by 
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.
The entire first season of Massively Affected will be featured right here on But Why Tho through July 13.
Massively Affected can be found on all podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts & Spotify! For a full list, check out the Massively Affected page.
As always, my thanks to Adam Leonhardt for his brilliant work making the Massively Affected logo, Julian Villarreal for his beautifully composed theme song for the show, and Mark B. Donica for helping me out by editing the back two-thirds of this season!
Bear Punch Media is a network of shows founded by Josh Silverman and Justin Stanley. After shutting down the long-running Constantly Calibrating Podcast Josh and Justin were looking for something else to do in the podcasting space, and from that Bear Punch Media was born! Much like its predecessor, BPM is built on creating passionate, interesting shows and giving voice to positive creative voices throughout all industries.
For more details on the Bear Punch Media slate of shows check out the below information. And to follow the network and keep up to date on announcements, head on over to @BearPunchMedia on Twitter.
You must be logged in to post a comment.