Tales of the Rampant Coyote

Adventures in Indie Gaming!

The Toilet Seat Distinction

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 15, 2010

My wife and I went to Lowes’ a couple of weeks ago to find a replacement toilet seat. The old one had broken one of its joints. In spite of being a home-owner for the last dozen years, I’ve never had to replace a toilet seat before. Float balls, handles,flappers, etc., sure, a couple of times each. But never a toilet seat.

As we found the correct aisle, we walked past shelves full of new toilets. I was struck by the… well, the marketing. The ad copy. For… toilets.”Power!” “Reliability!” “Comfort!” Comfort and power. Reliability and comfort. Comfort and power. Power, comfort, and reliability. These were toilets we are talking about here! I mean, really, when taking care of the basics of human nature these devices address, cleanliness and reliability are about the only things in which I am at all interested. I guess until you actually have to shop for a new one, you never really think about it.

And so I became a little nervous about our toilet seat choice. I thought I would have to pick from, like, maybe a half-dozen, and here I was staring at row upon row of crowns for the porcelain throne ! Was I making the RIGHT toilet seat choice, or was I picking something that would now be inadequate to our needs — needs I didn’t realize we might have until I was overwhelmed by a wall of possibilities? Ye gods!

I ended up choosing a simple one that looked like it would fit and match, and was nicely in our anticipated price range. Bingo. It installed just fine. WHEW! Very soon, I will completely forget about the ordeal or the seat itself, which is one of those fixtures of home life that you really, REALLY don’t want calling attention to itself. But for now, I can say I’m fairly pleased with my toilet-seat purchase.

Okay, this has nothing to do with games. About the only thing I can say to bring this anecdote remotely on-topic is this:

I sometimes find myself sometimes struggling with the flood of indie computer role-playing games appearing in quantities undreamed of five years ago. This is a good thing. But they aren’t all brilliant gems, though even the mediocre ones often have sparks of inspiration and threads of greatness that redeem them and make them worthy of a gamer’s time (and dollars). They can be tough to keep track of, and it can sometimes be hard to know which one might be most worth your time demoing. Especially with so many of them built upon the same engine (RPG Maker).

But they are at least a hell of a lot more distinctive than toilet seats. And I don’t ever expect toilet seat manufacturers to offer a try-before-you-buy policy.


Filed Under: General - Comments: 3 Comments to Read



  • Fosse said,

    That’s an observed phenomenon. We’re perfectly happy with one or two options, and we get stressed out when we have many options. It doesn’t matter if the many options let us select something that’s actually superior, because we recognize that we MIGHT have made the wrong choice. If you only have two choices, it’s easier to select the one that feels right.

    Here’s an entertaining talk about it:
    http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html

  • houser2112 said,

    I recently replaced my toilet seat as well, from Home Despot. It’s a good thing the wife wanted a wooden seat instead of one that matched our toilet (light blue), because there were NONE. There was a huge wall of maybe 25 toilet seats, ONE of which was wooden, and the rest white. Is white the only acceptable color for toilets these days?

  • Xenovore said,

    ROFL!

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