Does anyone else out there find the idea of playing a Hunger Games ‘game’ more than a little bit ironic? I do understand that this role playing doesn’t seem to involve murdering everyone around you in order to survive or the sadistic, poisonous settings of the Games depicted in the novels, but, really, practicing for the Games with a little role playing, even in the name of “strategy,” seems a little twisted.
The premise of the books, in large part, is that the Capitol’s Games are horrific and demeaning to everyone involved — so now we’re invited to join in the fun? Look for the video games alongside the movies, I guess. Bizarre that the entertainment culture of violence and vicarious participation in the suffering of others Collins is skewing in fiction may take shape and form around her story! If the movies are a hit (and they will be, I fear for all the wrong reasons), I predict a Panem-World theme park experience within the decade.
Please share your thoughts. (H/T to Arabella!)
I was repulsed when I saw this. It trivializes–for fun!!–exactly what Collins critiques in her horror-filled games. Those who created this deserve to fight off tracker jackers and acid fog.
The Hunger Games is marketed as a YA novel, and I would bet that the majority of readers are teen and pre-teen girls who, once they’ve read and loved the book, have to get their hands on every piece of HG merchandise they can find. Recently pins, bookmarks, and even official shirts have popped up only to be quickly snatched by rabid fans. The Hunger Games board game is simply a product designed to milk more money out of the fans, who will get what they pay for: a shadow of the HG narrative they can enjoy after the books are finished. Teen fans I know read the novels not for the thinly veiled critique against popular media but for the love story revolving around Katniss. To suggest that this board game will turn HG readers into something reminiscent of the Capitol’s blood-lusting citizens is more than a little ridiculous. Have players of the game “Clue” turned any more murderous or sadistic than the rest of us? Board games are designed to create competition under a given situation; the objective of many board games is to completely eliminate other players for fun. The Hunger Games board game, I suspect, will be no different.
“To suggest that this board game will turn HG readers into something reminiscent of the Capitol’s blood-lusting citizens is more than a little ridiculous.”
The ridiculous thing is to suggest that this was my suggestion. Take a few deep breaths, Billie Dooley, and relax. I think the differences between a Hunger Games “strategy game” and Clue or Risk, not to mention the attendant ironies of “playing the Hunger Games,” will come to you eventually.
What’s next? Hunger Games meals at BK? Shudder. Of course, marketing folks don’t always consider the product they are marketing very carefully, especially if the product is a book. While I really enjoy my Twilight umbrella (get it? an umbrella with the logo of book in which it always rains…) I think the folks in Forks, WA, who market their hotel with “Edward Cullen Slept Here” need to actually read the books (as the Cullens don’t sleep, of course). Or the toys linked to R rated movies but marketed to six-year-olds. It sounds like Effie Trinket is in charge of game product tie-ins for HG: “Happy Happy Hunger Games!” (insert dippy titter here)
Billie Dooley, Katniss calls the Hunger Games murder and torture. A “strategy” game based on this–well, I find it disturbing. It demeans and trivializes a horror Collins critiques in the books.
Aw, Elizabeth, even Effie would blanch at this! 😉
All of my friends who read the Hunger Games books, and we are all teens, read it for the interesting plot and new ideas it brought, not the “romance” as Billie Dooley mentioned. And believe me, there is very little romance involved. It is a subplot, rather than the main theme as it usually is in most teen literature. The board game isn’t going to encourage violence in real life anymore than watching horror movies does. After all, I think the main group the game is targeted toward are the people who read the books, and the books definitely portray the violence as wrong and sickening, as Arabella Figg pointed out, and that Katniss only participated in said violence for self-defense, to survive, a practice common in our society.
