Get into the Christmas spirit in a family-friendly way, with this fun pop-up game. Thankfully, an Elf On The Shelf-free zone.
The Defence of the Star Amulet – Horton’s Emporium – Northampton
At some point, in the midst of lockdown/not lockdown confusion, we played this new magic room at this kind-of new venue in Northampton. Were we enchanted, stupified or, umm, expeliarmus-ed? Read more here...
Disaster! (ER Psychology Part II)
What does your favourite type of Escape Room say about you?
This is the second part of our on-going attempts to answer that question. To read the introduction to this project, click here.
II. DISASTER! Something terrible has happened and you only have 60 minutes to save the Earth (or yourselves). Escaping is only a secondary aim, after defusing the bomb, releasing the antidote, mending the time machine or restoring the air supply. If imprisonment makes us the victim, then disaster games let us play the hero. Characterized by: physical tasks, engineering puzzles, a countdown clock and an ominous soundtrack. And often a big red button. You need to Fix The Thing.
Today we are looking at the psychological impact of Escape Rooms that can come under the banner of “Disaster!” Not terribly badly designed rooms, or a game that the players completely stuffed up – here we are thinking about games where the central aim of the narrative is to mend, fix, find or possibly break something to avert a catastrophe. Escaping is usually a secondary aim, if at all, with the focus on a tense countdown to complete the task. This is a wide-ranging framing device, covering historical incidents, gritty terrorism, pandemics, escaped demons and the zombie apocalypse, but frequently lands in the “Flash, we only have 60 minutes to save the Earth”-type sci-fi.
The crucial difference between Disaster rooms and the previously discussed Imprisonment ones is how these are presented. Your team are rarely trapped victims, needing to run away. They are usually the team of brave experts, genius scientists or problem-solving masterminds, called in as humanity’s last hope. This is your chance to play the hero.
A significant psychological theory by Charles Cooley describes the “looking-glass self”, that our self-worth is based on how we think others see us. Another theory, the Pygmalion study by Rosenthal and Jacobson, shows how we internalise positive labels that are placed on us. Loosely, if a person is told they are good at something and are treated as such, then they start to believe it and actually perform better at that task. In theory, repeatedly being assigned the persona of a hero in an Escape Room (and succeeding) can shape who we believe we are.
Similarly, studies on teenagers playing Dungeons & Dragons have shown that being given heroic-type roles allowed them to step outside of their day-to-day selves and lose their inhibitions. The freedom involved in pretending to be a powerful, capable character makes it easier to act decisively and authoritatively. This separation of self, added to a positive mindset, can remove some of the psychological barriers to success, and in an Escape Room context could help players enter a state of Flow (as defined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi). You don’t spend time worrying that you can’t complete a puzzle, it just happens, as the removal of doubt, self-consciousness and fear of failure can inspire a feeling of being “in sync” with the game. It is a virtuous circle, believing you are the hero helps you act like a hero, so you are more likely to succeed and therefore reinforce that belief. Faking it can help you make it.
And this mindset can transfer into your behaviour outside of the game. Studies on actors show that playing a fictional role in a film or play can then “seep” over into behaviour in their normal life. We can see long-term effects where actors playing authority figures then become real-life politicians or social campaigners. If you save the world enough times in make-believe, a part of you becomes convinced that you do actually have that power. As a positive effect, this might give you the confidence to step forward and take responsibility in situations where previously you may have shied away. On a more negative note, no matter how many rooms you’ve played, don’t ever volunteer to disarm a bomb… Real ones aren’t made from a table lamp and glitter cannons. Leave that to the actual experts…
The other downside to all this positive reinforcement is, of course, the possibility of failure. Even the most hyped-up of heroes sometimes have a major search fail or can get stuck on a poorly-designed puzzle. And the problem with building yourself up into the saviour of the universe is the emotional crash when everyone dies on your watch. The inverse of an Imprisonment room, where unexpected success of an underdog is sweet; losing a Disaster room can feel disproportionately disappointing, with a sense of failed responsibility and self-recrimination. The higher you fly, the further you fall, and not being able to live up to your assigned role can undo the good of the previous hour’s positive mindset.
