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The toilet is an important household instrument used every day in order to dispose of human waste. It has progressed dramatically throughout the ages, whereas once it was seen as dirty and smelly it was situated outside of the homes in small shed like structures. It then developed into the house and in particular the “Bath Room” this was for easy use, you no longer have to get out of the house to go to the toilet. It was always a strange contrast that the toilet, a dirty, unclean device, being planted near a sink and bath/shower. Now toilets are being put into people’s bedrooms as en-suits, presumably used for ease of use.
But this of course isn’t about toilets in general it is about toilets and their situation within the gaming industry. Whereas toilets in reality are used for the necessities of every day, in video games they are used for humour, violence or essentially a mix of both. Jav the preview/review editor of Cube-Europe.com had this to say surrounding toilets in gaming: “What I’ve always found odd is that the Japanese love their toilets with the novelty designs and musical toilets, but they rarely use toilets in their games. Instead it is the western developers that implement them more than anyone.” He is right of course; nearly all cases of toilet humour or violence appear in games made by western developers. But not entirely.
Metal Gear Solid features a short toilet scene, a scene where your character kills a goon who is going to the toilet. It is made by legendary Japanese designer Kojima from Konami, but this is a rarity and it is a very western style game anyway. It isn’t the only piece of gaming literacy that uses violent toilet moments; many will recall Goldeneye 007 for the Nintendo 64. The most famous and probably greatest level from the game was the facility level where of course you begin by entering a toilet and killing off 3 guards who are doing their necessities. This violent scene is often re-enacted in multiplayer where the map can be used to create your very own violent toilet scenes. Toilet scenes are ten a penny in shooters these days, Max Payne featured a few as did other first person shooters such as The World Is Not Enough and most recently Die Hard: Vendetta. In fact it is almost guaranteed that a toilet will appear in action games but this is probably more to do with variety than essential aspects of the gameplay. Endless offices and corridors will eventually become mundane and developers are constantly having to invent new surroundings, the Goldeneye Train level was again endless carriages with baddies placed behind various inanimate objects so RARE included several small toilets for the player to investigate.
Rare though didn’t just use toilets in their milestone title Goldeneye; they also use the device in other games but this time in comical situations as opposed to violent set pieces. One such example comes in the form of legendary western platform game Banjo Kazooie. The character of Loggo is a talking toilet that enables you to pass through him into another section of the game. The comical aspect is the general perception of a toilet, in a game that is geared towards the 7 to 10 age bracket, toilet humour is often perceived as a highly humorous affair for the age group, hence the inclusion of a talking toilet with eyes. Of course Rare took the ‘innocent toilet humour’ and turned it into a far dirtier affair with their most recent attempt of a platform game ‘Conker’s Bad Fur Day’. “Naturally the game features toilet humour to a large degree but we are very proud of our Giant Poo segment” Said Chris Seavor, (head designer of Conker’s Bad Fur Day) in a reply to a letter in Scribes (Rare’s online letters page).
Popular games analyst Ian Cutress had his own opinions on the toilet aspect of the Great Mighty Poo fight: “What you really have to admire Rare for in this section is re-creating the feeling of a toilet without actually opting out and making one. You had the excreted matter, you were witness to a flushing device and of course Toilet paper as well. It was like re-creating the toilet experience.” Cutress also mentioned briefly other toilet humour moments such as when a Blue Imp appeared from a toilet with the lead character complaining of the smell. Of course this leads straight back to the violence seen as that Blue Imp leaves the toilet with T.N.T strapped to his back.
It will be highly interesting to see what the future for toilets will be in gaming society. Designers normally implement toilet scenes to break the cycle of familiar rooms and create a violent scene within them. The only time toilets are ever used as an important game feature is for humour purposes, it will be intriguing to see if a developer can use toilets in a different situation. Chris Stamper co-owner of Rare ltd was once quoted for saying “No one does toilets like us!” Sounds like a challenge to me, but whose up for it?
Dringo.
But this of course isn’t about toilets in general it is about toilets and their situation within the gaming industry. Whereas toilets in reality are used for the necessities of every day, in video games they are used for humour, violence or essentially a mix of both. Jav the preview/review editor of Cube-Europe.com had this to say surrounding toilets in gaming: “What I’ve always found odd is that the Japanese love their toilets with the novelty designs and musical toilets, but they rarely use toilets in their games. Instead it is the western developers that implement them more than anyone.” He is right of course; nearly all cases of toilet humour or violence appear in games made by western developers. But not entirely.
