Full video

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welcome to doy's Opticians are you here

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for a routine checkup no we're we're

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here to make a video about Escape rooms

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well you've come to the right place

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follow me this

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way have you ever wondered how Escape

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rooms are made and who the masterminds

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are behind them meet Nick designer

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expert and all round

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fanatic I have played so many Escape

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rooms I have long ago lost count in fact

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we're in one of his Escape rooms right

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now so coffin oh it is while we struggle

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to get out of

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here Nick has a riddle for you tool I

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have many keys and fewer

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locks I have no rooms but I have

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space you can always enter or

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Escape what am I keep watching to see if

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you got it right Escape are not sore

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you're not going to get tortured you're

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not going to get trapped in cages

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there's going to be no blood there's

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going to be no creepy gos asking you to

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play a game with little spirals drawn on

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their faces coming up we learn how to

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hide Clues like an expert but first did

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you know that escape rooms only appeared

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in the late naughties even though

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they're found in almost every major town

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and city today when Escape rooms first

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emerged they were really an assemblage

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of locks and keys and padlocks and a

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disused office

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space was there any Scenic attention to

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detail absolutely not but by the end you

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had an experience which you were like

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I've never really done anything like

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this before I came along really at the

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end of that wave where people were

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saying this is a great format but how do

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we do it better so taking the tricks of

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the trade of theater an immersive

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theater and smashing into Escape rooms

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and producing something that no one

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never really

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done Escape rooms aren't just about the

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Epic sets their games mimic real life

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Society is rif with puzzles and games

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and that's one thing you taught you

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taught to play and invent and create

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constantly and Escape rooms are a

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vehicle for doing that in a live setting

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with other people as your toys people

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learn through play they're not just

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passive participants they're the heroes

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in their own adventure so you always

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start off as a fish out of

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water I'm confused because you quite

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literally have no idea what's going on

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but over the course of an escape room

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you become the masters of it because you

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just keep on

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winning so what happens in your brain

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when you solve a puzzle it triggers the

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release of the happy chemical dopamine

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enhancing your mood and sense of

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accomplishment this generates what's

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known as a positive feedback loop which

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desire obstacle solution and then

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present itself again and that Loop pulls

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them through the game there are very few

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places in real life where there's

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someone being like look hey I really

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want you to have a big win

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today and that's what an skate room is a

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great scame is a big win for you

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emotionally physically so they are in

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many ways that sort of classical

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Paradigm 3A structure you become the

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hero you don't start off Indiana Jones

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but you sure as hell end up Indiana

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Jones I hope you haven't forgotten about

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the riddle I have many keys and fewer

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locks I have no rooms but I have space

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you can always enter or Escape what am I

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Nick give us a clue I'm always at your

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fingertips the most common misconception

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is that escape rooms are in test of

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intelligence they are absolutely not

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there's only one thing in escape room

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test it's not intelligence it is

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communication that's all it is and a

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skate room is a test of spreading the

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knowledge around the team because you

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and your friends might have seen these

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symbols on this wall and your other

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friends might have seen these other

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symbols on that wall and all that

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happens is you have to put them together

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and you know the

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solution the teams that win are the

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teams that talk a silent team will never

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win unless you've got some sort of

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telepathy thing going on which good luck

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to you you probably you don't need

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Escape rooms next design to Escape rooms

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of all shapes and sizes including the

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world's first escape room to cost £1

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million to

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build at the time that we started time

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run I would say an expensive escape room

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was about 25,000 and people would say

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wow that is pricey Nick's Escape rooms

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are brought to life in a workshop in

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Kent and the designers have a few tricks

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for hiding Clues carving it into a rock

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we could hide it within the wallpaper we

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can like design it into the CNC file so

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it's like carved within a cabinet we did

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a room that was a Sherlock theme room

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and there was uh blood splatters all

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over the wall if you stood on a certain

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spot and looked in a direction those uh

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splatters then became numbers which were

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the combination to a clue a lot of these

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things that we're creating and designing

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and making have never been made before

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so we have to completely reinvent some

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elements of stuff just to try and get it

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within the world every detail matters

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because someone might look at one word

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and get fixated on it and that will

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they'll spend 20 minutes on that one

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word to try and figure out what it

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means and you could have just put it in

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there by accident but you won't see Nick

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falling for any red herrings well I've

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played about 300 Escape rooms whenever I

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go to a new place I always look to see

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what Escape rooms are highly rated what

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all the bloggers say about this

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particular escape room location there's

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a huge Enthusiast Community who are

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absolutely passionate about the the

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format and they fly all over the world

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and they play games and they rate them

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and they put them in very detailed

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spreadsheets and they've even form these

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Awards which are called the Teka Awards

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welcome to the 2023 TPA award show it's

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the top escape room players choice

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awards first time I've ever remembered

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that I'm very impressed of myself in

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2021 Nick brought the workshop his

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biggest idea yet an escape room that's

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an entire town

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the goal really was to make this

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persistent world of Adventure that you

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can come back to over and over no matter

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who you are and always get something new

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so really taking that sort of linear

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skate room experience and busting the

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walls out and trying to do something

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completely different we all uh traveled

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to a film set in Spain which was a

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western so you'll see a lot of the uh

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design ideas have come with the style of

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the buildings and like the colorways

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that have been used and things like that

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every 3 months or so we go and we change

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all the scenery all of the stories have

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changed and it's not just something that

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we build it and then walk away from it

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and never see it again the way it's been

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described before is like a TV show it's

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the same characters going from one

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season to the next but their stories

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have evolved in between so yeah it's

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just nice to see where the where the

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characters are going to go next it's

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time to reveal the riddle do you need a

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really quick reminder I have many keys

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and few locks I have no rooms but I have

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space you can always enter or Escape

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what am I

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[Music]

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so Nick what's the

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answer keyboard is the answer if you got

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it right did you feel that dopamine hit

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what's going to happen over the years is

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that you see like things like Phantom

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Peak which are sort of immersive theater

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SL escape room hybrids dining

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experiences with escape room elements

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all these things because Escape rooms

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are a format that ultimately are about

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Discovery puzzles and games but they

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aren't about people being locked in a

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room you can have a skate in a forest

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you could have a skate rooms anywhere I

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really want to build on a skate room

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underwater and no one wants to fund it

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and I don't really know why and my idea

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of building es skate room in space also

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hasn't off the ground you know

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terraformer is so boring Nick has some

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ideas that aren't always feasible but

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whatever ni comes up with we would make

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it work I'm sure at some point in the

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future it will be possible to make an

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underwater escap room and it would be

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very cool to be a part of it when we are

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in the escape room world you're in the

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memory creation business people don't go

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back and load their saves of a favorite

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part of a video game or go and replay it

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this game is mostly a very low repot

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rate but it is a moment in time that's

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kind of ephemeral that you have and you

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can share with people and no one else

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can take that away with you after an

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embarrassing 55 minutes and 24

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seconds we finally got our own dopamine

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hit when people come out and there's

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that sense of joy in their face and you

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see them being like yes I spent my hard

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earned money on that and I had a lovely

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time that is the ultimate reward thanks

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Nick Victory tastes sweet