Tag: Puzzles

Now In Stock – Packaged Chunks Of Epiphany

You awake suddenly, and find yourself trapped inside a ship. A greenish fog hangs in the air, and the soft rocking back and forth feels as if the ship is breathing.  A low groan echoes in the hull – Looking across the dimly lit room, you see that you are alone. Somehow, you know the ship’s destination is the afterlife, and when it arrives you will die. Can you solve all the mysteries, and escape with your life?

So says the copy of an invitation for one of the most popular and the latest edition of the Real Escape Game (REG) held in Singapore in July 2013.

Escape from the haunted ship

This is how it works: buy an entry ticket for around 25 bucks, bring along your brains, wits and teammates, get locked up in a room, and find your way out of that by solving numerous puzzles and riddles. The deal: well nothing! After all, everyone is let out of the room anyway.

But this is where it gets interesting. While there are several editions of REGs around the world and while they can possibly differ from each other in terms of nuances like game play, level of challenges, themes etc, most of them – if not all – have 2 things in common:

  1. Thousands of people pay over 25$ to spend a panicked, claustrophobic hour trying to win a game for which there is no prize!
  2. These sessions typically tend to be sold out!!

And this is just one among the many franchises/editions of a business idea that is steadily gaining steam with increasing levels of popularity around the world. While a Japanese company called SCRAP Entertainmen started the concept of the ‘Real Escape Game’ there are many other parallel off shoots around the world that operate along similar lines like the ones listed below: (list source)

  • Parapark with more than 30 rooms in Budapest and many more in Hungary
  • Hinthunt with rooms in Hungary and UK
  • AdventureRooms – a Swiss company, with offerings in Bern
  • FreeingHK in Hong Kong
  • Escape Hunt that opened its first room in Bangkok in July 2013
  • Real Escape Games (Scrap Entertainment) now have a franchise in San Francisco and have become a huge hit
  • and HintQuest – a very recognized live escape game in Munich, Germany

On first look the concept of Real Escape Games (REGs or the likes of it) might sound similar to that of The Crystal Maze – the 90s Channnel 4 smash hit that was said to  have attracted between 4 and 6 million viewers at its height (source). But on second look it becomes apparent that with the REGs of the world today we are at the cusp of a different ball game all together: from the product package, proposition, consumer base, distribution model, pricing, to the end consumer pay off – that spans emotional, mental, intellectual and social realms.

This can easily be one of the latest and arguably the most interesting examples of how the playing field is rife with rich possibilities at the top level of The Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs (Self Actualization).  So now we have dedicated puzzle masters that spend months constructing a carefully orchestrated series of aha moments, little sub mysteries that let players come so close to solving the mystery and get commensurate highs of making discoveries – large and small, and professional game designers that are adept at staging REGs (or the likes of it) at venues as large as the Tokyo Dome to those as small as a locked room with space for just 10 players. 

Introducing the newest offering at your local supermarket aisle –  chunks of epiphany –  sealed in an air tight pack (pun intended) – now available in a handy 1 hour time capsule best enjoyed with a bunch of friends.

For a ‘virtual’ taste of such games, try your hand at The Google Puzzle (the result of a collaboration between Google Japan and Scrap Entertainment). And yes do drop me a note if you manage to crack the 5th stage in the puzzle 🙂

(H/T to Valentin Valov for suggesting HintQuest)

The Job Hunt – Part 2/3

Check out my previous post for the part 1 of this series.

For many job openings, getting the foot into the door – getting recruited – tends to be the most tricky part. Obviously different companies have different ways of going about this. 3 latest trends that I see playing out in the job hunt marketplace:

  • Recruitment by Resonance.
  • Recruitment by Challenge.
  • Recruitment by Algorithm.

This post shall be on the second trend.

Recruitment By Challenge

The Internet has gifted a phenomenal reach for every organization around the world irrespective of its its actual physical presence. Expanded Reach –  not just in terms of the channels for selling their wares but also in terms of an Expanded Access to a massive global talent pool. Obviously this means that organizations can cast their nets wide and far while recruiting for potential hires.

For them, a  Potential Fit is defined as a person who is ‘man’ enough to meet a ‘challenge’ and thereby stand apart from the other bunch of applicants.This is what I call as ‘Recruitment by Challenge’ – throw a challenge at them, and pick the one who addresses it the best. While the trend per se is not particularly a new one, it has now started to garner a mainstream acceptance as a viable recruitment tool for organizations across sectors and borders.

Yes –  challenge driven recruitment practices have been very common with software companies for getting coders of real mettle. But these days even international Intelligence agencies have jumped onto the bandwagon.

For example, the British Intelligence Agency GCHQ, which works in partnership with MI5 and MI6 have recruited for potential ‘spies’ by throwing an open challenge and inviting aspirants to crack a code in 2011. The initiative was called as ‘Behind The Code’ and has generated a global interest.

When Wieden + Kennedy needs a Social Strategist to work on Old Spice, what do they do? They throw 10 challenges and ask applicants to revert within 5 days. Read about all the 10 challenges here.

As L Bhat (a renowned blogger) points out in his blogpost:

The actual job description is not very different from a ‘regular‘ Social Strategist. But the sheer novelty of this approach sends in a lot of messages: (a) it is a high profile job since the expectations will be very high for Old Spice and W+K given the track record; hence anything ‘regular’ will not suffice (b) blogs and media across the world are writing about this novel approach; that’s how buzz is created (c) it gives a cool image to the agency as a place to work.

In fact even for their planning placements that they had opened in Oct 2012, W+K have thrown a gauntlet at the applicants by way of a set of 4 questions that need to be answered within a month – by Nov 25th 2012.

And thus starts a long list of organizations that have begun downplaying resumes and references in favor of puzzles and challenges that have proved the ability to attract brilliant people.

Did you come across any such challenging/interesting recruitment drives of late?