Weight Watchers is an RPG?!

Dave and I and some of our pals used to have game night every other week. We’d pull some obscure board game from the closet, munch on pretzels, and geek out for a few hours. “Roll to see if I’m drunk” was a favorite (only partially ironic) joke. (For non-geeks out there, in role playing games, a roll of the dice determines a character’s behavior, actions, and their consequences.)

Maybe we should say, “Roll to see if I’m HOT!”

Here’s a cool essay from Wired about the similarities between Weight Watchers and role playing games. It’s the collision of my world and Dave’s RPG realm. Woot!

“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!”

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