Metal Gear Solid features a short toilet scene, a scene where your character kills a goon who is going to the toilet. It is made by legendary Japanese designer Kojima from Konami, but this is a rarity and it is a very western style game anyway. It isn’t the only piece of gaming literacy that uses violent toilet moments; many will recall Goldeneye 007 for the Nintendo 64. The most famous and probably greatest level from the game was the facility level where of course you begin by entering a toilet and killing off 3 guards who are doing their necessities. This violent scene is often re-enacted in multiplayer where the map can be used to create your very own violent toilet scenes. Toilet scenes are ten a penny in shooters these days, Max Payne featured a few as did other first person shooters such as The World Is Not Enough and most recently Die Hard: Vendetta. In fact it is almost guaranteed that a toilet will appear in action games but this is probably more to do with variety than essential aspects of the gameplay. Endless offices and corridors will eventually become mundane and developers are constantly having to invent new surroundings, the Goldeneye Train level was again endless carriages with baddies placed behind various inanimate objects so RARE included several small toilets for the player to investigate.
Rare though didn’t just use toilets in their milestone title Goldeneye; they also use the device in other games but this time in comical situations as opposed to violent set pieces. One such example comes in the form of legendary western platform game Banjo Kazooie. The character of Loggo is a talking toilet that enables you to pass through him into another section of the game. The comical aspect is the general perception of a toilet, in a game that is geared towards the 7 to 10 age bracket, toilet humour is often perceived as a highly humorous affair for the age group, hence the inclusion of a talking toilet with eyes. Of course Rare took the ‘innocent toilet humour’ and turned it into a far dirtier affair with their most recent attempt of a platform game ‘Conker’s Bad Fur Day’. “Naturally the game features toilet humour to a large degree but we are very proud of our Giant Poo segment” Said Chris Seavor, (head designer of Conker’s Bad Fur Day) in a reply to a letter in Scribes (Rare’s online letters page).
Popular games analyst Ian Cutress had his own opinions on the toilet aspect of the Great Mighty Poo fight: “What you really have to admire Rare for in this section is re-creating the feeling of a toilet without actually opting out and making one. You had the excreted matter, you were witness to a flushing device and of course Toilet paper as well. It was like re-creating the toilet experience.” Cutress also mentioned briefly other toilet humour moments such as when a Blue Imp appeared from a toilet with the lead character complaining of the smell. Of course this leads straight back to the violence seen as that Blue Imp leaves the toilet with T.N.T strapped to his back.
It will be highly interesting to see what the future for toilets will be in gaming society. Designers normally implement toilet scenes to break the cycle of familiar rooms and create a violent scene within them. The only time toilets are ever used as an important game feature is for humour purposes, it will be intriguing to see if a developer can use toilets in a different situation. Chris Stamper co-owner of Rare ltd was once quoted for saying “No one does toilets like us!” Sounds like a challenge to me, but whose up for it?
Dringo.
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If he likes toilet humour let him like toilet humour!
aninem wrote:
> hey robin... you ever though of not spamming so much, youve posted so
> many times and rarely wrote more than 10 words... enough, please!
ahem, very insulted, well lets just say i am a man of little words, but with a big belly...
I also love toilet humor...
I am going to count how many words you write in a post from now on and then let you know if you ever do less then 10, or maybe 15, meh...
> hey robin... you ever though of not spamming so much, youve posted so
> many times and rarely wrote more than 10 words... enough, please!
ahem, very insulted, well lets just say i am a man of little words, but with a big belly...
I also love toilet humor...
I am going to count how many words you write in a post from now on and then let you know if you ever do less then 10, or maybe 15, meh...
hey robin... you ever though of not spamming so much, youve posted so many times and rarely wrote more than 10 words... enough, please!
I love toilet humor...
Only Dringo would write about Toilets.
Brilliant post and strangelt interesting :-)
Only Dringo could write about toiilets :-D
Only Dringo could write about toiilets :-D
Pop
Heh I think I know what you mean.
And this is part of my "small things in gaming" investigations... Cheese in Gaming was one and this is another.
And this is part of my "small things in gaming" investigations... Cheese in Gaming was one and this is another.
What's the post about...
What was my comment...
I hate having to explain jokes because I make them too complicated and people get offended...
Toilet - Crap
Crap - Toilet
What was my comment...
I hate having to explain jokes because I make them too complicated and people get offended...
Toilet - Crap
Crap - Toilet
Don't you mean take that literally? Unless you are saying that my post isn't very good :(
And I write a post and you discuss my tag line? What the hell does RTC mean?
And I write a post and you discuss my tag line? What the hell does RTC mean?
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