Welcome to Massively Affected, where I, Josh Silverman, bring on a guest and ask them the not-so-simple question: Why Mass Effect?

This week I'm joined by Greg Haynes, who you may know as the Lead Games User Researcher and Captain for Developers Promoting Accessibility & Diversity (DPAD) for AbleGamers Charity. On this week's episode, Greg and I discussed, among other topics, xenophobia (space racism) in the universe of Mass Effect. Much has been said over the decade on the topic, but we took the vantage point of comparing the Citadel to our childhood home city of New York. We compared how New York, despite being known as a melting pot of cultures has since its inception been a place of cross-cultural strife. The Citadel is much the same, with new species of people coming and going and demanding equal and equitable treatment, while from the perspective of the government there is not enough for everyone. Laws and rules are assigned, but some powerful new groups—humans—find ways to skirt those laws.

Speaking of humans, we also had a surprisingly long conversation about everyone's least favorite Virmire survivor, Ashley Williams. In a surprising turn of events, Greg and I discussed the things we loved about her character, even if we didn't like her directly, and explained a bit why we don't always sacrifice the notorious space racist.

If you enjoyed my conversation with Greg Haynes, make sure to give him a follow on Twitter.

Make sure you come back next week for the Season One finale, as I'll be joined by Kate Sánchez Editor-in-Chief of But Why Tho. If this is your first episode, make sure to check out the full backlog of episodes found on But Why Tho.