Include the title - Retro City Arcade Bar & Pizzeria
description - Travel back in time at Retro City Arcade Bar & Pizzeria, where you can play classic arcade games, video game consoles, and modern video game consoles. Enjoy a slice of pizza and a drink while you challenge your friends and family to a game of Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, or Mario Kart. Retro City Arcade Bar & Pizzeria is fun for all ages, so come on down and relive your childhood today!
If you feel comfortable please share the location, as it is helpful (i.e. hidden duplicates), but you can mask it if you wish. - 332 E 24th St, Lumberton, NC 28358, USA
In regards to the Interactive art exhibit I have provided:
A screenshot of your nomination, including rejection reasons if it has already been rejected -
Include the title - 1991: A Portal to Grandma’s Living Room
description - This interactive art exhibit designed by local artist Ryan Locklear invites viewers to step back in time, capturing the warmth of a grandmother’s home in 1991—the year Super Mario World brought its magic to American households. The piece blends nostalgia with personal history, evoking memories of family gatherings, the hum of CRT televisions, and the joy of playing video games together on the SNES.
If you feel comfortable please share the location, as it is helpful (i.e. hidden duplicates), but you can mask it if you wish. - 332 E 24th St, Lumberton, NC 28358, USA
Hello! It may be getting rejected due to the main photos not being the best “anchor point” for the business. If your rejection emails say “Our Team” vs the community then the AI machine learning is rejecting it probably due to the photos you are using for the main photo. As for the submission of the business as a whole I would try submitting it with a good clear picture of the business sign (dont take it in a car) ideally with out the light streaks in your supporting photo. Make sure it is clear, centered and not to heavily cropped (ideally a square) Then for the supporting photo Id probably use the photo with the pool table. The 1st description you have sounds good. As for your supporting info despite what it says in game you arent submiting a pokestop you are submiting a “wayspot” that could become a pokestop. So I would stay away from talking about pokemon go specifically in the supporting info. Instead use that to further talk about why the business is a good place to Socialize and explore in the community. Maybe link the business website if they have one. Should hopefully have some better luck. This looks like a really cool place and in my opinion definitely meets the socialize and explore criteria! Im sure others here will have additional tips as well
I wonder if the arcade keeps getting rejected because, while kids are allowed, it has a bar and serves drink. I might just go with Retro City Arcade for the title, leave out the mention of a bar.
The photos also aren’t the best for the arcade, plus Street View doesn’t show it yet; it was last updated in May 2023. I would try taking a better photo of the sign outside, as that can be an anchor; your current one is quite blurry.
The supporting photo of the pool table has an arm in it, so someone could see that as a body part being included, which shouldn’t matter for supporting photos, but sometimes it does. It could also be marked as submitter identifiable. The supporting photo should actually show where in the surrounding area the arcade is located, so showing the outside of the building, not the inside. As for the art installation, if there is more to show from the inside, that’s best, as well as mentioning in your supporting info that it’s located inside of the arcade.
The supporting info could also be causing rejection, as you are mentioning PoGo. We are actually nominating Wayspots to be on the Lightship map. Each Niantic game uses the Lightship map to determine game play locations. PoGo has stops/gyms, while Ingress has portals.
For the OP: It also helps the cause if this nomination can be shown to be significant somehow to the community. That will be very difficult with a sign that looks temporary and a “Grand Opening” banner beneath it.
If you’re serious about getting these approved, it’s going to be a challenge.
First there is the matter of the photos for the barcade. That’s already been addressed by someone else.
For me, I’m having difficulty viewing this as an arcade of any significance. I see what looks like a brand new (dive?) bar that has a pool table and a few video games in the corner. An arcade of vintage computer games could be cool with a good description and supporting info. The business website as support would be great to use here. But from what I see I’m not buying the concept of this as some sort of arcade of vintage games.
That it’s a bar would cause issue with some as an “adult oriented business”. The games and pizza should get past that barrier.
Selling the pizzeria aspect might be your best chance for approval right now. Again, it will need good support to get past human reviewers, especially as the business is brand new. If you can show there are gaming or pool tournaments held here, I would think that would help this a lot (show, just don’t claim it). It will be a struggle to show this is something that meets the criterium as a great place to socialize.
Grandma’s living room made me chuckle. Sorry, reviewers are immediately going to jump to the conclusion that this is a fake nomination. If it’s real you’ll have at least two obstacles to overcome.
First you’ll need to convince reviewers this really is an art exhibition, and not just a sofa with an old computer game in the back of a dive bar.
Next you’ll need to be able to prove that’s actually where you say it is. Supporting photo will be key. Other documentation (see above) will also help here.
Another issue is who is “Ryan Locklear”, the “local artist” you name. A good reviewer is immediately going to look up that name, if he hasn’t already rejected this nomination for other reasons. Google immediately gives me two options for a Ryan Locklear in Lumberton, NC. One is a 42 year old man that died earlier this year. The other is a 24 year old man from Pembroke that was murdered in 2021.