Fortunately, whether success or failure, an Escape Room can still produce the adrenaline buzz. The tension of the countdown clock, the pressure of the tasks, the catharsis from hitting a big red button, are all still incredible stimuli, even if you don’t manage to stop the bomb/train/zombies. The best Disaster rooms can provide a more nail-biting finish than some of the other formulae, so your brain still produces more of the pleasurable “calming-down” chemicals. Here, room design can be crucial. The cathartic moment of averting the catastrophe should be the final peak moment of the game. Nothing gives the adrenaline more of a chance to disperse than having to go off hunting for another key, or getting the pen and paper out for a bit of maths, before you can exit the room. Putting on your cape or Einstein goggles to save the world is great but, whatever the outcome, Disaster rooms should always end with a bang.
In conclusion. Being told that only you have the power to Fix The Thing can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, which can carry over into self-belief in the outside world. And, even when losing is painful, watching things explode (in a Disaster room anyway) is always fun.
Jungle Jailbreak – Agent Brains – Letchworth
Another terrific game at Agent Brains in Letchworth Jungle City. To find out if we got out of there, read more here…
Murder On Norfolk St – Escape Rooms King’s Lynn
A spot of sleuthing in Norfolk, hunting for murderers, great new venues, treasure, and car parks… We were successful in some of this. Find out more here…
Imprisonment & Escape (ER Psychology, part I)
What does your favourite type of Escape Room say about you?
This is the first part of our on-going attempts to answer that question. To read the introduction to this project, click here.
I. IMPRISONMENT. Someone has locked you in a room and you need to escape. Well, duh. Isn’t every Escape Room like this? Actually, no. The key points here are that you are a captive victim and that liberation is your primary aim. Typically takes the form of a jail cell, a dungeon or serial killer’s lair, but can also be an asylum, mortuary or crypt, if you’re really lucky. Occasionally might even be captive without walls, lost in the woods, a desert, abandoned to your fate. Characterized by: locks, blindfolds, handcuffs, padlocks, more locks and probably some bars (sadly not the drinking kind). You need to Escape The Thing.
Today we are looking at rooms that can be classified as Imprisonment & Escape. Sounds like that should cover pretty much every game around, right? Not really. This is examining rooms where the sole or overwhelmingly dominant motive is simply to get the hell out of there, without side quests to save the world, steal a cake or solve a murder. You are trapped, in a bad situation, against your will, and you need to find a way out. Many of these games, as you would imagine, tend to the intense or horror side – jailbreaks (The Prison, Lucardo), asylums or hospitals, serial killers (13utcher, Escapologic). But they need not all be scary – Jungle Jailbreak (Agent Brains), 46 Below (surviving an Arctic plane crash, Trapp’d) or Detention (the school type, CTRL ALT ESC) are examples where the formula for motivation fits without using horror tropes.
What all these games have in common is that you start them, theoretically, powerless. You are the victim (in the case of prison or detention, maybe of your own stupidity, but still…). You might start the game blindfolded, shackled, in the dark, the team split up and disorientated. You’re not the crack team of lauded masterminds called in to play the hero, you’re the underdogs, fighting to get away from somewhere you really don’t want to be. And this shift in power dynamic can have a big effect on how the game, and your progress through it, is perceived by your brain.
Everyone loves the story of an underdog succeeding. It’s that triumph against adversity, winning despite the odds, that makes a journey much more satisfying. Like a character in a movie, broken to their lowest point only to rise again, this plot line makes for a much more sweeping story arc – not just success but redemption. And in the same way, to undertake this kind of Escape Room journey, from trapped in a dark place to the sunlit uplands of …um… the venue lobby, can create a magnified sense of achievement and confidence. Research shows that this scenario, from victim to victory, is up to 10 times more satisfying than the expected success of a pre-ordained hero.
Throw in also that rooms following the Imprisonment & Escape formula tend to have more physical elements. Whether it is manual, practical tasks, crawling, climbing, or actual running and screaming, even the less intense versions of these games can get the adrenaline pumping. And even though you know, on an intellectual level, that this was all just a game, the adrenaline produced still leads to a release of dopamine as a reward. Dr Katherine Brownlowe says …”(the) brain calming itself down after (a fictionalised intense experience) is actually neuro-chemically very pleasurable…The dopamine release related to the ‘rest-and-digest’ brain response causes an increased sense of well-being”.
