Editorials

I had an interesting conversation with an escape room owner the other day that changes the way I think about rating escape rooms and providing feedback. 

Another week, another round of Red Bull Mind Gamers finalists.  

I saw a comment recently about how escape room players are bored of common themes like “jail break” and “Sherlock Holmes.”  I have to respectfully disagree on two counts.

Red Bull Mind Gamers contest #6 (Creativity) is open, and voting has opened for contest #4 (Memory).  I’ve cast my vote!

For a long time I’ve been considering putting together a more rigorous framework for my reviews, and I’ve finally got the pieces in place to start with it.  I’m going to stay as objective as possible but also start calling out how my personal preferences influence my experience with escape rooms and other puzzle games.

The last few months have been a gauntlet – multiple weddings (including my own) and my busiest season for work – and now that everything appears to finally be back to normal, I’ve got some thoughts on redesigning the site’s format.

A lot happened in 2019, both in general and in my personal life.  When the year started, I had set my eyes on twelve projects for twelve months.  Instead… I got married. I think that’s worth taking a detour from my original goal for the year.

I’m surprised by how difficult it is to keep apprised of which escape room businesses are opening new rooms.  Every business has its own newsletter, but most of these get dumped into the Gmail “promotion” folder and get lost in the shuffle, especially given how many of the escape rooms I signed up for send out “remember we exist” emails that drown out more important announcements.  So what’s the best way to stay informed?

I’ve seen more and more escape rooms advertising that they offer only private experiences.  While in general this is a nice perk, I have to admit I have conflicted feelings about it. While some of my worst experiences have been getting dumped in with other groups, I’ve also got a lot of great memories from this kind of arrangement.