To answer your comments about snapping up Hunger Games merchandise, Billie Dooley, I find that idea a little stereotypical. Yes, my friends and I read the Twilight saga, and maybe most of us all own a t shirt and a bracelet, but we don’t obsess over it and proclaim Edward to be the love of our lives like most sick teenage girls showed on television. And yes, they are sick, in my mind, because such an attachment to a fictional character isn’t healthy. I admit, I do occasionally fawn over characters in books, but I also realistically recognize that they are fictional, and that to “fall in love” with one of them is foolish. If love is depicted that way to teens in our society, as a thing to be thrown around loosely, then its a wonder every relationship doesn’t end in divorce. But, alas, I digress. I don’t think many people will be buying every piece of Hunger Games merchandise there is, as I didn’t even know about the actual existence of said merchandise until now. I do agree, however, that the board game is a marketing ploy, and I hope it is more enjoyable than the Twilight board game, which I regrettably purchased only to find that half the questions weren’t trivia about the movie at all. I have hopes that, as being based solely off the book, the Hunger Games board game will fare better. I apologize if I seemed to be yelling directly at you, Billie, as I wasn’t. I was merely taking out my anger on society’s opinions of teenagers.
And you did so with eloquence and common sense, Evangeline.
There will always be silly people, or needy people, of any age who embrace a story character with overzealous gusto (as Edward/Pattinson mania demonstrates).
I believe most teens, like you and your friends, are thoughtfully engaging the ideas in these powerful books, as you are the target market for Capitol-like sensation and media manipulation, and I suspect most will be very unhappy with a romantic Team approach to the films. Yes, the romance is a subplot and more symbolic, really, as the HG posts here demonstrate.
Most people, of any age, have “fawned” over fictional characters; when a character deeply engages the reader, this is natural.
Actually, I’ve been mostly reading terrific YA lit over the last few years, because YA is where the good, thoughtful, and hopeful stories are now.
I really appreciated your comment and hope you weigh in further.
Thank you, Arabella, it means a lot to me that someone is interested in my opinion (as I seem to form strong ones at times). I definitely agree about YA lit becoming increasingly more popular across the age spectrum, as I know of many people who regularly read it. I think it delivers fresh plot ideas (nobody hates a cliche more than I do) mixed with interesting and engaging characters. To me, what separates an excellent book from a merely good one is the presence of honest and true emotions. If I can’t relate to the characters in some way, and feel their pain and joy, if I can’t laugh, smile, and cry with them, then the book isn’t nearly as enjoyable as I think it could have been if the author hadn’t been afraid to express how the characters really felt. Needless to say, The Hunger Games and Catching Fire (and Mockingjay, I hope) fit comfotably in the excellent book category.
While I wish that as many people as possible could experience the power that a fantastic book can have, sometimes I think it is better that extremely good books remain hidden in semi-obscurity, so as to shield them from the mania that can stem from too much publicity. Yes, I will admit that before Twilight became a public phenomenon, and before Twihards became the newest stereotype of the American teenager, I read all four books on multiple occasions in very short spans of time. I enjoyed them immensely, and still do, as they are very well written in my mind. However, all of the hype and attention from the media has decreased its greatness in my mind, and I can barely think about Edward without cringing now.
To me, every great book that is made into a movie is ruined because of that movie, some more than others. You mentioned the romantic Team approach to possible Hunger Games movies, Arabella. That has been one of my major fears for the potential movie adaptation, in addition to un-suitable casting choices. Yes, there is a small love triangle between Katniss, Gale, and Peeta, however it isn’t the main object of the story in any way, shape, or form so much as a consequence of attempting to survive the Games. In movies, however, the romance angle is usually amplified to bring in more people who may not have read the books, another marketing ploy. Unfortunately, this can blow the sub-plot out of proportion so much that it overshadows the actual meaning of the books and what caused it to exist in the first place.
I would be interested in knowing if anyone else agrees with my views on movies’ effects on books, or even if someone has a different opinion.
I think you are misreading the game entirely. The author Suzanne Collins is very against the glamorization of violence in all its forms, and has complete control and approval of the game. That said, you need to put aside your quick and biased judgement and look at the actual game.
The game is set in the “trials” stage, and the object is not to kill and maim your opponants. It is to fool the judges. It is not about winning through violence, but subverting the violent nature of the games though wit and skill. After all- Isn’t that the theme of the book?
The movies will also be far from some kind of blood bath. That wouldn’t be true to the author, or to the books fans. Katniss is a hero because she loathes violence and finds ways to work around it, not because she excels at it.
