"♫ ...and I won't back down... ♫"

200 ROOMS!

Well, more like 200 escape games, I guess. There's no consensus as to whether or not remote games should really count as Escape Rooms, and while I do count them myself, others would disagree.
But hey, that's fine! It's still a fair achievement, right? Let's celebrate! We're my "escake"?

Oh, okay. So it's not really a cake, it's a pie. Still, it's French Chocolate Silk, one of my favorites! It comes from Perkins, a place I haven't been in months. You know, because, well, I haven't been in any restaurants in months...
Sigh. ☹️
Well, on the other hand you could say that this is very fitting - a chocolate silk pie might not be "quite exactly" an escake, but it's a pretty darn nice alternative. It does reflect my feelings towards remote gaming - as much as I yearn for the real thing, I've still been enjoying myself, all in all.

So, any more semi-phisophical musings on your past games?

Oh, some of those will be coming, for sure. You know I can be hard to shut up. 🤐 But I decided I would spread those over the coming few weeks instead, rather than dump a whole bunch of ramblings at once. Instead, I decided I'd dig out some statistics out of my past games. Who doesn't love statistics, right? 😃 And to keep with the above theme, I've used pie charts! 😁 (Thank you, I'll be here all week - don't forget to tip your waiter.)

Success Rates

 

Well, no surprise here, I seemingly have gotten better. I'm not the only one, of course - most of the people I played with also started as newbies, becoming increasingly better along the way. There's also that nagging feeling that rooms are easier than they used to be, but it's hard to properly assess without getting hard data from the companies themselves.

 

Likewise, my whole family seems to be doing better - much better. It makes me think that my old criteria for what counts as a "family game" should probably change. Right now, as long as 3 of us 6 are in a game, it counts. Maybe I shouldn't count games with outside contributors? We'll see.

Type of Games

 

There isn't a final agreement among enthusiasts as to what constitutes a "real" escape room. Clearly, I'm on the "lenient" side of things. This means that my "200 rooms" are really 149 definite, unarguable rooms.
Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic and the sudden offering of remotely playable rooms have significantly changed my stats. To be honest, I do hope that some of those remote experiences remain available in coming years... but I also hope they won't take such a big chunk of the pie...
For those curious about which is which, here are examples of a mobile game, an outdoor game, a temporary pop-up, a special location, a lobby game, a virtual reality room, a remote escape room, and a remote escape-style game.

Game Locations

 

Unsurprisingly, more than half of my first hundred games were played near where I live. By now, though, I'm nearing the point where I'll have played them all, so once my local group starts going out again, that stream will trickle down quickly.
In comparison, the amount of rooms I've played in Quebec hasn't changed that much. The big change is obviously those dozen of international rooms that resulted from last year's family trip to the UK, and (again) from those online rooms.

Game Durations

 

Here in Ottawa, 45-min games were the norm, much to my chagrin. Fortunately, that tendency has slowly been reversing. I do tend to prefer longer games, but those are always scarce.

Who am I playing with?

 

For those wondering, the "Roomies" are just the very-loose gang of people with which I've been playing games monthly - first in the area, and now from home. The only reason why they're more proeminent in the first 100 games is because we play monthly, and it took me more months to reach that count.
The major change in recent years is that I started "hanging out" with other bloggers, and began attending special events such as the "Triathlon des Accros" and "Énigmorama". And with remote rooms, the number of times I answered positively to "hey we're playing this tonight anyone want in?" clearly shows. You can also see I've stopped asking begging shamelessly nagging my "regular" friends. (But don't think you're out of the wood - I'll get you, my pretties! 😈)

Room Longevity

 

Guess it's not too surprising to see that less than half of the first 100 rooms I played can still be enjoyed today. More surprising, though, is the fact that more than a fifth of the most recent 100 are already gone. 😢
Some of the COVID-related closures weren't really surprising, while others were downright gut-wrenching. While I've personally been reluctant to playing in-person, I'm actually very appreciative of those who do. Let's hope the worst is behind us.

Bored yet?

Nope! 😊 While I've lost the "thrill" of anxiously waiting to see if I'd manage to succeed the next room I play, I do enjoy myself just as much playing them. Guess it's harder to surprise me, of course, but I still get a little kick when I figure out what's going on, how to things connect together, that sort of stuff. So - here's to the next hundred rooms! May they be just as fun! 👍

"♫ But Iiiiiiiii would escape 100 rooms and Iiiiiiii would escape 100 more ♫..."

