Three Things I Learned From Luigi’s Mansion III
By Manni Li
I am always obsessed with the whodunit murder mysteries. The best ones are always in a remote location, everyone has a motive, and the villain dies in the first act. I love the genre so much to the extent that I once took a murder mystery writer’s workshop at UCLA - that was about 8 years ago and my novel is still work-in-progress. During the pandemic, I discovered the game of Luigi's Mansion III on Nintendo switch that is just as satisfying as watching a murder mystery in a deserted mansion.
The game happens in a multi-floor lakeside resort that largely resembles the Fairmont Hotel by Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies. A team of up to eight players assembled randomly online must finish one task on each floor in a 5-, 10-, or 20-floor game. Each floor has a different floor plan and involves a different task such as catching ghosts, collecting money, killing crows, or finding missing toads, that must be done in 5 minutes. There are hidden treasures, gadgets, and dangers. By perfecting my skill on Luigi's Mansion during the pandemic, I have learned some important lessons for real life ventures.
The first and most important lesson is that a good team is everything. A good team include experienced players who know what to do in each task and heroically carry the team through the game. They will get the hidden clock to extend the time at the last seconds, find the key to the locked room, and help you flash and catch the ghosts. On the other hand, if there is someone inexperienced or not so dedicated on the team, by simply failing to go to the podium or using a key to open a locked room, they can drag the whole team to death. Therefore, having a good team is the single most important thing for any ventures to succeed. A good team must be assembled by experienced people having similar visions and willing to work together.
The second lesson is to delegate your task. Sometimes a task on a floor involves catching 60 ghosts in 10 rooms, some of them locked and inaccessible, within 5 minutes. Even if I were the most experienced player, I still could not go through all the rooms and catch all the ghosts by myself. Thus, I have learned to trust other players (that I met randomly online a few minutes ago) and delegate the task such as searching the floor or finding the key. If all the players on the game stuck in the same room, the task will never be done timely. I’ve learned to appreciate that people management is a science, and you ought to know the strength and weakness of the teammates and delegate the task to get the job done.
The third lesson is to always be courteous and friendly to others. Working with courteous and friendly players always makes my experience pleasant and somehow easier to accomplish the tasks - they are so considerate and helpful and always say “thank you.” In contrast, when some players are not so courteous, they shoot plunger at you, are impatient, and steal the toads or treasures, which adds more pressure and stress to the game. So I’ve learned to always say “thank you” and be courteous to others, and along the way, collected an army of good friends to play with online. Same goes for the real life, always be courteous and friendly to others will make work more smooth and enjoyable.