Extra happy chemicals might not be the only benefit though. Every woman who has ever walked in the dark with keys gripped between their fingers will recognise the feeling of trying to come up with a plan, a strategy of what to do, how to behave, should the worst things happen. You might have tried to predict your own reaction, anticipate whether you might panic, fight or freeze. Research has been done on this subject with viewers of horror films, and evidence shows that playing through a scenario, by watching a film, can be psychologically beneficial. Asking yourself what you would do in the place of the protagonist (not run towards that freaky graveyard?) and reassuring yourself that you would make better decisions than the fictional characters can strengthen emotional resilience. Coltan Scrivner and Mathias Clasen’s recent study on fans of horror films shows that they have been less psychologically distressed by the pandemic than non-horror fans. Their results show that “exposure to frightening fictions allow audiences to practice effective coping strategies that can be beneficial in real-world situations”.
It follows that actually acting out this kind of role, in the form of an Escape Room rather than watching a film, could have a similar beneficial effect, especially as actions speak louder than words. You’re not just theorising, you are proving to yourself how you might cope. Your magical thinking “this terrible thing could never happen to me, because I would do x and y and keep safe” is being tested out and proven correct. True, your kidnapper is unlikely to have the codes for his security system written in pigpen on your wall, and counting the coloured highlighters in the stationery cupboard probably won’t open the classroom’s emergency key lockbox. But remaining calm, thinking logically, being observant and communicating well under pressure are transferable skills. Practising those skills in a secure, simulated environment can help you build an emotional toolkit for dealing with a real-life problem. As an artificial set-up, where you know you are safe the whole time, facing the fears and coping with sensory assaults (sirens, flashing lights, jump scares) can be useful in forming a more robust psyche.
In conclusion. You’ve faced a bad situation, where the only focus is to get out of there. You have survived and possibly (whisper it) enjoyed it. Imprisonment & Escape centred rooms, where you are abandoned, humiliated, exercised and stressed, can make you a happier, more confident and emotionally stronger individual.
What is Your Favourite Type of Escape Room (and What Does That Say About You?)
What does your favourite type of Escape Room say about you? We all know that Escaping makes us feel good (except, sometimes, in the wallet). We’ve all felt the buzz of achievement on exiting a room and the little self-administered pat on the back at being smart enough to solve a gnarly puzzle. And the hour of escapism and team bonding are healthy too (unless everything goes wrong, then it can be tears, recriminations and self-loathing). But playing different types of Escape Rooms, like watching different movie genres, can inspire other, varied emotions. How a game is structured can lead you interesting emotional journeys, even ones below the surface that aren’t immediately apparent. So what is the psychological impact of your favourite kind of game, and why?
For this exercise, we are not looking at genres or themes – whether Alice In Wonderland is more traumatic than Jack The Ripper (IMHO yes, but, as I said, that’s a whole other question). We are looking specifically at the structure of the game and the motivation behind it. The existentialism – Why Are We Here? Nearly all Escape Room plots (please message me with exceptions!) can be distilled down to six primary motivations. These are:
- Imprisonment
- Disaster
- Heist
- Investigation
- Quest
- Test
Or, in the immortal words of Alan Coo:
- Escape the Thing
- Fix the Thing
- Steal the Thing
- Solve the Thing
- Progress Through the Thing
- Win the Thing
Plenty of rooms can be a combination or hybrid of these plots – break from the jail and steal the diamond types – but the essence of what you have to achieve to ‘win’ the game all leads back to these basic formulae. And, like all good existential crises, why are here and what we need to achieve can have a big effect on how we feel about a game and what, psychologically speaking, we take away from it.
I’m going to look at each category separately, and hope to include enough examples and facts to keep it interesting. Please bear in mind – I’m not an actual psychologist, just a keen amateur relying very much on the findings of people much cleverer than me.
Plan52 – clueQuest – London
What to do on a girls’ city break to central London? Why, play an Escape Room, of course. We went to play spies at one of the best rated venues in the country. Did we succeed in our mission? Read more (and receive a little gift from Agent Q) here…
Back To The Future – Agent Brains – Letchworth
Great Scott! Fans of time travel, Marty McFly, Pac-Man, Rick Astley, basketball, binary, Donkey Kong or saving the world will love this game. So… everyone then. Go play it. If you need more convincing read on here…
Operation Magnus – Escapologic – Leicester
A trip back in time for this post – not just back to the 1940s but also back to 2019, when we actually played this game. Promise it was definitely worth the wait (well, the game was anyway, making no guarantees about the quality of my review).
Granny & the Anthropomorphic Panda Avengers...Escape! 