drop a “Good morning” (or “Good ATotD” as we often say – Appropriate Time of the Day), mourn the loss of a relative or a pet, share a new job position, a new life born into this world. Happy moments, sad moments. And with no need to be connected 24/7. Exactly like a tavern, where you could walk in, talk with the other patrons while drinking a beer and then you could leave, with the thought of coming back sooner or later for another round and another chat.
Future plans
I believe I already bored you all out of your mind, so I'm going to cut short into what the future will holds for the tavern.
The Gamer's Tavern will undergo in the next few weeks under a rebranding, with a new logo (courtesy of Goldstarknight, give him a holla on Mastodon) and a new name: The Gamers' Tavern to symbolize that it isn't built around a persona anymore but around the community and for the community.
The new logo won't picture my face anymore (mostly because my beard is getting grayer by the day, but don't tell others – just kidding of course) to carry on our message, that will be enhanced and boosted by the name change too:
IT'S ALL ABOUT THE PEOPLE IN THE TAVERN
Effective immediately, I will also drop the Innkeeper Mastodon account and will use Alex from now on, leveling with the other great members of the staff:
Other Innkeeper's accounts on other services will be ceased in the near future and substituted with my personal accounts, because I will keep being part of the staff of The Gamers' Tavern (and maybe who knows, start streaming again) :)
A new general staff account will be created in every service we host to better allow people in need to contact us.
But it's not over. Other news will follow in the next few weeks, so... pass by for a round whenever you want and listen to the latest updates ;)
The Gamers' Tavern is a cozy place where you can rest and have fun with others gamers. This community main goal is to provide everyone a cozy and safe place to keep in touch and play together.