Building Friendships Through Escape Games 

Here it is…another weeknight and you and your friends are looking to have some fun together.  So what do you do?  You could go to a movie, but that just means sitting beside each other in a quiet theatre, before getting in your cars and driving home.  Doesn’t sound like an exciting night out, now does it?  So why not try something truly unique and play an escape game together?? 

We’ve previously talked about the benefits of escape rooms for corporate team-building activities (Team Bonding vs Team Building), and for a night out with your special someone (8 Questions To Ask When Planning Your Date Night).  Escape rooms can be great for other relationships, too.  For instance, they can be a great way to build and strengthen friendships too!  Read on to find out why. 

Developing Strong Bonds With Your Team 

How many times have you been in a restaurant or coffee shop and seen a table full of friends—all of whom are lost in concentration staring at their phones, all the while not saying a word to each other?  Or maybe you’ve been at one of these tables yourself!  Humans are social creatures, and we need social interaction.  The trouble is that these days everyone spends every waking moment on their cell phones, which makes building friendships a real challenge.  At Quest Reality Games, we’ll help you avoid the temptation to check your Instagram feed by locking that iPhone up in one of our complimentary lockers…Then we’ll lock YOU up with all your friends in one of our second-generation escape games where you’ll have 60 minutes to have a blast working together to solve puzzles and figure out how to get back to your cherished iPhone….er…how to escape!  Escaping is a sure-fire way to build bonds and bring you closer to your friends and teammates.   

The Benefits of Escape Rooms 

Escape rooms are all about puzzle-solving. And by design, they cannot be solved alone!  That means that as a group, you are going to engage in collaborative, creative thinking and problem-solving. Working together and stimulating your imaginations guarantees that everybody in your group will start communicating. Maybe you already have a chatty group—but escaping still has benefits. Playing an escape game will help focus your group’s idle chatter into efficient communication. Learning to work together will strengthen those ever-important bonds of friendship, and help you learn how to communicate with your friends in new and more effective ways.  Escape rooms will help your group become more cohesive, by requiring you to work together to solve puzzles as you work towards the common goal of successfully escaping (want to know what it takes to build the perfect team, check out our blog on 5 Types of People Needed to Create the Perfect Team).  If that wasn’t enough, escape rooms help you develop your problem-solving skills, eye for detail and cognitive processing. 

The Experience Doesn’t End With The Game 

Unlike a movie or a cup of coffee, the experience of an escape game doesn’t end when the clock runs out.  The best part of the escape room experience is the social period afterwards. Once your game is done, you can head out with the gang for drinks and/or dinner to discuss and debrief, transforming what could be a one hour game into an event or evening out. Excitement usually boils over as friends relive key moments of their game, talk about their favourite parts, and plan strategies for future escapes. There are always lots of laughs, and the event is often the birth of a couple of inside jokes. These are the teams that develop the strongest bond and continue to plan escapes together…That’s right, the group that escapes together stays together. We often see groups return together since they have already established a good groove of cooperation and communication with one another. 

Your Team Will Grow 

Unlike Fight Club, there are no rules against talking about your escape game experience with others!  While you don’t want share details that could be spoilers for others who haven’t played a given room, most players are excited to tell others about their experience.  Often, this will pique the interest of other friends or acquaintances who are eager to get involved.  Naturally, this can lead to new friends and friendships. 

Whether you’ve known someone for years, or are casual acquaintances, playing an escape room is guaranteed to bring you closer together. Creative problem solving, communication—not to mention the thrill of adrenaline as you race the clock—are all sure to help cement a meaningful friendship between you and your fellow players. 

Ready to start strengthening and building friendships?  What are you waiting for, BOOK NOW!