The Gamer's Tavern

This is a post I've been cooking in my mind over and over and I feel, after all the recent hate that was shown against our users, it is time to let it out.

If you're interested in understanding what The Gamer's Tavern really is, continue reading.

I'll start by writing that The Gamer's Tavern isn't just a plethora of self-hosted Fediverse tools (i.e. Mastodon, Writefreely, Pixelfed, etc.) and it's not Alex (the weird bald innkeeper guy in the logo) nor the staff, composed by Eighthlayer, Harrybo and BrakeOut Gaming.

It is not only gaming related, but it's open to all kinds of topics [^1]

After clearing the table from what it is not, I can say that The Gamer's Tavern is a concept of a safe space for everyone.

What does it mean?!

What has first started as a community around a streamer (you may or may not remember “Hey adventurers! Welcome to The Gamer's Tavern, I'm Alex and I'll be your host for tonight”) evolved further into the concept of community, redirecting all our efforts in creating a safe space for everyone.

This means that everyone [^1] is welcome in the Tavern. And it also means that, by any means, as a community, our goal is to provide a friendly place where one can be itself, with no external judgements and most important, no hate.

As I have written here and there on Mastodon, we're currently living in the post pandemic era, that came bearing the promises and the hopes of starting anew and more respectful of each other. We (as humankind) took those promises and hopes and we throw them into the dumpster, only to set fire to said dumpster after. We're once again going through one of the darkest times, where rage, envy, hate, uneasiness, distrust and a plethora of other fiery and negative feelings are in charge.

We are not above those feelings

Every time I read the news, I get angry. I feel my eyes getting wet. I feel anxious. I feel like a complete failure, for the world we're leaving to the future generations is a complete dumpster fire. But I also know deep inside me, and I don't want to sound paternalistic, that you can't answer fire with fire. It just adds up. And while you may bear that additional heat, others could not.

You may have already read or heard somewhere else the phrase:

“Be the change you want to see in the world”

little known fact is that Gandhi never said that phrase, but expressed the profound concept of being a better self through these words instead:

“If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him.”

We strongly believe in the above concept and so we applied it through The Gamer's Tavern's community.

We need to be better. For us. For others. For the future.

Why the Gamer's

One of the most frequently asked question is “why the gamer's tavern”, so I'm going to address the “Gamer's” part first.

Back at the time when I chose the name, I believed ( and still do ) that videogames unify people. Aside from toxic players, playing a videogames could provide lots of fun. And while you're having fun, you don't mind if the people you're having fun with are queer, disabled, black, yellow, tall, short, from that country or that one. You don't mind, mostly because you're having a good time. And while you're having a good time, the differences tend to disappear, because you're sharing a positive experience and not focusing only on the external negative feelings mentioned above.

The Gamer's Tavern is about gaming ( although not exclusively ) because we want to unify people, no matter who they are, their gender, their s. orientation, their faith, their country. We all are humans.

Why the Tavern

Taverns have been a place of aggregation since ever. It's in the nature of a tavern to welcome different kind of people, allowing them to have a safe place to rest, get nourished, feel at home even for a brief period of time. It's safe to say that from a traveller's point of view, a tavern is often a blessing. But, being a place of aggregation, the most amazing thing that will happen to a traveller is that it will share a precise moment in time with another traveller, no matter where they're from or where they're going.

All our lives are travels on the road with a different starting point and a different destination and we should cherish the moments we share with other lives, for they may be brief, shallow or deep, but every moment allows us to grow.

Those are my personal beliefs and from what I've seen during these years, the beliefs of many people in The Gamer's Tavern.

Pull up a chair and sit by the fire traveller, tell us your story...

[^1]: Topics and people agreeing and respecting the Rules