I don’t want to be too harsh but — Please understand the game and the book’s actual meaning before jumping on the alarmist bandwagon
It is re-assuring to read that the game’s object is to fool the judges rather than maim or kill opponents. Maybe I was too harsh and too much in a hurry to point out the ironies involved.
I have to think you are very naive, though, if you don’t believe the movies will be at least as violent as the books, which, because the players are all children more or less, will be horrific on screen. Children murdering children and adults watching for thrills is a large part of the books’ message — and downplaying or cutting out this aspect would be a real departure both from the texts and from Hollywoods’ very well established conventions (gotta have a chase scene and a few deaths, even in a romantic comedy…).
That it is these conventions and our participation in them as teevee watchers and movie goers which Ms. Collins is satirizing for our reflection won’t matter in the end, I’m afraid. The Hunger Games movie will almost certainly become a thrill movie whose message is lost in the jump to a medium the books decry.
I agree with you, Chelsea, about the board game being based on the trials stage, and therefore more about general skills and knowledge rather than brutality and violence. I think I myself may have neglected to notice that originally in my haste to defend my beloved book series…however, I think I may have to agree with John about the movie. The books portray a lot of violence, and that will most likely be transferred to the screen to stir up the action movie crowds. That being said, a lot of this violence does occur “off camera”, so to speak, as Katniss sees who died projected into the skies at the end of the day and occasionally from other tributes. This approach could alleviate showing most of the violence, and keep it limited to only what Katniss does herself, or the events that are most important to the story. Let’s not forget, also, that the screenwriters might choose to play around a little with the story and change and tweak small details to make it a more movie-appealing and so forth.
Suzanne Collins wrote the first drafts of the script for the movie. It is now being tweaked by another screen writer, or that is what I hear anyway. Perhaps Suzanne Collins has managed to allow herself some large measure of control when it comes to the movie. Perhaps I am being naive, but I am hoping that with her involved it will stay true to the intention and purpose of the novel in spite of what Hollywood forces might want it to be.
I have also heard that Suzanne Collins is going for a PG 13 rating. While that allows for a fair amount of implied violence, hopefully that will keep it from being violent for the sake of violence. Plus I think that like Evangeline pointed out, a lot might happen “off screen” and it is suggested. The books do contain a fair amount of violence though, so you can pretty well bet that there will be some difficult scenes that will be hard to watch.
I think that despite all of that you will still have some movie goers who just don’t get what the film is supposed to be about and are there to revel in the violent action. Those will be the complainers that it was too tame for their tastes, and the messages and ideas presented will go right over their heads.
I agree with both your points, that our hope for a good movie is in Ms. Collins’ role as a screenwriter as well as the likelihood that the movie will necessarily be just another thrills-voyeur experience (rather than a critique of the medium and that experience).
Evangeline, you write: “I definitely agree about YA lit becoming increasingly more popular across the age spectrum, as I know of many people who regularly read it. I think it delivers fresh plot ideas (nobody hates a cliche more than I do) mixed with interesting and engaging characters. To me, what separates an excellent book from a merely good one is the presence of honest and true emotions.” Yes, yes, yes! Give me good story and compelling characters I can root for. These stories are timeless and shouldn’t be confined to YA, because they appeal to any age.
“…sometimes I think it is better that extremely good books remain hidden in semi-obscurity, so as to shield them from the mania that can stem from too much publicity.” Well, I don’t think it hurt Harry Potter, but do think it has hurt Twilight, with all the vilification, Twihardness, and excessive film star emphasis, not to mention the public flagellation of Meyer. But if Twilight hadn’t attained big attention, I’d never have read it, so there you are.
As for film adaptations, you can read plenty of criticism for how plotlines were handled for Harry Potter. Still, these films do work because of the casting, sets, scores, and delightful visualizations, even if I seeth over plot points. I’m avoiding the Twilight films and photos, preferring to keep that story in my head, so it hasn’t been spoiled that way for me. I usually avoid film adaptations of books I love because of the reasons you mention. There are those that choose to see only film adaptations and I feel they get an expurgated story that is both wanting and deceiving (as in what were filmgoers to make of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince?).
