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Weight Watchers is an RPG

According to Clive Thompson in Wired, Weight Watchers is an RPG.

Think about it. As with an RPG, you roll a virtual character, manage your inventory and resources, and try to achieve a goal. Weight Watchers’ points function precisely like hit points; each bite of food does damage until you’ve used up your daily amount, so you sleep and start all over again. Play well and you level up — by losing weight! And the more you play it, the more you discover interesting combinations of the rules that aren’t apparent at first. Hey, if I eat a fruit-granola breakfast and an egg-and-romaine lunch, I’ll have enough points to survive a greasy hamburger dinner for a treat!

I think WW is more of a character generation system (BURPS). Which is something of an apt metaphor.

For weight loss games, you could try the board games The Fitness Challenge or Fat Chance, or tune into the reality game show The Biggest Loser, which has it’s own board game.

(source)

In recent years, U.S. board game companies have looked to Europe for much of the material they publish. But now it seems that increasingly Japan is a source for game design imports (some other time we’ll cover the trend in war games). Z-Man Games, English publisher of the Essen hit, Agricola, follows this trend with its new release, Shadow Hunters. This Anime-influenced game engages players in the ancient battle between Shadow and Hunter—between creatures of the night and the humans appointed to defeat them. In this battle, however, true identities are hidden and the key to victory is keeping your own secret while discovering your enemies early.

Shadow Hunters is a card-heavy board game for 4-8 players, age 10 and up. Z-Man estimates playing time at 45-60 minutes.