I like the concept of an arcade/pizzeria and something like that could make a great wayspot. But I also don’t know if focusing your pictures on machines that are potentialy moveable is doing you a service. I would opt for the more “traditional” presentation of clearly showing the entrance/sign of the business and the approach in the main & supporting photos - your goal is to demonstrate that the business is there, whereas with the combination of pictures you show we can’t know if the main photo has anything at all to do with the supporting photo and whether they were taken at the same place. Whereas all the info about machines, food, socializing, importance to the local community is something that is better shown in your text (eg. “it has historic machine XYZ” could belong in the description, and “here’s a schedule of game nights at the business, which demonstrates it holds events that tie the community together” could go in the supporting info), and ideally has independent evidence to back this up. Evidence of long-term importance to the community is obviously harder to come by in the context of a new business, but presumably they advertise themselves somehow?
I disagree that the business sign appears temporary. Thats a sign mounted to the building like most business signs. Just because its not the same quality of design as bigger stores doesnt make it more temporary. I personally dont see this as a hard sell. In resteraunts the bar comes 2nd. If we start denying things for Adult location just because they have a bar inside…that would be BAD for a lot of resteraunts out there. So shouldnt be denied as adult location so long as OP focuses on the Pizzeria & Arcade side. With a few minutes of searching this place unfortunately they doesnt have a website but does have several social media pages and you can see there that this is a family friendly place. At the very least, this location meets the socialize criteria. Making it eligible. Id even argue to say it fulfills exploration too since this could be a cool place to visit if you were on a trip and nearby. Im confident that if OP takes into account the advice offered they will be able to get it to go through
I stand corrected on that part. To my eyes it looked like it could have been temporary but that also would be colored by the “Grand Opening” banner that was beneath it.
I followed a lot of your recommendations on the Barcade submission and used the store front sign and a shot of the parking lot and sign along with a more general supporting paragraph and it went through! Thank a lot for your help!
The Interactive Art exhibit still isn’t going through though sadly but one out of the two is still pretty awesome.
Any idea on how to get the other approved. The owner has stated that The exhibit is always going to be there. It’s a permanent exhibit. It may have seasonal changes to match the theme say Christmas or whatever but it’s not being replaced with any other retro tech
I’m thinking some see this as just a seating area, not as an art exhibit. Yes, it looks like a living room or family room back in the 1990s, complete with TV and video game system from that time period, and how many homes still have TVs like that, or even an SNES? Not many, I’d think.
You actually crafted a really good description for it, even including the artist info, what it represents and harkens back to. I’ve been to museums that have permanent displays like this, showing how things used to look, like a 1950s hair salon or a early 20th century soda shop. It may be that others aren’t viewing this as art, as a retrospective piece, but rather just another place at the arcade that one can play retro games at.
Do you know if there is anything online about this exhibit, such as from the artist’s social media, the arcade, even a news article? Sometimes providing additional info from a website or social media will help see this for what it is, not what others think it is.
@Nicodemous55 I think “Grandma’s Living Room” is going to continue to struggle unless you can provide some supporting information for the local artist you named previously.
In an early post on this I said I looked up the name for that person, which is not an unreasonable thing for a reviewer to do IMO:
It would seem highly unlikely that either of those two could have created this. If a reviewer did the same thing as me, lacking any other info about the cited local artist, this may cause them to look negatively upon the nomination.
I like the concept of A Portal to Grandma’s Living Room, but see that it might be difficult to accept: is it contained in some sort of framing space, so that you can show the edges to demonstrate that it’s not just a room in a standard house layout? Also, for some, the word “Portal” can be taken as a game reference, so be sure to include documentation that this is the official title. Is there a plaque nearby that gives information on this artwork and its origins? If so, maybe a photo of that plaque would help sell the whole thing: if not, I’d be sure to include a link (in supporting info) to an official source of title/creator/concept to help reviewers discern that this is a valid candidate.
For clarification and to help me move this forward:
There seem to be two main hurdles to address. The first is the broader philosophical question of “What makes an artist an artist?”—a complex and subjective topic, to be sure. In this case, the artist in question is the shop owner, who approached this project with a deep personal passion. Their goal was to authentically recreate a significant space within their establishment, drawing on cherished childhood memories. They invested considerable time and effort in sourcing pieces from their past to create a unique, interactive focal point for their shop mimicking a classic living area you may have had at your grandmother’s home if you grew up during that time.
The second hurdle revolves around the nature of the project itself, which may appear mundane or ordinary to some. However, as I mentioned, this is a deeply personal passion project and a permanent fixture in their space. I believe I conveyed this effectively in the description. While it currently lacks a plaque, I’m confident they would be willing to add one if necessary.
I would include in the description that the artist is the owner for more context; that may be why there isn’t much info online about them being an artist (I did a search as well).
Anyone can create art, and we shouldn’t be viewing it so subjectively. If it’s a permanent art piece/exhibit, we should be following what Wayfarer has set forth to review art on. So, sometimes that means a little extra context, like noting that the arcade owner designed and installed the exhibit.
Now, I did some digging on their social media, and found that it’s a functioning play station (this was posted on their Facebook on Nov 9th):
This is correct, which is why I’ve previously emphasized that it’s an interactive art exhibit. By this, I mean a functional game station that also serves as a kind of time capsule. Unfortunately, they have very limited art category options, making it challenging to classify accurately.
But thanks for the help I’m about to resubmit it
