Fun and Fantasy of Escape Rooms
Most of us enjoy repeating pleasurable experiences. Whether they involve fishing in a favorite trout stream or reenacting a scene from a memortable movie, people enjoy imagining how they would act if they could single-handely land a giant tarpon or bring the fiendish Professor Moriarity to justice. Escape rooms offer a chance for engaging in such fantasies. At least, that’s what we thought when we signed up for one to celebrate my wife’s birthday. However, we discovered not everyone is comfortable with having the fantasticl come to life.
What Are Escape Rooms?
Before discussing our escape room experience, let’s examine the concept. Escape rooms are one or more rooms in which players engage in “live-action, team-based games [in which they] discover clues, solve puzles, and accomplish taskes.” Most often, the goal is, as the name implies, to escape the game site within a given time frame.
The themes of these games originate from popular culture such as the exploits of Sherlock Holmes or the writings of Edgar Alan Poe. These two luminaries formed two of the offerings in the escape room we contacted. However, because of my wife’s interests in medicinal herbs and J.R.R. Tolkien, we chose to escape from a magic apothecary’s shop, perhaps echoing the tribulations suffered by Charles Dickens‘ heroine Nell Trent in The Old Curiosity Shop.
History of Escape Rooms
Origins
Although escape rooms seem a relatively new concept, the idea of escaping from a room or situation occurred as early as the 1970s. The advent of point-and-click adventure games led to the development of interactive in-game objects. The earliest of these, Planet Mephius, came out in Japan in 1983. Its popularity led to the first interactive trapped-in-a-room scenario with John Wilson’s Behind Closed Doors in 1988.
From Video Game to Physical Reality
These and other virtual reality games prompted Takao Kato to wonder in 2007 “why interesting things didn’t happen in my life, like they do in books.” The result: the Real Escape Game, the first experiential entertaintment game created in 2007. From there, the number of real life escape rooms proliferated throughout Asia and Europe, reaching the United States in 2014. As of 2022, gaming experts estimate escape rooms number over 600 sites in the U.S. alone.
Escape Room Overview
As the name implies, the “rules” are (deceptively) simple. Find clues leading to escaping the room within the allotted time, usually 45-60 minutes. Anywhere from two to ten players participate at any one time, and the challenges are usually more mental than physical. Depending on the theme, different games require different skill sets although expert knowledge in any field is not required. Any information required to solve a puzzle should be provided within the room’s contents.
Since the overall goal of the experience is entertainment, well-designed rooms contain provisions to insure a successful escape. Hints in the form of written notes, audio clues, and video instructions help players along in their pursuit of escape. In our game, the gamemaster provided helpful suggestions through messages that appeared in a “magic mirror.” As our allotted time dwindled, these hints grew more and more direct. Fortunately, we managed to escape and win the game with a little under three minutes to spare.
Escape Room Strategies
Exiting an escape room requires the employment of several basic skills. problem-solving, lateral thinking (thinking outside the box), and teamwork. The group must direct its efforts to solve a sequence of challenges or puzzles to unlock the door and leave the room within the allotted time. Puzzles may include word games, cyphers, riddles, and basic mathematical problems. Physical activity may include searching for physical objects, navigating mazes, or assembling clues.
Escaping our room involved all of these skills and activities. The six adults broke up into pairs. One pair investigated and activated the alchemical and pharmaceutical equipment in the room, another pair assembled and interpreted clues, while a third monitored the time limit and hints provided by the dungeon master. None of this activity was planned or formally agreed upon beforehand; to our our relief and surpose it just happened.
Escaping our room involved all of these skills and activities. The six adults broke up into pairs. One pair investigated and activated the alchemical and pharmaceutical equipment in the room, another pair assembled and interpreted clues, while a third monitored the time limit and hints provided by the dungeon master. None of this activity was planned or formally agreed upon beforehand; to our our relief and surpose it just happened.
Cautions and Controversies
Adult Impressions
Our reactions seemed to typify those following the adult escape room experience. No one coordinated our activities, but we surmounted the challenges and obstacles within the room and escaped. Despite the lack of direction and low-level anxiety, the adults employed teamwork and crisis management to solve the puzzles.
Reservations
Though the adults said they had fun and enjoyed the experience, some expressed qualms about deriving enjoyment from artificial entrapment. Granted our confinement was voluntary, but what if we had failed? In all likelihood, the gamemaster would have granted us extra time. But what if we were actually trapped? What if the door remained closed, the gamemaster had a stroke, and we remained sealed in the room like Boris Karlov in The Mummy?
Empathy
My August 2022 post on reading to one another seems relevant here. It mentions Neil Postman‘s 1984 prediction from his book Amusing Ourselves to Death. There he discusses how television’s sacrifice of quality information for corporate profit could become boring reality. Moreover, such entertainment desensitizes those who watch it. Similarly, interactive real-life games advances people’s detachment from the emotional information in physical reality one step further. If they derive enjoyment from physical entrapment, does escaping that reality desentitize them from the plights of people trapped in real-world predicaments? How empathetic can we be to the victims of human trafficking or enslavement, for example, when our escape is just minutes or a safeword away ?
One might argue that voluntary participation makes all the difference. Choosing one’s entrapment negates any guilt that might accrie about people stuck in real-life situations not of their choosing. However, the thrill one feels about being trapped in a situation seems cheap knowing one can escape at any time. Just say the safe word, and the catharsis derivied from achieving that objective diminishes as well.
Children’s Response
My grandsons’ reactions to the escape room experience seem instructive at this point. Aged seven and four, both boys went willingly into the apothecary room and explored the phials, bottles, and rudimentary pharmacy equipment within. But when the youngest spotted a small, hissing dragon painted in a corner of the room, he retreated to his mother’s arms for the rest of the hour. The older boy coped by hunching down in an out-of-way corner and played Mario Cart on his cellphone. After our escape, neither boy expressed enjoyment of the experience until the astute gamemaster rewarded with magic wands for their courage and perseverance.
Escape Room Takeaways
Caregiver Options
Critics might say the boys’ uneasiness could have been avoided if the adults had practiced due diligence in choosing the theme. Child-oriented versions of escape rooms do exist. However, the magic apothecary theme seemed least threatening among the choices available at this particular escape room.Other options include disignating one of the adults to stay with the boys, leaving them with a sitter, or having them stay home altogether. But since they too wanted to engage in their grandmother’s birthday celebration, that didn’t seem a viable alternative.
Silver Linings
On the other hand, the boys’ witnessed trusted adults coping as best they could in a mad scramble for clues to free themselves. They could regard this in years to come as a learning experience, enlightening if not enriching. Perhaps if more precautions had been taken, the youngsters’ apprehensions would have diminished. At the same time, it’s also true that their fears were more genuine than the adults’ satisfaction in achieving their make-believe goal. Given the proliferation of these establishments throughout the United States, caring parents and grandparents should review these establishments beforehand and ask questions. Some horror-themed escape rooms, for example, employ escaping from physical restraints like handcuffs or zip ties, so be careful. Make certain to keep the mental and emotional demands of the escape room experience age-appropriate. That applies to kids and adults alike.
Empathy
Regarding the desensitization aspect, how many kidnap victims seek to relive their experiences watching movies like Saw? Time and distance may lessen the psychological impact of what they felt, but reliving the experience, even in make-believe, dulls the emotional sensitivities of those who play such games and disrespects the legacies of those who endured, suffered, or died in real-life bondage.
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