'The Hunger Games' come to life (virtual life, that is)

A Farmville-like game based on Suzanne Collins' 'Hunger Games' trilogy will be debuting on Facebook March 23

|
Murray Close/HONS/Lionsgate/AP
'Hunger Games Adventures' players will take instructions from two of the series' main characters, Katniss (played in the films by Jennifer Lawrence, l.) and Peeta (portrayed by Josh Hutcherson, r.).

Soon it will be possible to immerse yourself in the world of “The Hunger Games” -- without actually being required to fight to the death as are so many of the characters in in Suzanne Collins’ trilogy.

A new game titled “The Hunger Games Adventures” – created by the gaming company Funtactix, Collins, and the team responsible for the movie adaptation of the book – will be coming to Facebook on March 23, which is also the release date for the movie adaptation of the first book.

The game will include the first map of Panem, the country where the “Hunger Games”trilogy takes place. The game will be playable on Facebook on laptops and netbooks, according to information given by Funtactix to The Huffington Post, but because the game uses Flash software, “Games” fans won’t be able to play the game on smartphones or iPads.

Players, who will participate in the game as themselves rather than as a character in the books, will accept assignments from Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, two of the trilogy’s main characters. The game may sometimes involve fights between two characters, but unlike the ultraviolent world of Collins’ series, players who are on the losing end of a fight will merely lose power rather than their lives. According to The Huffington Post, the game will include an area where players can go to recharge without being attacked.

According to information given to The Huffington Post by Funtactix, players will be able to use their own cash to buy items within the game that will make winning easier, but Funtactix representatives said “Games” fans would still be able to have a full in-game experience without spending money. The world of the game will be expanded as the other “Games” movies come out, but in the first version of the game, players will only be able to explore District 12, the home of Katniss and Peeta, Funtactix told The Huffington Post.

Funtactix has previously created online games for the animated movie “Rango” and for the action classic “Mission Impossible.”

Fans can currently sign up to be a beta tester for the game through the “Adventures” homepage.

Molly Driscoll is a Monitor contributor.

Join the Monitor's book discussion on Facebook and Twitter.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to 'The Hunger Games' come to life (virtual life, that is)
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2012/0307/The-Hunger-Games-come-to-life-virtual-life-that-is
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe