The story of love and tragedy has actual meaning behind it? What?! Yeah, it does. Suzanne Collins got this great idea one night a long time ago, as a child, when she was "channel surfing". Eventually, she found a channel that covered footage of war, with real photos, and was disgusted. She flipped away and found a reality television show and saw how fake they truly are, and how their entertainment purposes were completely flawed. Eventually the two things, the violence/war desensitization and reality tv, just clicked together in her mind and made one idea.