Last summer I played a large scale escape room. There were sixty players in total. Due to a series of unfortunate events (ie we are sucky searchers), we ended up losing the game. After the time ran out, all players were ushered into a large area together where we all experienced the end.

Those who had won knew what was going on. The rest of us were quite lost. We were dragged through the final sequence with little to no idea what the outcome was. Nothing really made sense.

It was like walking into this situation

A few months later it happened again in another large scale event. In this particular case I had actually won. However a few of my friends did not make it out in time and were left waiting for ten minutes while the winners finished up their games. It bothered me. A lot.

When we brought it up with one of the organizers afterward, they nodded in agreement but said the designers disagreed. Not everyone can win, and so not everyone can be happy with their experience. They cannot please everyone, so let the losers deal with it.

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I want to talk about losing. Read the rest of this entry →