Arcade Jozi’s Great Renaming, aka Ben’s Barcade Rant

I’m writing this with some measure of reluctance. My personal road map for navigating the internet dictates pretty clearly that I steer clear of antagonistic debates and arguments; black holes of energy I’d personally like to ignore. I recently saw QCF’s Danny Day give a pretty impassioned short talk on the importance of debate on the internet. There’s surely a lot to be said for it. In certain cases, there’s a lot to be gained from meaningful exchanges between people with opposing views: our evolution depends on it. So here I am, trying for the latter.

Two weeks back, I became aware of an upcoming Joburg night spot.  It had the name of a famous New York establishment – Barcade. I’d first heard of that Barcade while touring The States in 2010. Hearing about its concept, in short, blew me away. It was a simple recipe but pure magic: Craft Beer + Arcade Games = Barcade. At that point in time, Barcade had been running for 6 years, massively impacting the local alternative scene.

Returning to The US in 2012, I was particularly stoked to hear Barcade had set up spots in both New Jersey and (my personal favourite) Philadelphia. By that point, many other bars had carried their torch, and other similar venues were popping up all over under a variety of monikers.

Fast forward to 2014, and I’m left pretty excited by the fact that, seemingly, Barcade are doing a pop-up iteration of their venue in Johannesburg for the summer! That, or some South Africans have adopted Barcade’s concept and name.

I was disappointed to discover it was the latter. This Barcade’s response to my question of what was happening, was simple:

It made me feel weird. In part because I had been called “baby”, but also because of this sheer, stubborn lack of recognition of the actual, 10-years-long-established Barcade.

 

Although I had full intention of getting excited about this sure-to-be-fun local venue, it still made my skin crawl that they couldn’t come up with their own name. It’s a personal pet-hate of mine: seeing South Africans seemingly lack the passion to come up with their own names for localized versions of successful international ventures (with South Africa’s “Woodstock” festival being the face-palming champion of this) but so it goes. I’d do my best to be supportive even if it really irked me to see them knowingly using a trademarked name of a famous venue that has a ten year legacy.

Time passed. I couldn’t let it go. I found myself more and more perturbed by how “Barcade” were going about doing what they were doing. There was the planned menu for the venue: “Classic American”. Obviously. Because the real Barcade is from America, right? Did anyone consider that ALL their promised games are Japanese? Maybe something novel there? Udon noodles, Steam buns and Street Fighter? Nope, let’s just make hamburgers.

And so, with hot wings and the American Barcade’s name and concept in tow, I witnessed “Barcade” go about promoting their launch. This is where I started finding it harder and harder to get behind what they were doing. At every turn, Jozi’s future Barcade would present this idea as wholly their own. The press release, regurgitated between a series of blogs, made no mention of Barcade NYC. No nod to where this idea was coming from. No reference to their lineage in what’s become a growing movement worldwide. No recognition at all.

Instead, Barcade Jozi’s concept was offered up as something totally novel. Any praise for the concept, and it’s very clever name, would be accepted with this vague, too-cool-for-school attitude.

 

On their second website post, they opened with these words: “The idea of Barcade is genius, if we say so ourselves.”

 

Yes guys, it is a great idea! With an opening sentence like that, I’d swear it sounds like you came up with it yourselves! Instead of going on to explain where the idea comes from and what Barcade is (because it really is something pretty significant) they instead explain the idea for their Barcade clone as though this “genius” idea were wholly their own. Everyone should be going, “Damn guys! So cool! Best idea!” and they could go, “Thanks!”

It’s long been my belief that, with so many people doing great stuff all over the internet, potential energy thrown into breaking something down could rather be spent on building something else up. Across the world, there are literally thousands of people doing new exciting stuff that makes my heart melt. And the last thing I want to be in this world is a troll.  Additionally, I know all too well that it’s a tough gig trying to give people cool experiences in South Africa: whether people are putting together a band or a brand or a party or a venue, it’s hard work swimming against the stream, presenting people with something different and special and new. (Even if you can find flaws in how it’s been done). I hate the idea of attacking people who are doing this. And so, I held my tongue at every turn, watching our bootleg Barcade rolling up to its launch this week.

That is, until last night. I discovered that the real Barcade was, spectacularly and unsurprisingly enough, upset with how “Barcade” planned to set up shop. Announcing this to their followers, it would surely seem like the finest opportunity for Barcade Jozi to at least acknowledge the great work Barcade USA did when they kicked things off in ‘04.

