I agree with you. I was actually whimsically trying to think of something that might appeal to managers who think those "trust fall" team-building exercises are a good idea. I was going against my own intuition, and ended up with a terrible idea.
Fair enough. In re-reading my own response, I also think I came across my more antagonistically than I intended, so my apologies for that.
I do agree with what it seems your overall point was: that “escape room”-style team-bonding exercises could have merit, and also the idea that escape-rooms with a strong / compelling narrative are probably themselves more engaging / thought-provoking. The specific example happens to be bad, and the element of surprise has issues, but please don’t let that detract from the concept as a whole.
I dont think you were antagonistic enough; anyone that tries doing this fake kidnapping better be sure no one on the team has a concealed carry permit, heart issues, anxiety, ptsd, etc.
reminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_Animals (it's out next month i guess)
I’ve been on several teams that have done escape rooms, and most have some form of narrative / role-playing (there’s a decent cross section of murder-mystery, fantasy, etc etc, depending on the folks running the room). But the idea of tricking people into participating, especially with so many “fake” hostile elements, is a big red flag. The reason this wouldn’t get past HR at some companies is because those companies have an HR team that knows a land mine when they see it.