Room Escape Artist

We’ve long said that great escape room companies aren’t in competition with one another… but they are competing with bad escape room companies.

The reasoning behind this is that great companies make repeat players and bad companies make one time players.

Great companies grow the pie.

Bad companies shrink the pie.

Our belief in this principle hasn’t changed, but our approach to dealing with it is always evolving.

Modern Problems Require Modern Solutions

Back before 2019, the question that we were answering on a daily basis was: “What is an escape room?”

There was a point where we were answering this question for journalists on a weekly basis… and strangers on a daily basis. If you’ve met us, you’ll know that we don’t just say the words; we answer these kinds of repetitive questions with effort and sincerity every single time we are asked.

But the days of, “what are escape rooms?” have passed.

These days we’re in a new era and the questions are different. They are more along the lines of:

“Oh I’ve played the escape room,” and “why do you keep playing?”

Within these questions are existential issues for the escape room world, so let’s break them down.

“I’ve played the escape room.”

You’ll notice that “I’ve played the escape room,” is not a question. It’s a statement that we hear all the time. When we hear it, we ask a followup question:

“Cool. Which one?” Nearly everyone we have ever asked this question of does not know the answer. They do not know what game they played. Lisa and I then like to play a game where we ask them for whatever vague memories they have of the game that they played, and then we tell them what game it was. It’s a fun party trick… but it’s the followup to the followup that matters most.

The next question is, “Did you enjoy the game?” More often than not, the answer is, “not really.”

Depending upon the person, we can sometimes give these folks a personalized recommendation, and get them into something that they’ll truly enjoy. Other times, the damage has been done. Our goal, however, is to as gently and enthusiastically as possible get people into something well-designed, well-cared for, and well-administered.

We never want to be pushy or condescending… just knowledgable, confident, and happy to share this hobby that we love.

And this brings us to their followup:

“Why do you keep playing?”

This question is strangely the easiest and toughest question to answer.

It’s easy because we genuinely love escape rooms. We love the games, the players, and the community that has emerged around Room Escape Artist. And we can easily convey the magic of a game like The Dome, The Forgotten Cathedral, or The Man From Beyond. We can tell the story of these games and what it feels like to experience them… and most people who are willing to talk this much about the subject will get excited.

It’s all about making a spark and nurturing it into a flame with enthusiasm… even if it’s a small flame.

The goal is to get these folks into another game, one that will answer the question, “why do you keep playing?” for themselves.

Spreading The Message

In recent months, we’ve had the opportunity to talk to the podcast Imaginary Worlds, the YouTuber Phil Edwards on The secret economics of Escape Rooms, and to a brilliant audience at the Mohonk Mountain House’s Wonderful World of Words.

In each of these instances, we have been evolving the way that we speak to non-escape room player/ owner audiences as we try to break down the barriers put up by mediocre chains and franchises pushing joyless slop on uneducated consumers.

This is our job. It’s why we’re here. Everything that we do here at Room Escape Artist is predicated on growing the escape room pie. We enter our 11th year with more knowledge, skill, and fire than ever before.

As always, this work is fueled by the support of our Patreon community, without whom we wouldn’t be able to do most of what we do (and 2025 has some great things coming!) Our Patreon community is the place where we work through ideas before taking them into the recording studio with a podcaster or YouTuber, or on stage at the Mohonk Mountain House. We cannot imagine doing what we’re doing without this support and are so deeply thankful.

Special shout out to those who joined this month: PuzzleConnect Escape Rooms, Melissa Davis, Amlesh Jayakumar, John Houser, Kiley and Milaine, Alex Epstein, Danielle Grey, meriko borogove, Marco Jovovich, Andrew Fisher, Peter, Brian Carter, Curt, and Kylon Tome

To those of you reading who have the means, we hope you’ll consider joining this wonderful group of supporters.

Support Room Escape Artist’s Mission

There are lots of ways to support Room Escape Artist, like buying from Amazon or Etsy after clicking into the links included in this post or backing us on Patreon.

The money that we make from these helps us to grow the site and continue to add more value to the community that we love so much.