# What the heck is an "escape room"?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-an-escape-room/1014038
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [February 8, 2025, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-an-escape-room/1014038 "2025-02-08T03:12:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2025, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-an-escape-room/1014038/21 "2025-02-08T12:33:09Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#):
>
> The trick of defeating an escape room is to put together the right team that can solve the problem. …
Great post. May I suggest to also bring a talking dog. And maybe some meddlesome teens. 😉
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### Author:  [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2025, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-an-escape-room/1014038/22 "2025-02-08T13:04:41Z")
Q: What is this “My Little Pony” thing?
A: It’s a kids cartoon that teaches that friendship is magic. Adult fans are super smug _woke-r than thou_ types who revels in their own moral superiority. I only know about it because I’m into escape rooms and in one forum, it was mentioned that MLP had mentioned them.
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### Author:  [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2025, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-an-escape-room/1014038/23 "2025-02-08T13:34:37Z")
> [@MrDibble](#):
>
> IME, escape rooms are really _all_ about teamwork. The ones that we’ve solved quickest weren’t because everyone was the smartest, but because we were methodical and communicated well
This.
It can get a bit chaotic at times, and every time I’ve been in a team that got stuck it was because no one knew the full list of items and clues that the team currently had – that some info was being hoarded.
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### Author:  [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2025, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-an-escape-room/1014038/24 "2025-02-08T14:21:57Z")
Here’s one such company that has locations across the US.
> **[America's #1 Escape Room | The Escape Game | 60-Minute Adventures](https://theescapegame.com/)**
>
> The Escape Game offers immersive rooms where individuals can experience 60-minute adventures. Think you can escape the room? Find an escape game near you!
I always have a good time at these. If you’re into puzzle type video games like Myst or The Room it’s like playing a live version.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2025, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-an-escape-room/1014038/25 "2025-02-08T14:22:44Z")
I’ve never been to one, but I suspect I wouldn’t enjoy it as much as I could, because I’d be thinking too outside-of-the-box. If I have a choice between solving a rebus to get the combination to a lock, or whatever, or using my Swiss army knife to unscrew the lock from the thing it’s attached to, I’m going to want to choose the latter.
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### Author:  [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2025, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-an-escape-room/1014038/26 "2025-02-08T15:29:03Z")
Wow. Thanks for all the informative answers. Ignorance (mine) mightily fought today.
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#):
>
> Not having an interest in games in general, the idea of an escape room has absolutely zero appeal to me.
Ditto me. I do the NYTimes Wordle, Connections, and Mini Crossword every day at 9 pm, and that’s the extent of my gaming and my interest in gaming.
* * *
> [@needscoffee](#):
>
> How is this different from any puzzle? Are jigsaw puzzles for people self-assured of their own cleverness?
I do keep a jigsaw puzzle going here at The Home. Different people work on it at different times, but I buy them and I spend the most time on them. While listening to an audiobook. Did I meantion I’m not much of a team player? Puzzle table in the hall outside my apartment at The Home:
[ ](https://i.imgur.com/auMXmUn.jpeg)
* * *
> [@Monty](#):
>
> They’re essentially worksheets gamified.
This sounds like a fabulous idea! You’re so smart!
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> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#):
>
> Some people try to recruit disavowed field agents, wisecracking tech specialists, and wiley thieves, or a cadre of specialists in safecracking, gymnastics, explosives, casino operations, and pickpocketing, but I recommend an agile and canny Asian-American, a _pro bono_ lawyer sticking her nose in where it doesn’t belong, a cub reporter hungry for a juicy story about human trafficking, an elderly tour guide and expert in Chinese mysticism, and me, Jack Burton.
This is a new HBO series, isn’t it? I think I’ve seen the previews.
* * *
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> > [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#):
> >
> > The trick of defeating an escape room is to put together the right team that can solve the problem. …
>
> Great post. May I suggest to also bring a talking dog. And maybe some meddlesome teens. 😉
I vote for a shape-shifting female Alien.
* * *
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> If I have a choice between solving a rebus to get the combination to a lock, or whatever, or using my Swiss army knife to unscrew the lock from the thing it’s attached to, I’m going to want to choose the latter.
Or just a sledgehammer.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2025, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-an-escape-room/1014038/27 "2025-02-08T15:45:14Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#):
>
> Or just a sledgehammer.
Those are destruction rooms. AKA rage rooms. Down the hall in 12A\*.
> **[THE DESTRUCTION ROOM](https://destructionroom.net/)**
>
> If you are looking for a rage room to go break stuff, The Destruction Room in Virginia Beach is the place the place to go.
* * *
\* **[Argument Clinic - Monty Python Scripts](http://montypython.50webs.com/scripts/Series_3/27.htm)**.
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### Author:  [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2025, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-an-escape-room/1014038/28 "2025-02-08T15:47:38Z")
Now **THAT** appeals! More so these days than ever before…
Thanks for the Monty Python chuckle. 😂
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### Author:  [@Zoobi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoobi)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2025, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-an-escape-room/1014038/29 "2025-02-08T15:52:15Z")
Really good ones do reward “outside of the box” thinking. By declaring yourself too smart for an escape room you might be missing out on a lot of fun.
