The Church of Yoichi Wada

Like the rest of you I hate it when politics and religion fornicate. I hate it because every time they do we get yet another example of why they should abstain. But what if we mix politics and religion and video games?

The short answer is that we get Final Fantasy X.

I'm just beginning work on the long answer - it is in the genesis phase if you will - but I was inspired by reading Wada-San's New Year Message to his church, er company.

http://www.square-enix.com/eng/pdf/news/20100104_01en.pdf

Note the breadth of his thesis paragraph with the understanding that he is the head of a corporation whose religious purpose is to zealously make money. To make money no matter the political environment.

To parse it further notice the line he tries to walk between the political realm we live in and the conservative nature of business. In one hand he offers, "While no one yet knows if these changes are an early indication of stabilization or the beginning of more turbulence, at this point we should watch, wait, and try to nurture these seeds of change." In the other hand he immediately satiates his conservative business conscience and his investors with, "Demanding change simply for change's sake, only invites empty gestures." He pulls it together with the sentence following and lays out his goal for Square-Enix in 2010.

The cynical part of me cannot help but notice that he is taking his company into this new world of change in the same year that he is releasing Final Fantasy XIII. (and possibly Final Fantasy Verses XIII and Final Fantasy XIV) A journey like this will be much easier with that kind of money waiting for him on a quarterly basis. However, don't get me wrong, as an active member of The Church of Yoichi Wada I will be in line at midnight anxiously awaiting my turn to tender my offering.