Just when you think we’ve reached the nadir in the arc of human social development, you read a story about “toilet gaming” — and you realize there are entirely new depths waiting to be plumbed by modern homo sapiens.
You read it right: “toilet gaming.” Or, to be precise, urinal gaming. Apparently modern men simply can’t abide the 50 seconds or so of down time that usually accompanies the basic human function of bladder evacuation. It’s just so damn tedious, standing there on the sticky floor of a public restroom, staring at the wall a few inches ahead while you answer nature’s call! So, some enterprising British business has developed devices that allow the bored urinal user to play a video game that uses urine flow as a kind of hands-free joystick. A good aim at inner urinal sensors that hits various targets allows you to get a top score in a skiing game or to correctly answer trivia questions, and your score shows up on a video screen directly ahead. The developers think they’ll be able to sell advertising — presumably, for beer — on part of the video screen.
Have we really reached the point where men can’t even relieve themselves without playing a video game? Can’t public restrooms just be devoted exclusively to their intended purpose? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want the guy using the next urinal over to be focused on directing the stream in order to score well on a video game rather than paying careful attention to successful and prompt completion of the task at hand.
Filed under: Humor, Technology Tagged: Civilization, Humor, modern culture, Public Restrooms, Technology, Urinals, Video games
