Escape rooms have a long history of being a way for people to test their brains and spend time with friends or family. Since the first digital escape room in 1983, people and corporations have been creating immersive rooms that challenge participants while still providing a great form of entertainment. With the first real-life escape game in 2007, located in Kyoto, Japan, the idea of an escape room was fully realized. With the recent opening of Amazing Escape Rooms in Montgomeryville, Pennsylvania, the students of Pennridge now have one of the most iconic ideas right in our own backyard.
Upon entering the Montgomeryville location, customers are greeted by pleasant staff and a room decorated with neon lights and photos of board games from floor to ceiling. Customers 12 and up have to sign a waiver to participate. Participants do have to schedule their escape rooms beforehand, and are expected to arrive 15 minutes early, to make things easier for staff. When your appointment time arrives, the staff will detail the rules of the escape room as well as the different icons participants may encounter on their television screens inside the room. Once the rules are set and the story of the room is given, players enter the puzzle room and complete a series of puzzles, getting keys for other boxes or items used to complete other puzzles, and in the end, all of the clues come together to help the players get the exit code for the main door.
Kristen Pleibel, someone who has completed eight escape rooms, says the skills that are needed to solve an escape room are “Teamwork, thinking outside the box, and communication.” Showing how escape rooms and puzzles as a whole are a way for people to connect and build relationships with. In an entertainment aspect, Pleibel believes that escape rooms should implement “student rates” as they are much too expensive for teenagers, who also happen to be one of the biggest demographics involved in escape rooms. For people who have done an escape room before, they are a good way to build connections and test your brain, a form of entertainment that can only be fun if pulled off correctly. But what would someone who has never done an escape room before see in them?
Conner Finney, a student at Pennridge High School and someone who has never participated in an escape room, describes escape rooms as a “last resort,” adding he imagines he “would have fun doing one.” Along with the lack of interest, Finney says things holding him back from going to an escape room are, “not too many in the area, heard they are expensive.” Once again, displaying a distaste for escape rooms in the context of pricing for younger people.
In the end, escape rooms are a very fun, entertaining way to find new friends, or grow closer to old ones, and they are a challenge that works with any age. Problem-solving, well-decorated rooms, and good times are the three pillars that build the idea of an escape room, and even though the prices are high, the experience it provides is well worth it.
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