As for the THG film. It’s going to be tricky to convey Collins’ message without shocking the audience (which should be shocked). I don’t see how the film can stay true to the horror of it without showing it, even if it’s made palatable enough for PG-13. And while it may be limited to Katniss’ experience, she releases the tracker jackers, finds Rue impaled and dying, shoots Rue’s tribute killer, experiences Cato’s hideous muttation-caused agony, and shoots him as mercy killing. I suppose they’ll tone down Katniss’ and Peeta’s injuries, but if the film doesn’t make clear the horror of the story, it will have failed.
My hungergames.com has a pretty thorough review of the game, based on actual play, so you may want to check that out if you’re considering putting it on your wish list! Right now, the review is their headline story: http://www.myhungergames.com/
(Off-topic question) : I have read both HG books and all the Gregor books and thoroughly enjoyed both. ( Ms. Collins is one my favorite authors ). I’m wondering if they should make the Hunger Games movie at all. At first, I was really excited when I heard it was going to be made into a movie. But now my recurring doubts about it and comments like these scare me.
After reading all of the Gregor books, I just can’t fathom the story having the same effect on me watching it on the big screen. In my mind, no director or cast/crew would be able to pull it off. Maybe some books are just not right for movie adaptation. Every good book that has been converted to film has fallen short of having the same effect that the book had. Maybe hunger games should stay inside the pages of the book. Like how JD Salinger never allowed the rights to Catcher because he had the stipulation that he had to play Holden. I can’t imagine some other form of Catcher than reading it.
My point: maybe HG should stay as a wonderful book just for us readers to enjoy.
Am I alone in thinking this?
At the very least, it would save me 10 bucks for the cost of the ticket.
(Off-topic question) : I have read both HG books and all the Gregor books and thoroughly enjoyed both. ( Ms. Collins is one my favorite authors ). I’m wondering if they should make the Hunger Games movie at all. At first, I was really excited when I heard it was going to be made into a movie. But my recurring doubts about it and comments like these scare me.
After reading all of the Gregor books, I just can’t fathom the story having the same effect on me watching it on the big screen. In my mind, no director or cast/crew would be able to pull it off.
Maybe some books are just not right for movie adaptation. Every good book that has been converted to film has fallen short of having the same effect that the book had. Maybe hunger games should stay inside the pages of the book. Like how JD Salinger never allowed the rights to Catcher because he had the stipulation that he had to play Holden. I can’t imagine some other form of Catcher than reading it.
My point: maybe the HG should stay a wonderful treat for just us readers.
Am I alone in thinking this?
At the very least, it would save me 10 bucks from the cost of the ticket.
Lindsey, you’re not alone. We’ve been discussing the HG books as horror at The Hog’s Head, http://thehogshead.org/harry-horror-and-the-hunger-games-5223/. So far no one has expressed a desire to see these books as film.
For anyone interested I will provide a link to an article I had read months ago. It sounds from this article as if Suzanne Collins is well aware of how her movie could be exploited and thus is trying to prevent that. Hopefully she maintains enough control to prevent her message from being lost.
The article is here: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2010/03/the-hunger-games-in-hollywood-who-will-play-katniss.html
The relevant part of the article from the Los Angeles Times that I linked to above is the following:
It’s all quite a change for Collins, a former TV writer for such cuddly Nickelodeon fare as “Clarissa Explains It All” and “Oswald.” She is writing the screen adaptation of “The Hunger Games” herself, in part to make sure that the Hollywood version doesn’t end up glorifying the media-saturated universe that the books critique, according to producer Nina Jacobson.
“There’s a scenario in that book that could be turned to celebrate everything the book detests,” Jacobson said. “She walks this line and she does it so well.”
Of course, it helped Collins’ case that there were five bidders for the property. “She was able to attach herself as a condition of the sale,” Jacobson said. Then she added: “We were lucky to have her.’
