I’ve heard an oddly specific rumor that today at 3PM Eastern, Neil Patrick Harris’ Wondercade newsletter is doing an issue on escape rooms.
If this rumor were true… and a person wanted to receive such a newsletter… they might want to subscribe to Wondercade before it publishes.
Hypothetically chatting with Neil about these games that we love so much had me reflecting on some of the more pervasive myths about escape rooms.
So let’s do some mythbusting:
1: You won’t be locked in
The popular description of escape rooms is that you’re locked in a room for 60 minutes and have to solve puzzles to escape.
This description absolutely would have been true for the first few years of escape rooms, but from 2019 forward it’s exceptionally rare, especially in North America and Western Europe. When you play an escape room, there will be an emergency exit. It’s not just the right thing to do; fire code mandates it.
2: Horror isn’t the norm
SAW might be the first thing that most people think of when they first hear about escape rooms… and horror escape rooms certainly exist (with more than a few of them taking inspiration from SAW), but the vast majority of escape rooms are not scary at all.
You can comfortably assume that an escape room is not horror unless it says so. And if an escape room is horror, it will be obvious in the marketing.
3: You don’t have to be a genius
Escape rooms aren’t an intelligence test. In fact, they aren’t really a test at all. They are more akin to an adventure.
But if escape rooms are testing anything, it’s not intelligence… it’s collaboration.
The best escape room teammates are people who play well with others. Great teammates are communicative, but make space for others. Also I just want to play escape rooms with people who are fun and energetic. Win or lose, I’m in it for a good time.
Are You Escape Room Curious?
We have a number of ways for you to explore this world, but the three best starting places are:
- The Reality Escape Pod: We have had many wonderful guests including NPH.
- Regional Recommendations Guides: We are happy to help make it easy to find great escape rooms in a city near you.
- Join our Montreal Escape Room Tour: Our 9th escape room tour is heading to Montreal in May. This has grown into North America’s premier escape room scene. Come have fun with our amazing tour group. Tickets are on sale now.
