Giant Snakes and Jill Sandwiches

That’s right, Rodger: “the master of unlocking.” Barry actually said that. More disturbingly, someone actually wrote that. And then, inexplicably, someone else approved it. I discovered not too long ago that the Japanese release of the original Resident Evil used the English dub instead of the Japanese track. Apparently, Capcom found the Japanese acting “lame.” That is perhaps the most damaging criticism an actor can receive, considering it came from the people that were all for this:

Resident Evil was a new breed of video game. Sort of. Capcom coined the phrase “Survival Horror” when it promoted RE, but the genre existed about 15 years before that. Alone in the Dark was probably the closest thing to Resident Evil at the time, and it achieved moderate success. However, Resident Evil changed the genre’s status from “I exist” to “I’ve arrived.”

The “survival” of “Survival Horror” is generally executed through the need to conserve and the obvious vulnerability of your characters. The latter is done simply and sort of elegantly in Resident Evil: you are separated from your small team (constantly. It doesn’t matter how often you run into them – they will abandon you) and almost everyone you run into is either dead, dying, or will die soon. Are you next? Probably, yes.

The need to conserve was achieved just as simply: bullets were scarce; health items didn’t magically regenerate (though they did magically transport from one item box to another). You couldn’t carry everything with you, either. By the end of the game, you’ll have amassed a nice arsenal, but the majority of it is left sitting in a box instead of being strapped to your back or holstered at your side.

All this took a while for me to get used to. You have to remember that I came from a much different generation of gaming: I grew up playing Contra, a game in which every weapon has unlimited bullets, and the best gun floats by roughly one minute after you boot the game. So no, when I started Resident Evil by picking off dogs with a handgun, I did not expect to be using the same exact handgun on a giant snake three hours later.

Not surprisingly, I died repeatedly the first time I played through Resident Evil (and the game makes it very clear that your character dies, by the way: you did not black out, faint, or give up – you died). Eventually, I figured it out: I made the proper gameplay adjustments, conserved ammo, and learned to weave my way around enemies instead of taking all of them on.

Rodger, there are times in life where you must stand up for yourself and your beliefs, and repeatedly bang your head against the wall to make progress. But there are also many other times in which it’s much more fruitful to adjust your approach, your thinking, your world view. You might find yourself in familiar situations, but don’t assume you can employ the tactics you used in the past to succeed in the present. Sometimes -- most of the time -- you’ll have to make adjustments. Some small, some large.

This might be obvious to you, but I really want you to think about and be aware of this. Most people don’t try to adjust until after frustration sets in. It is my hope that you go into any situation -- whether it’s in school, work, sports, relationships, whatever -- knowing that you might have to make adjustments so you can do so sooner rather than later. And if you need any help adjusting, just let your mom and me know. We can adjust to life together.