Who Makes More Mistakes in Escape Rooms?

Mistakes are inevitable when playing an escape room, regardless of whether it’s your first time or fiftieth time. As the experts in escape rooms, we asked our Game Masters who they believe is responsible for more errors while playing. Their thoughts were relatively mixed, however, they leaned more toward one group - experienced players.

In addition to surveying our Game Masters, we ran a poll on our Instagram to ask the community the same question. Surprisingly, the results were the complete opposite of what our Game Masters thought. The poll showed that most people think that new players are the ones who make the most mistakes in escape rooms!

As you can see, the opinions vary depending on what side of the escape room you’re on. Those of us who work behind the scenes see many groups each day of varying experience levels daily, so we can make a pretty easy judgement on what things people struggle with. 

Let’s break down a few reasons for each side, starting with beginners.

The main reason people assume newer players make the most mistakes is because of their lack of understanding how escape rooms work. In a way, this is true. Some people come in to an escape room completely blind and don’t understand that they need to solve puzzles to reach the final goal of escaping. Many people have a general idea of what an escape room is because of popular media, however, often times what is portrayed can be a false representation of what you’ll actually encounter. 

New players can struggle for a few reasons: lack of familiarity with the environment, no concept of how to connect puzzles together, or too much time is spent focused on things that aren’t important to the room’s main goal. On the other hand, we have seen many groups of new players absolutely dominate a room with little to no problem. It really just depends on who’s in the group, what their own skills are, and their ability to come in with an open mind. An open mind can be a new player’s greatest tool in an escape room.

Practiced escape artists may feel immune to making mistakes in an escape room. These groups are generally confident when playing because they’ve done this before and they understand how escape rooms work.

When solving puzzles, a seasoned escape room player may rely on past escape room knowledge to get them through. While past knowledge can certainly benefit a group, this mindset may lead groups to overthink what’s right in front of them. In reality, all the information required to solve anything is given to you, so experience and outside knowledge is unnecessary. Occasionally, we will encounter groups who are so confident that they know how to get to the answer to the point where they get in their own way. The overconfidence is sometimes the source of their own downfall.

Escape rooms are a great option for groups of all kinds. The truth is, all groups make mistakes, regardless of experience level. You might play a hundred escape rooms and miss something that was right in front of you the whole time. Alternatively, you could do your first escape room and completely crush it in record time. It just goes to show that no matter your experience level, the experience can differ from group to group. 

If you’re ready to try your skills at an escape room, book with us at Breakout today!