The perfect escape
Escape rooms’ rising popularity shows puzzles still a draw for many
Generation Next
Hidden away in an assuming insurance building, a CIA operative has been compromised. All previous attempts to reach him have failed. And your job is to avoid the bombs, extract the operative and escape. You have one hour. According to Mary J. Nungary, the president of Escape Santa Fe, only 10 percent of participants manage to escape the company’s most challenging escape room. The game master, monitoring the game on a computer in a small control room, occasionally calls out hints — guiding participants through the difficult series of clues and puzzles required to break free of the spy-themed game’s three adjoining rooms.
But despite the level of difficulty, most people seem to enjoy the experience.
“People want to experience a challenge that is … immersive,” Nungary said. “People want something that is rewarding and fun that they can talk about after they have finished with their experience.”
Escape Santa Fe, which opened earlier this year, is the first such escape room business to open in Santa Fe. It offers three options for customers: Situation Critical, Lost in the Tomb and Fredo’s L’Ultima Cena.
Nungary said that the new business is especially popular with locals who feel there is “nothing to do” in Santa Fe.
But she is hardly the first to recognize the appeal of an escape room.
The trend, which seemingly began with the 2007 opening of SCRAP in Kyoto, Japan, spread to the United States in 2012 with the opening of a Real Escape Game in San Francisco. Since then, it is estimated that 2,000 escape rooms have popped up throughout the United States — including several in Albuquerque.
“I think escape rooms are so popular because they are challenging, immersive and … require a group effort,” said Carie Guido, owner of the New Mexico Escape Room in Albuquerque. “There’s an adrenaline rush and endorphin release when a puzzle is completed, a lock opened or a mystery solved, which makes the experience that much more rewarding.”
She believes the popularity of escape rooms stems from people’s love of puzzles and mysteries. “Puzzles, board games and, of course, video games are a huge source of entertainment for a lot of people,” she said. “Escape rooms offer elements from all of these sources. Players can ‘escape’ to another world — one where they are required to use their wits and attention to detail to uncover the narrative and solve the mystery.”
Guido said that successfully escaping is a source of satisfaction and accomplishment for people. “People love mysteries, and being able to solve one in real life has such an appeal.”
In other words, people love feeling like they are Indiana Jones or Lara Croft as they attempt to solve the puzzle and stage a getaway — even if it’s only for an hour.
Escape rooms, which are based on popular video games from the 1990s and early 2000s, are just the most recent development in a long history of puzzles. The earliest recorded puzzles date back to about the 18th century B.C. in ancient Sumeria — considered the cradle of civilization and the home of the oldest surviving writing system. Sumerians had a seeming affinity for riddles and brainteasers, which were discovered in the ancient civilization’s temples and ruins.
Many other ancient puzzles involve physical interaction with an object or the environment. Labyrinths were especially popular in ancient Greece, along with the stomachion — a series of triangles forming a square. The puzzle, developed by Archimedes, has more than 500 solutions and continues to stump experts to this day.
Additionally, ancient puzzle locks and boxes have been found across the globe.
“Explaining the history of puzzles is an impossible task,” said Marcel Danesi — a professor of semiotics and anthropology at Victoria College, University of Toronto — in an interview with Generation Next. “There is no culture — and no era — without puzzles.”
Danesi, who has not only written many books about his extensive research on the subject but has created hundreds of his own puzzles, first became interested in them because his mother was brilliant at solving puzzles, despite her fifth-grade education.
But many believe that the ability to problem solve often is a key in determining intelligence.
“Most intelligence tests consist of questions — or puzzles — designed to measure the test taker’s inductive, deductive and spatial reasoning ability, verbal and visual working memory, and pattern recognition,” said Scott Snider, a digital media strategist for the American branch of Mensa — an organization that tests and brings together people with extremely high intelligence.
However, Snider said he thinks puzzles are popular because they challenge the subject to figure them out. “[Brain teasers and puzzles] are fun because they’re trivial. You can easily solve one and move right on to the next.”
Some experts believe the popularity of puzzles is related to the chemicals released in the brain while solving them. Studies have shown an increased production of dopamine when a person is engaged in solving a puzzle. Dopamine, a chemical largely responsible for memory and cognition, can cause feelings of reward and satisfaction. Additionally, the production of dopamine helps with concentration and regulates heart rate and blood pressure, thereby expanding cognitive function and helping to decrease anxiety.
It may even help slow degeneration from Alzheimer’s and other diseases, and play a role in prolonging one’s life.
“Research suggests that neuroplasticity — changing brain activity, synapse strength and brain density — aren’t traveling on a one-way street,” Snider said. “Consistent cognitive challenges can have beneficial effects on your noodle’s physical, functional and chemical composition.”
These feelings of reward, combined with the adrenaline rush and teamwork required for the game, Snider said, have contributed to the rise in the popularity of escape rooms — adding that the games are “certainly popular among [Mensa] members.”
But many remain skeptical of the continued popularity of the rooms, claiming it is a fad that will quickly pass.
However, Nungary and Guido said that with the evolution of technology, they believe escape rooms will remain popular.
“I think they will last as long as they can stay relevant to their audiences,” Guido said. “But I think that as long as escape rooms keep offering new experiences that captivate their audiences, they will stick around.”