Five friends and I ran away today, all the way back to Gold Rush Days. Did we attend a lecture? Drive up Highway 49 to tour the towns that housed the mines? See a film?
No. We booked an hour in an escape room, which is kind of a scavenger hunt held in a series of locked rooms that reveal clues to help you and your friends “escape” before an hour is up. Read more here. We played at The Escape Game San Francisco.
Full Disclosure: We escaped, with just 1 minute and 55 seconds left on the clock!
The Takeaway: It was fun! It was not easy, but it was fun, and we were quite proud of ourselves for finishing, though we did have to buzz our game monitor for a lot of clues. The set up was kind of corny and most of the clues were not intuitive. In fact, some of the clues seemed obvious only after we sorted it out and we all were discouraged at the sight of one clue that required algebra. Algebra!
Other than dealing with that annoying math, together we used logic, analysis and imagination. In the course of the game, we found whiskey bottles with numbers on them, unlocked many a combination lock with some of those numbers, handled rifles, counted points on deer antlers, opened more locks, used jumper cables to blow up some dynamite, finally figured out what the flashing lantern meant and even siphoned the contents of a canteen. Two friends opted to climb through the mine shaft.
And at last, we found all the miner’s gold!
Phew! Good thing we went out for Happy Hour afterward.
Inspired by my son's enthusiasm for Escape Rooms, starting about a month ago, I spent an hour doing the research and getting a recommendation for a game that was perfect for people who have never tried one before. Then I had to talk my friends into taking part — some of us had concerns — and then I nailed down a date and booked the game.
What were our concerns?
I worried that in spite of a lot of experience (A LOT) with word games, I would be bad at this. I was not entirely wrong — my contributions were small — but it’s too late to impress these friends anyway. One friend worried about claustrophobia, but anyone is free to leave at any time. We all wondered if we would fail to solve the puzzles and be stuck forever in a dead gold miner’s cabin. (At least it was air-conditioned on a ridiculously hot day.)
Here’s how I sold the idea: “It's ONE HOUR. Ever had a root canal? Even if the escape room doesn't turn out to be your favorite new thing, it will beat an hour in the oral surgeon's chair." (I know whereof I speak.) I reminded everyone this adventure was all about fun, and we would make it so.
The History of Escape Rooms
An off-shoot of first-person video games, a concept that grew in popularity in 2004, in-person escape rooms started in 2007 in Kyoto, Japan. In 2012, a company called SCRAP opened the first escape room in the U.S., in San Francisco. Today, cities in more than 60 countries offer the games, driven by an increasing demand for “unique and immersive entertainment experiences.”
We happened to choose an historical theme, but escape rooms also are available in several genres, including horror, fantasy and science fiction. One marketing assessment noted that 75 percent of escape rooms “prioritize narrative and thematic elements to enhance player engagement."
According to Allied Market Research, “The global escape room market size was valued at $7.9 billion in 2022, and is projected to reach $31 billion by 2032, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 14.8% from 2023 to 2032.” MarketWatch has reported that in the U.S., the market is expected to reach $1.75 billion by 2026. Our adventure cost us $52.50 a person, because we opted to keep it to the six of us, rather than the eight allowed in any one escape room at a time.
Families visit escape rooms. Corporations send employees for team building. Friends book sessions for fun, as we did, and the experience reminded us that it's always good to try something new!
(Thanks to my friends who took the photos!)
Posts
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment