The Psychology of an escape creates game play at Escape Marquette

MARQUETTE — Escaping is an art, of sorts. Escape Marquette offers interesting escape settings and one room in particular is proving interesting and challenging for all ages.

It currently has a room called the Third–Grade with the amenities that are usually found in such a room.The game, like all, is trying to escape the locked room, but what is interesting is the different groups that try to escape it.

“I designed, especially the third grade classroom, with the idea that I could stump older folks because I could overanalyze and over–think things. I knew the kids would get right to the point they think plainly simply and don’t over think things like us adults.”

Anna Hemstock, the owner and game creator, has seen many different group dynamics and has studied the psychology of the groups and has a degree in communication arts. Her conclusion is that age and personality differences can impact the success of a group while in the room.

“I knew the template of the room could be done in a way where we would be using third–grade level thinking. You know,not having been in third–grade for sometime as an adult can make it more challenging for you, but for the kids that are fresh out or have been recently in third–grade it can be fun to look back at what you learned in that grade and what you can apply it to in the game,” said Hemstock.

Children are more in tune with the environment being in classrooms most of their time; children are also more likely to not over think solutions or problems.

“As far as when adults or children work together that’s a really different aspect of the game it actually creates a more fun affect because now we’re not getting the personality features in the room for each person. Some people are a little more reserved when they don’t know each other so at that point they are just working at the tasks involved in the game and not letting those interpersonal barriers break through,” she shared.

Different personalities also come into game play as certain roles are established sub–consciously when playing in the room.

“Sometimes my introverts are the best because of the observational awareness features of the room, but then again the extroverts are willing to engage with the environment and take it another step, really think critically, and involve themselves with the communication of the game and the game play. That is when you really see the most success, so to play this game I would say that the personalities feature that is most important is the openness and willingness to participate,” added Hemstock.

There are many aspects that create a great escape from this classroom, and though everyone escapes eventually the amount of time it takes is the ultimate goal, so how long will it take you to escape?

“They can identify with where a child would put something they would bring to school, so when you phrase to them, ‘where would you put something you bring to school,’ they know exactly where to look,” narrated Hemstock.