I agree, Lynsey, I think some (actually, most) books shouldn’t be made into movies for some reason or another. I think one reason this practice became common was to attract another section of the public into becoming regular moviegoers, and also possibly because Hollywood felt that it was running out of fresh ideas and scripts to use, and saw books as a field ripe for the picking.
Thank you, Elizabeth, for the link on the game, it saves me some time hunting down an acutal description on Google.
Thank you, Lynn, for that article as well.
I have to disagree about your assessment of the impact the board games and movies would have on teens, John. I work with teens all day long (I’m a high school English teacher) and I’ve been having students create their own games based on literature for years, with a lot of success. One of the stories that is most popular with my freshmen is “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell. While the whole idea of hunting humans is sadistic and wrong, their games they create based on the story are about survival. Yes, they set up crazy traps to try to kill General Zaroff. Are my students sadistic because they try to recreate the story in a creative platform? I don’t think so at all. Teens are smarter than you think; they know it’s wrong and they understand the theme. Giving them an outlet to think critically and creatively is what these kids need. They get more out of that activity than writing a paper about it.
That doesn’t mean I like the HG game that was created. I’ve played it and there’s just too much math in it for me. lol Actually, on my teacher lessons website, I have an arena board game I created last winter. It’s more of a review game (before taking the test) for the arena chapters–with the tributes traveling around the arena to see who finishes first.
Ultimately, I think all of the merchandise, marketing, movies, and hype are WONDERFUL because it is encouraging kids (especially non-readers) to READ!!! Think of all the distractions they have today that takes away from reading: cell phones, cable/dish TV, video games, iPods, YouTube, etc… Most of us grew up with none of these distractions. It is 100 times harder to get a child to want to pick up a book over all these other devices. So if a silly board game, or a BK meal, or a “Team Peeta” button gets them to pick up a BOOK, I am ALL for it.
I don’t know about the teens you’ve had experience with, Tracee, but the ones I know (my whole school) aren’t going to read the books just because of the existance of merchandise for them. Yes, it worked for Twilight, but that was movie-based. Most teenagers that I know of have never touched a book in their lives that they weren’t forced to read. The sad truth is, TV and movies require very little thinking or mental exercise to watch, whereas books force you to picture what is happening rather than just showing it to you. Laziness verses work. This to me helps contribute to the enjoyability of books. Unfortunately, most other teenagers don’t feel the same.
I forgot to mention this, but I think that part of the reason some children end up book lovers and others won’t touch a book is due to their upbringing. In my household, I personally watched little TV and movies compared to most children today, although my parents watch a lot now. In fact, whenever they turn on the TV I hide away in my room with a book. There are only about 2 programs I regularly watch on TV, and I’m not of the type to turn on the TV and flip channels randomly. Other children I know that watched/played a lot of TV/movies/video games had less exposure to books, resulting in a lack of love for them.
I’d be interested in hearing your opinions and personaly experiences on this thought.
I think you misunderstood what I meant or I didn’t communicate as well as I should have. I, too, love the enjoyment of books and would be happy if they never slaughtered another book with a movie version again. But we need to realize that the merchandise and marketing for teens is not going away anytime soon. If it’s not for a book, it’s going to be for a movie, a video game, a cartoon, or anything else that is not a book. That is the nature of teens. They love “stuff.”
What I meant is that it is awesome to see the merchandise promoting a book rather than those other things. It, in turn, promotes more authors to write, people to create blogs and fan sites, etc. ALL of these things generate excitement around books. And I think it’s pretty clear it works, otherwise we wouldn’t be responding on a forum that was inspired by a book. I mean, isn’t the sensation over Harry Potter proof enough that the merchandise DOES help the sales of the books???
I would rather see more sites like this and more merchandise inspired by books than characters from a TV program or video game. If it wasn’t successful, these young adult books wouldn’t sell. But they sell millions.
