Meet the 23-year-old who launched her own game company to teach people about systems of
Meet the 23-year-old who launched her own game company to teach people about systems of
Meet the 23-year-old who launched her own game company to teach people about systems of oppression
By Dialynn Dwyer
March 05, 2021
Summary
The experience rooted in her a love for nontraditional learning, a passion that led her in 2021 to launch her own game company, The Master's Tools.
She launched her game company on Feb. 1 and released her first card game "Meet the Colonizers" a few weeks later.
Her card game, Meet the Colonizers, is focused on addressing systems of oppression and telling the stories of marginalized people across a range of topics, social movements, and time periods.
Washington said she's developed games that are more specific to certain identity groups, points in history, or systems, but with her first game, she wanted to keep it more broadly focused on dissecting legacies or systems that typically do not reflect the reality of the experiences of marginalized or oppressed groups in the history books.
"So I decided to drop the Meet the Colonizers game first because [it] is all about exposing American heroes, systems, and even ideas - like the American dream, which clearly is not as much of a dream as people might want [and] pointing out that while we are praising people and giving them all of these holidays, [we need] to acknowledge all the wrong they actually did."
"Then there are other people or even educators who might buy the game and as they go along, they might discuss it [or say], why is this the correct answer?" the 23-year-old said.
The Dorchester native said she doesn't believe that one game or one company is going to teach anyone the "End-all be-all" of all things related to oppression.
The idea, she said, is that her game is just a jumping off point for people to learn more and educate themselves if they get answers wrong.
Recalling her own experience with math, Washington said her hope with her games is to encourage people to engage with their learning and education in a fun way.
Above all, what she hopes people learn most from playing her games is that different learning styles need to be accommodated and supported, she said.
Reference
Dwyer, D. (2021, March 05). Meet the 23-year-old who launched her own game company to teach people about systems of oppression. Retrieved June 04, 2021, from https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2021/03/05/toiell-washington-masters-tools-game-company/