I need to lose weight, and the Weight Watchers points concept actually resonates with me, as I attempt to do something similar with my home meals, I just don't count the calories like I should. But damn, it is hyperbranded as a female diet plan, and I'm self-conscious enough printing out a Men's Health diet at the office. Still, Wired's Clive Thompson has a different take on why WW works -- it's actually an RPG.

The Weight Watchers program is designed precisely like a role-playing dungeon crawler. That's why people love it, stick to it and have success with it. And it points to the way that we could use game design to make life's drudgery more bearable. [...] 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!

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From the "Kids are Good for Work" file. Reader Brian C. (OK, the bossman) pointed out this WTF paragraph in a story about uber-green home design. The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago is exhibiting just such a home, which features "a bicycle in the children's bedroom [that] must be pedaled for 30 minutes to charge a battery to power video games." You can see this -- God, I hope you can even ride it -- at the museum from now until Jan. 9.

The manifestations of this torture device are all delightful: Older brothers forcing younger siblings to chug away for marathon sessions of MGS4 -- "Keep going Billy! We have another 36 minutes left in this cutscene!" Timers going off and mad dashes back to the bike to supply enough juice and preserve your Lego Indiana Jones gamesave. A bike/Wii Fit combo regimen. Can you imagine being the kid who lives in the Al Gore house? "Hey, Owen got Soulcalibur IV, let's go over and create Striker and Blade from Bad Dudes ... Oh wait, I don't want to ride that fucking bike".

The story says the machine was assembled from parts you can buy at electronics store. I did some googling and found this (sans bike), and I wonder if it's the same.

Any electrical engineers in the house? How much gameplay would you get out of charging up a battery like this for 30 minutes?

Going Green a Growing Trend Among Homeowners [AP on CNN.com]
Smart Home: Green + Wired [Museum of Science and Industry]

If there's one thing we know about casual games companies, it's that they love to conduct surveys, don't they? The latest one commissioned by RealNetworks' RealGames division aims to correlate casual gameplay with improvement of bad habits. Need to lose weight, quit smoking, quit hitting the potato chips? Play a game, it seems.

59 percent of the survey participants said that casual games offer a "positive distraction" from overeating, and 42 percent said it helps distract them from smoking. Smokers apparently prefer "hidden picture" games to other types, by the way. No surprise, either, that the survey results show that taking a little clicky-break to play a casual game helped them relieve stress.

I wonder why console publishers don't underwrite studies like these periodically, to show the positive impact games in general might have on their audience. Too much of a minefield, do you think?

Full study announcement after the jump.

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The British Parliament plan to debate whether video games should be safety-tested for causing photo sensitive epileptic seizures, the Bristol Evening Post reports.

The debate comes after Dentist Gaye Herford spent a year trying to bring the plight of her son to the attention of Parliament after he suffered a seizure while playing Rayman: Raving Rabbids on this DS.

The paper reports that Ubisoft has already agreed to voluntarily test its games through a screening process.

Herford discovered her 10-year-old son with his eyes glazed over and twitching uncontrollably in an epileptic fit in May 2007.

If the campaign leads to new legislation, the UK will be the first country in the world to set such high safety standards for video games, the paper reports. Television and film programs are already tested.

MUM'S NINTENDO EPILEPSY BATTLE [The Evening Post]

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has revealed 12 universities that will receive grants to research the use of video games as healthcare tools. Games have shown clear potential to serve healthcare, from helping stroke victims rehabilitate, encouraging seniors to exercise and teaching behaviour for therapy. Exhaustive research and hard data will further drive the growth of games as healthcare tools for people of all ages, and the grant recipients aim to support this goal.

It's about taking advantage of the burgeoning video game trend instead of attacking it, said Deborah Lieberman Ph.D., communications researcher at the University of California at Santa Barbara, during the organization's announcement conference today.

"Research has shown you can learn whatever a video game offers. The question is, what are you going to teach?" said Lieberman.

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Having stared at computer screens, television monitors, and tiny LCD screens for most of my natural life, I can see where the Minnesota Optometric Association is coming from when they issue a press release warning against the dangers of Computer Vision Syndrome. I even dig their choice of example games given in the release.