Instead, they presented this defense:

“So apparently some people could potentially get confused by the name ‘Barcade Jozi’. You know, those people that don’t have a clue about geography or world maps. We received a letter last week requesting that we change the name of Barcade Jozi to something LESS confusing. So here it is, we are now known as Arcade Jozi. People all around the world can continue their lives confusion free. What a relief.

 

That’s it guys.

 

No B.

 

Big deal.”

 

No big deal? You were forced to change the name of your venue. Surely that means something to you? But cool, if you care that little, I guess that’s why you didn’t bother coming up with a name to begin with. What really got to me was this sense of ridicule Barcade Jozi brought to Barcade’s request that they not hijack their (long established) brand name.

 

In fact, Barcade weren’t even mentioned. There was no explanation for who the local guys were in trouble with. To the last they ignored that Barcade had been around for ten years. And what’s more, they wanted you to know they really felt entitled to using their (unrecognised) predecessor’s name. Because (as shown on the map above) New York is very far away from Johannesburg. It’s not like we have the internet or anything. Intellectual property doesn’t stretch to places that are geographically far apart. duh.

And so, the friends of the newly christened Arcade Jozi, showed their support, calling the people behind the actual Barcade dumb or insulting the fact that they were “yanks”.

 

My irritations had reached critical mass. If I were opening a huge dance club in Johannesburg, I surely wouldn’t feel cool calling it “Ministry of Sound”! If I were opening a tiny punk venue in Cape Town, I’d not call it “CBGBs”?! It hardly seems worth mentioning why. If I were opening a spot inspired by a legendary international establishment, you can be sure I’d be happy to pay homage to them publicly and hope to create something awesome and new that the people behind it might want to visit themselves. I’d not go trying to sell their idea as my own and I’d sure as hell not just adopt their name because they’re on another continent.

Am I crazy for thinking this? Am I a total weirdo for being this upset about more South Africans being unable to come up with their own name for something? Am I wrong for being bothered by how this idea’s been sold as (the now newly named) Arcade Jozi’s own? Is it lame that I’m irked that they’re really pushing the American food thing? Is it too much to ask that Arcade Jozi even acknowledge that there’s a real Barcade and it’s seriously a big deal?

Judging by Arcade Jozi’s friends, the answer to any of the above may well be “yes”.

 

So now dropping the “B” from their name and sticking a “Jozi” over their logo (in the most hurried design fashion ever), we have “Arcade Jozi” opening their doors tomorrow night. People have pointed out the new name is incredibly close to Arcade Empire (often just called Arcade), the Pretoria and Potchefstroom-based bars that also sell craft beer and have arcade games in them. Overlooking this, the people behind Arcade Jozi have still illustrated zero creativity in how they’re going about setting this place up, going with the most obvious new name possible.

I, for one, would be massively excited by the opportunity to name a venue like this. You have 35 years worth of arcade game history to draw on! You have hundreds of wonderful arcade related things you could reference or draw inspiration from! It would be so fun! But that’s not the axiom of my irritation – some people like coming up with concepts, some don’t – my true concern is how the people of Arcade Jozi have hoped to fool people into thinking this idea is wholly their own. It’s the sort of thing I’ve seen all too often growing up in this country and we deserve better.

 

South Africans aren’t stupid. In many ways we’re isolated and often behind the curve when it comes to all those cool global youth culture trends we see flying about on the internet, but at the same time, this country and city have proven over and over that there are people who are not only in touch with what’s happening around the world, but are turning international attentions our way. At our best, we’re pushing things so far, we’re showing people the future. Think of all the inventions, humans, music and culture that have grabbed the imagination of the world.

 

So why is it okay to call a South African music festival Woodstock? Why is it okay to steal the name and concept of a highly successful bar and present it as your own? In my books it simply isn’t.

Arcade Jozi will surely be a fun spot to have a drink and argue over who’s next on Street Fighter 2. It’s just tragic how they’ve gone about making that happen for people. Lifting Barcade’s name and concept, without giving them the slightest recognition isn’t okay. Being bitchy and feigning entitlement when you are called out on this. Weak.

So here I am, putting this opinion out there. You might not agree, I’d be glad to hear why. I’ll be of this opinion until I’m convinced otherwise: there is so much creativity, inspiration and magic in this city, this country, around us – can we please stop stealing so brazenly from the rest of the world? We’re better than that.