Well folks, we've made it!

One hundred escape games through, and I'm still going on this silly little blog thing. Over the past months, I've been thinking about improvements and tweaks I'd like to make here and there. This seems as good a time as any to cover them. So shall we?

Changes to the Review posts

• Flagging playtests and special rebates (Done)
  I already used a "playtest" tag to mark games that me and my companions tested, before they officially opened. In all past and future reviews, there will also be a short warning note at the very top of each posts.
  Likewise, I've just set up a "specialrebate" tag (and matching warning notes) for any game toward which I got a special deal of some sort. I don't refer to discount codes, Groupons, in-game rewards and the like. I mean that for some reason*, my group ended up paying less than the regular full price, which could be considered a threat to my objectivity.
  (To be honest, in my humble opinion, it's almost impossible to objectively assess a game experience. So I do kinda try, but never make a fuss about it.)
  (*) Those reasons seldom have to do with this blog. It can range from "Heh, I like your kids and we currently have a room with no booking. I'll give you a rebate if you want to play another time." to "Sorry sir, but that room you booked a month in advance is closing, could we make it up to you?". I just don't feel comfortable explaining every specific case.
• Single vs Multiple rooms (Done)
  Up til recently, if a game was clearly described has having multiple rooms, or if you would know as soon as you stepped it, then I would mark it as "Roomy: Yes". Otherwise, it would be a "No", even if there might be additional rooms meant to be revealed later.
  That field as been renamed "Multi-Room" in both past and future reviews, and instead of seeing "No", there will now be a Spoilers button that you push to learn if the game really is single-room or not. From experience, I've concluded that some people prefer multi-room experiences so much that they'd rather be spoiled and avoid single rooms, while others really don't mind single rooms and prefer the element of surprise. This new system should cater to both types.
  If you own a business and would rather have me never provide that info for any of your rooms, just ping me.
• Lessons Learned (but later forgotten) (Onward)
  Even though I'm consistently late in updating my Tips for players and designers, I've always been striving to come with original tips every single time, which - surprise - is getting increasingly harder. From now on, the Lessons Learned section might also include repeats - a lesson which, clearly, just hasn't been mastered yet. 😉

Changes to the room directories

• Mobile games and venues (Done)
  I won't be listing mobile games, along with the rooms, under each venue. Those games can vary greatly in form (room-in-a-truck vs a kit delivered to your home), and it was hard giving proper stats for them since they're often configurable.
  However, I added a "mobile" icon to indicate venues with mobile offerings. I also list companies which are mobile only, something I didn't do before.

Changes to Gilles' Faves

• Yearly selections (TBD Done)
  My former collection of Faves was a single list of slowly-increasing size, where I did my best at comparing my older escapes with my newer ones. I've grown to think this is a pointless exercise, and will now pick my favorite rooms at the end of every year, award-style. (For this purpose, I'll consider that December 21st is the first day of the following year's winter season.)
  Likewise, in my room directories, the little "heart" icon for Faves will be modified to show exactly the year in which I named the room as one of my favorites.
  Finally, note that the "one room per venue max" rule will remain, but will (logically) become "one room per venue, per year, max".
• More detailed (TBD Done)
  Instead of merely listing rooms, I will mention, in a few words:
  • What are typical players going to appreciate in the room?
  • What are veteran players going to appreciate in the room?
  • What are the weakest points about the room?

Changes to my maps

• Links to other blogs (TBD)
  In the near future, I'm going to first split my maps into two flavors (English & French), then I'm going to start adding links to a few blogs I appreciate, in addition to links towards my own reviews.
  The "checkmark" icon, previously used to mark placed I had personally played at, will now merely indicate that the venue does have links for it.
  The "heart" icon will be gone completely (but see below).
• Recommended Venues (TBD)
  After that first part has been completed, I plan on trying something a bit different: I plan to grant "gold" and "silver" recommendations for venues, based primarily on own recommendations, but also on opinion gathered from my fellow bloggers and enthusiasts. The color of a venue's spot will clearly show those recommendations, although I'm still thinking about some of the specifics.

Well, that's about it! Dear reader, I hope that the changes will help keeping things interesting (and helpful) for the months to come. Here's to another 100 rooms! 😁