I agree with the upbringing, as well. Kids who are read to and exposed to reading are much better readers and more likely to enjoy the act of reading. But that does not mean a kid who was never read to as a child or exposed to it will never learn to love the act of reading. Yes, it’s less likely, but people DO change. I have three siblings, all raised together by the same parents in the same household. Both my parents read–my dad the newspaper and nothing else. My mom romance novels and women’s magazines. But our TV was on a lot growing up. My dad & brothers were always watching a game on TV, and my mom watched soaps during the day. Yet, here’s how we turned out: I LOVE to read everything but romance novels (and watch little TV). My sister hates to read anything except magazines and watches a lot of TV. My oldest brother does not read anything at all and just watches sports. My youngest brother was a huge video-game fanatic. He played all the time. I never saw him read much at home growing up, but he does now–both fiction & non-fiction. And he’s a great reader. But he also watches a lot of TV, too. So I do think it’s important, but it does not mean a teenager who has never read can’t learn to love books.
From the revies it doesn’t sound like the board game is anything like the “Hunger Games” depicted in the story itself. But it seems from looking at fanfic, what a lot of the fans want is an opportunity to BE one of the tributes in a fictional game. I don’t see a lot of reaction about the horror of the situation (although there is defintely some), I see people analyzing the strategies and thinking about what they would do differently to win. If you go to the “Hunger Games” section on fanfiction.net, there’s a large number of do it yourself-type HGs titled like “Hunger Games 27” and “Hunger Games 185” etc, where people just enter their own characters as tributes and try to find a way to win. What I’m saying is, I don’t think it’s the political satire that makes the series so popular.
The ring of truth, however ironic!
Just as Twilight celebrated chastity but (some say) young girls loved it because they got to fantasize about their love lives and intimacy with Edward, so the Hunger Games books reveal the brutality and evil of staged conflicts for vicarious viewing — and a good number of young fans enjoy the Games as if they were spectators watching from the seats in the Capitol?
Well from my perspective, it’s not difficult to divorce the brutality and horror of the Games from the strategy and adventure. I know that it is fiction; no real children are actually killed in the making of the story. It’s the same reason why people can play gory video games or Starcraft where thousands of soldiers are massacred hourly, because it is not real.
Lest anyone think Suzanne Collins would be horrified about readers taking such an attitude, allow me to point out that I was introduced to the Hunger Games through a video blogger who won Scholastic’s essay contest about THG. The essay prompt? “How would you survive the Hunger Games?” I was really surprised by that. I was expecting something along the lines of “How does the Hunger Games critique today’s reality tv craze” or something more along those moral lines, discussing the horror of Panem. Instead, Scholastic solicited readers to think of and describe strategically how they would try to win the Hunger Games.
Billie Dooley has the correct idea here.
A game is a game. Who gives a shit what premise it was based on? There are strategy nuts out there who love Risk, Civilization and other games that are based on killing, war, or some version of either. Do they love it because of the thrill of either killing or war? My guess is 999 times out of 1000 that answer is no.
The fact of the matter is that The Hunger Games would make for an excellent board game based on the concept of how the games are conducted. No one is denying that an actual hunger games would be horrific. You people just need to stop being so sensitive and realize that it is simply just A GAME!
Ok, I would like to start of by stating that i am a business student who has taken a few marketing and sales classes. With this in mind, ignore the horrific state of the Games and remember what draws in a young market: fun based off of the things they are interested in at that point in time. This said, everyone on here has to agree the Hunger Games is an amazingly entertaining book with a plot line that would pull in even the most unimaginative reader. That alone would make the profit from a Hunger Games board game immense.
What would really pull in buyers, though, would be the idea of being a tribute themselves. Yes, it’s a little odd. Yes, it is a little twisted. But doesn’t that apply to any board game dealing with murder? The earlier reference to Clue, for example, was perfect. People play that game all the time despite the fact that it’s premise is murder, fear, and blind vigilantism. Yes, the Hunger Games are horrific! BUT NEWS FLASH! THEY’RE FICTION! So let people make them and stop looking into the deeper disgust in it. It is a board game, not an actual arena that the government is forcing teenagers into.
Derreck and Amanda…
Please refrain from the use of profanity in your postings here at HogwartsProfessor. Four-letter, shock-value verbage does not enhance what is possibly well-constructed and thought-provoking opinion.
Speaking as a long-time HogPro participant, I do not wish to see this blog site’s high standards of respectful discourse compromised.
Thank You