Why escape rooms have taken the leading position in the entertainment business
In recent years escape rooms have quickly become so popular all over the world and have taken the leading role in the entertainment business. This is due to the fact that they offer adventures, which include lots of emotions to rise adrenaline, and they activate competitve drive and team spirit.
These games are helping people to get rid of tension as well as they are a kind of escape from the already routine online life. In the classic form of the game, there is a team locked in a room, and the team has 60 minutes to find a way out. In order to escape from the room, they have to solve a number of puzzles and mysteries, and to find and read guiding traces in order to overcome various challenges.
The plots are infinite and varied because they are taken from books, movies, legends and games. They may take the team back in the past, or they can take it to the present and future, on planet Earth or in the cosmos, they can be adventurous, criminal ,fantastic, etc. There are even horrors for the lovers of that genre.
The setting in each rooms is optimally realistic according to the time and place where the action takes place. It is not online but quite real – with real things, sounds, lights, secret narrow passages, constructed walls that can be moved, and so on.
The mysteries can be consecutive– solving one leads to the other, but they can also be non-linear – so a given solution can serve later. The adventure may be happening in a labyrinth, it may be a "street search" where the game takes place in more than one room, it can be with blindfolds, where players use the rest of their senses, and many others.
There are rooms for everyone – for smaller children over 6 years of age, other are suitable for children over 8 years of age, of course they have to be with an adult during the game, and there are rooms for teenagers and adults. There are also rooms that include virtual reality that are newer but they are becoming more and more popular just like the classic rooms.
Escape rooms – suitable for the family, for friends and for teambuilding
In general, the wide age range and the number of players – from two to six people, make the escape rooms perfect for all /except for the smallest children who can hardly keep their attention on the game for an hour/. In the adventurous escape rooms the team may include, for example, one family whose members are of different generations, or friendly families.
There is no need to have special skills, profession or physical strength to solve the puzzles. All you need is observation, quick logical thinking and reactions, as well as teamwork skills, because on your own you cannot solve the mysteries. In these escape rooms the players are often members of company’s teams, because this experience of overcoming challenges and collaboration during the action bring people together, that is why these rooms are preferred by the managers for the teambuilding. In addition to the fact that this brings the team closer, there are cases when team members show qualities that they haven’t shown in the routine business environment, which can be used in the future common work.
The teams in the classic escape rooms can consist of friends /the under-aged ones must have an adult companion/. The organizers in the escape room observe the players with cameras and sometimes they suggest solutions to the team. Also if someone needs to stop the game and get out, the technical team assists him. In practice, the players in the various escape rooms can be of different ages with different professions and social status.
Essential for the success of the team is the teamwork – all players have a role just like in an action movie and they interact with each other. The most interesting thing, however, is that everything is unpredictable- in extreme situations of surprises, although they are just a game, not every player reacts and adheres to the planned scenario, as well as to the goals of the team. That‘s how funny and comic stories happen, which players can remember for a long time with laughter.
Distribution of the escape rooms around the world
Escape rooms are becoming more and more popular and all statistics regarding number and distribution, rates of visit, is relative.
Still, the United States of America- the country of show business, undoubtedly leads the rankings. There are independent companies in almost every state that develop escape rooms. As kings of entertainment, the Americans also created a room suitable for kids and adults without companions. Los Angeles and New York are the champions in terms of open escape rooms.
Russia ranks second after the USA. There are escape rooms even in the smaller towns, but in the big cities the number of the organizers can compete with those in USA. Most of them are concentrated in Sankt Petersburg and Moscow. Canada ranks third with 90 large companies developing escape rooms in the country: Vancouver, Markham, North York, Richmond, and of course – Ottawa. Netherlands ranks fourth with 30 cities and towns offering escape rooms. Germany is fifth as the rooms there are concentrated mainly in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne. They are followed by England, Poland /with at least 1000 rooms/, Spain, Australia, Hungary.
In should be mentioned that due to the popularity of the escape rooms, a sort of fairs appeared in Europe – for a certain period of time, different escape rooms are organized in one place, so people can make some long "marathons" enjoying different adventures without the need to go from town to town. In the United States, there is even a reality show with hundreds of thousands of viewers.