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### Author:  [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2025, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-an-escape-room/1014038/30 "2025-02-08T16:20:38Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#):
>
> They are a fad form of entertainment for people self-assured of their own cleverness, much like pub/bar quiz games.
Fad? I’ve had a kid, raised her and she’s flown the nest between my first and most recent escape room experience.
That jigsaw puzzle fad is going to fade any time now, I suppose.
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### Author:  [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2025, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-an-escape-room/1014038/31 "2025-02-08T16:29:46Z")
Any hobby or pastime that I don’t personally do, is a silly thing for dumb people.
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### Author:  [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2025, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-an-escape-room/1014038/32 "2025-02-08T16:45:25Z")
Here is a link to a YouTube playlist from the Geek & Sundry channel, featuring celebrities (for certain values of “celebrity”) taking part in fairly basic escape rooms. It should give you at least a bit of a feel for what they’re like.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PL7atuZxmT957_N4O2Jp3bMXmq_Y7J-mK-&wmode=transparent&rel=0&autohide=1&showinfo=1&enablejsapi=1
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### Author:  [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2025, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-an-escape-room/1014038/33 "2025-02-08T16:57:57Z")
I got yelled at the last time i did an escape room. With any newly popular thing, there are good ones (_really_ good, high production value, super thoughtful puzzles) and more slapdash efforts.
My team at work did a couple a few years ago as something to do instead of just hitting a bar on the company dime. The second one we did I would have rated 3.6 roentgen, not terrible but not great. Once we realized it was not the immersive experience of the first go-round, frustration started to rise. The call of free drinks at the bar began to overwhelm our shared sense of purpose.
I realized that everything we were doing was meant to provide us pieces of the code for a combination lock that was the last element of the puzzle. A really _cheap_ combination lock. So I drifted over to it, put pressure on the hasp, and spun the dials until I had felt each of the discs align.
I shouted out, “Hey guys, the final lock code is 2734! Should we just open it and get out of here?” Our battle scarred senior PM took charge as she typically did and said, “Open the goddamned thing. I need a drink.”
The monitor that has been looking at he phone in the corner of the room laid into me. “How do you know that? You can’t know that yet!” I told her, “It’s a puzzle. The lock is a puzzle. I opened it.”
She tried to tell us we hadn’t won. That we didn’t do it right. Piss on that. We got out of there and got to drinking.
> [@Mijin](#):
>
> Any hobby or pastime that I don’t personally do, is a silly thing for dumb people.
It wouldn’t be the Dope otherwise.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2025, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-an-escape-room/1014038/34 "2025-02-08T17:35:13Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#):
>
> They are a fad form of entertainment for people self-assured of their own cleverness, much like
…the SDMB?
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2025, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-an-escape-room/1014038/35 "2025-02-08T17:52:18Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> …the SDMB?
The faddishness of which dated from about 1999 to 2005. 😉
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### Author:  [@WalterBishop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WalterBishop)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2025, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-an-escape-room/1014038/36 "2025-02-08T17:53:11Z")
I love Escape rooms. They’re great fun. Just two rules to remember:
1. Make sure you don’t pick a room that’s too difficult for you. The hard ones tend to be very hard in my experience, so if you’ve not done one before then pick an easy or medium one.
2. Typically, you’ll get a certain number of hints. Don’t be too proud to use them. A lot of teams fail because they don’t use the hints they’re given. My rule of thumb is if your team hasn’t made any progress in five minutes, use a hint.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2025, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-an-escape-room/1014038/37 "2025-02-08T18:39:31Z")
I’ve done two with my wife, daughter and son-in-law. The first one we smashed. The second, not so much. It helps to have a range of talents on the team.
We’ve also played some escape room kits, kind of like a board game. Not as much fun as a real one but cheaper and you can do it at home.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2025, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-an-escape-room/1014038/38 "2025-02-08T18:47:48Z")
> [@Voyager](#):
>
> The first one we smashed.
Literally?
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### Author:  [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2025, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-an-escape-room/1014038/39 "2025-02-08T18:48:26Z")
Escape rooms are a lot of fun. They do reuse a lot of mechanics so your first game is likely to be significantly harder than your 2nd-Nth games. Lots of opening locks like thi[https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/shopping?q=tbn:ANd9GcTJ1griYb1BfInKqVJtjT9UmLGPTJXNVzJpqxP-iQuXfgNtJxLHCcRsvwTI5LrCVOV3UB4K5lHsBsd9JDDB6UWCPWRR3MRLLLsm2ZaX5UfpzIumCCSOZKRhmQ](https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/shopping?q=tbn:ANd9GcTJ1griYb1BfInKqVJtjT9UmLGPTJXNVzJpqxP-iQuXfgNtJxLHCcRsvwTI5LrCVOV3UB4K5lHsBsd9JDDB6UWCPWRR3MRLLLsm2ZaX5UfpzIumCCSOZKRhmQ) based on a text clue that leads you to count the number of objects in paintings in a certain order.
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### Author:  [@PookahMacPhellimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PookahMacPhellimey)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2025, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-an-escape-room/1014038/40 "2025-02-08T18:55:09Z")
To me team work is something I do because I have to, not something I would choose to do for fun. So pass.
(I don’t think it’s dumb at all, just not my cuppa)
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