Here's a typical scene: A trio of twenty-something young men are hunched around the new Super Mario Galaxy (and later, Grand Auto Theft IV): The players stare wide-eyed at the screen, rarely blinking. Once a Mario Kart Wii race is finished, the players' bodies seem to relax in unison...

Okay, so it started getting a little steamy towards the end, but still, that sort of situation can cause eye strain, headaches, and other symptoms of CVS (low prescription prices?). What I don't get is that they feel the need to issue a press release offering up this advice: A

At the minimum, adjust work or play station, avoid glare, blink, and take a break

Hey kids! If you require a press release to remind you to blink your eyes, your problems go way beyond CVS. Hit the jump for the full helpful release.

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Back on Friday I decided that after over 22 years it was finally time for me to quit smoking. Since then I've made enemies of my cats, yelled at anyone with the gall to call me on the telephone I purchased to stay in touch with those same people, made vicious enemies of my cats, and started repeating myself. Now Ubisoft proudly announces Allen Carr's Easyway To Stop Smoking, due out in November for the Nintendo DS. Really? November?

Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking book is one of the most highly regarded books on the subject of kicking cancer sticks, published in 50 different countries. Famous folk like Ashton Kutcher, Ellen DeGeneres, and Richard Branson all swear by his program, while I sit in my apartment, sweating and shaking.

"Ubisoft's creative team has worked hard to deliver a game that successfully communicates Allen Carr's Easyway method via play," said Christian Salomon, vice president of worldwide licensing at Ubisoft. "The player experiences a truly interactive engagement with the game through which he or she learns that it can actually be enjoyable to quit smoking."

Enjoyable to quit smoking? Scroll up to see how much fun I am having! Do I not look like I am having fun? Over the past 24 hours alone I have fallen asleep and woken up over 15 times. My nose is now running, I have to go to the bathroom every 10 minutes, and I am eating everything that isn't nailed down. FUN! Perhaps you guys could have announced this game last week?

Of course now I am going to have to start up again, simply to test the DS game when it comes out in November. *heads to the store for some cigarettes*

Okay fine, as tempting as it is I wouldn't jeopardise my life any further for a story. We'll just have to get Crecente to start smoking in my stead.

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More than $US 2 million in grants is being handed out to teams researching how video games can improve players' health.

While the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation doesn't plan to announce the dozen research teams who will be awarded the grant money until Thursday, they did say that the funded studies will explore topics ranging from how motion-based games may help stroke patients progress faster in physical therapy to how people in substance abuse treatment can practice skills and behaviours in the virtual world to prevent real-world relapses.

I'd like to think that at least one is looking at the WiiFit and how it does at raising awareness of BMI, but maybe it's too soon for it to have soaked into academia.

It's heartening to see that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the nation's largest philanthropy devoted to improving the health of Americans, has decided it's worth investing so much money to "explore how games can increase physical activity and enhance prevention, self-management of health conditions".

Hit the jump for the full release.

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Kids aren't as interested in sports and it's hard to get them involved, says International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge. Young people like other things! Video games, for instance. Says Rogge:

Kids are attracted to visual, interactive forms of communication. It's not going to be easy for sport to counter that... You won't hear me saying sport is not fun — it is. But it requires austerity and discipline. The answer is achievement. You will never achieve in a video game. It is not really success.

So glad the IOC is headed by an open minded fellow.

London 2012 And The Game Gen [The Times via MCVUK]

Nell McAndrew is apparently launching her own "lifestyle companion" mobile fitness application in the UK, used to create workout routines from a database and develop a meal plan. Who's Nell McAndrew? 1998's model for Lara Croft, of course.

McAndrew seems to have left her Lara days behind her, though, as the announcement makes no mention of her role as one of the first Tomb Raider models. Shame, because I'd love someone to promise me I can look like Lara Croft. I mean, Nell McAndrew is pretty and all, but come on! Lara Croft!

Anyway, for those who might've been wondering what McAndrew has been up to lately, full announce after the jump.

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