I... think this is the missing the point

[inverarity]

So, I actually liked The Hunger Games. It's a YA dystopian series, emphasis on dystopian, and I don't really blame it for kicking off the weak YA "dystopian" fad that followed, with "dystopian" societies based on vampire breeding farms, Hogwarts-esque caste systems, creepy harem-proms, or societies run by eHarmony.

But, as flawed and watered-down as Hunger Games was for its YA audience, the compelling and horrific part for me was that Suzanne Collins never let you forget that we're reading about children being forced to kill other children for the entertainment of the elite and the oppression and terrorization of the masses.



Of course the entertainment industry is what it is, so we got the Hunger Games boardgame (now you too can be a teenager hunting down and killing your fellow teens!), which I can only laugh at ironically. It's not like I don't appreciate the dark humor — it's no darker, when you think about it, than Zombie dice, and I still have my copy of Nuclear War. ("I need to make change for 25 million...")

But seeing Facebook ads for "the adventures of Johanna" (you know, the psycho axe-killer) that take you to this cute little "social media game" where you wander around collecting food and energy and talking to people... Hmm, so I guess you don't butcher your fellow Hunger Games contestants?



I'm not moralizing, though I guess I am being a bit of a grump about the chipper cartoonish blunting of what little edge this series had.

I'd be less annoyed by a game based on Battle Royale or The Running Man (Stephen King's original novel, not the stupid Schwarzenegger movie) that was up front about the fact that it's a bloodbath.

Comments

[swissmarg]

I'm sitting here giggling about the fact that that Hunger Games Adventures promotional image actually says "Adventure with Johanna! The Ads Continue".

[inverarity.livejournal.com]

Heh. Truth in advertising!

[kith-koby.livejournal.com]

What I'm even more annoyed at is that I loved Johanna. She was really the most badass there, especially compared to Katniis (whom I disliked). She was my favorite character, as Farla said 'a less psychotic Azula'. And they've turned her story into... this.

[conuly]

...

Which one is the creepy harem proms? I think I've identified the remainder.

creepy harem proms

[inverarity.livejournal.com]

Primarily I was thinking of The Selection and Wither. Admittedly, I haven't actually read either book, so I'm just going by their descriptions.

[shinygobonkers.livejournal.com]

When I was a kid i had a game of Clue that I lost the cards to for a while, so I redid that rules so that basically, each piece started off with a weapon, and you moved around the game board trying to kill the other people before they killed you, and different weapons were more or less useful (revolver > rope) and once you killed someone you got their weapon too, and last peice standing won.

I find it funny that my bored only child reworked version of Clue was more true to the idea of that kind of dystopian setting than Hunger games the social media game is :P